Visual Arts
Trent Eades is a journalist, photographer, and educator based in Knoxville, Tennessee. His interests include Greek Philosophy, Medieval and Renaissance Literature, and Science Fiction. He’s never enjoyed long walks in the rain but is adept at short sprints through heavy downpours. When he’s not teaching writing and literature to students, who may or may not care about writing and literature, he can be found prowling the local environs looking for stories to photograph or chronicle.
View more of Trent’s submissions here.
Jim Clark, a retired Air Force nurse living with his wife and daughter in Asheville, North Carolina, was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When he’s not holding down the home front, Jim is likely to be running or biking the surrounding trails and back roads. He enjoys capturing bytes of flora and fauna with a camera sensor and occasionally sentences a few bits to prose or poem.
View more of Jim’s submissions here.
John Allyn Miller (1947 – 2007) lived in the Asheville area from the 1970s until 2002. He was an outdoorsman who loved being in nature, wandering backroads, trails, and streams in hopes of capturing the iconic beauty and images of Appalachia.
John taught photography at Asheville-Biltmore Technical School. He worked for and with other professional photographers and had his own photography studio on Wall Street in Asheville from the 1980s to 2002.
Erik Bathe is from Newton, North Carolina and teaches 8th grade math at Heritage Middle School in Valdese, NC. His hobbies include hiking, fishing and spending time outside.
Poetry and Writing:
David Madden lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina and is a Robert Penn Warren Professor Emeritus at Louisiana State University. He is an extraordinarily talented person – a prolific writer in all fields – born and shaped in the rolling hills and deep valleys of Knoxville, Tennessee. From novels to short stories, poetry, essays, playwriting, libretti, scholarly works, literary criticism, and edited texts, his literary endowments encompass a full scope of erudition.
Find information about his bibliography, awards, and prizes here.
Where to purchase David Madden’s books:
Union Avenue Books, Knoxville, Tennessee
Grant A. Mincy is an assistant professor of biology and (sometimes) geology at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee. He also sits on the Earth and Planetary Sciences Advisory Council for the University of Tennessee. In his free time, you’ll catch him either reading comic books or wandering around the Appalachian mountains with his wife and young son. Feel free to contact Grant (gamincy@pstcc.edu) or follow him on Twitter (@gmincy).
Read more of Grant’s submissions here.
Jim Clark, a retired Air Force nurse living with his wife and daughter in Asheville, North Carolina, was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When he’s not holding down the home front, Jim is likely to be running or biking the surrounding trails and back roads. He enjoys capturing bytes of flora and fauna with a camera sensor and occasionally sentences a few bits to prose or poem.
View more of Jim’s submissions here.
Benny Franklin Shown, Sr. (1947 – 2014) was born in a little home on Dog Creek in Jacksboro, Tennessee. He was a Vietnam Veteran from 1967-1968 who served honorably with Second Platoon in B Battery of the 29th Artillery. He served with the First Air Cavalry Division, various infantry units, and, in some cases, with Special Forces. He spent the bulk of his life further serving his community and country — as a Campbell County Tennessee Sheriff’s Deputy and, subsequently, a Security Inspector for Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN. He was a master craftsman, wood worker, and artist. He kept a journal of his Vietnam experiences, which can be read in excerpts on Appalachia Bare.
Amber Albritton is a creative writing student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who is currently investigating MFA programs throughout the country. She is a former Editor of Pellissippi State’s Imaginary Gardens Literary & Arts Review. Her poetry has been published in Phoenix Magazine.
Joshua Carpenter was born and raised in Maryville, Tennessee and is currently pursuing an English degree at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with an interest in modern and postmodern literature. He wears Liberty overalls and a ball cap signed by Phil Fulmer most of the time.
William Householder is a native East Tennessean, former professional storyteller, current librarian and avid book buyer. Two of his favorite Southern writers are Donald Barthleme and Padgett Powell.
Paul Hester is a recent high school graduate who plans to pursue a business major at Pellissippi State Community College in the fall. He loves camping and hiking in the outdoors and enjoys hanging out with friends.
Ian is a former staff member for Imaginary Gardens at Pellissippi State Community College and is working towards a degree in Psychology at the University of Tennessee. Having spent most of his life in Indiana, he loves discovering new places around the Appalachian region. He loves reading books about religions and other cultures, as well as watching whatever is on Netflix’s trending tab.
Holly Eaton has lived in the mountains of West Virginia for over a decade, where she has a small homestead with geese, tomatoes and too many cats. She’s a new writer with a wonderful talent for storytelling who has dubbed her story, “The Dancing Fiddle” as being in the genre, “Appalachian Fairy Tale.”
Linda Hinkle, born and raised in the West Virginia coal country, is a solitary practicing Witch/Healer who currently resides in Ooltewah, Tennessee with her loving husband and two sons. Linda is a Licensed Master Social Worker, currently working with her fellow sister and brother Veterans to provide resources and assistance at her current place of employment. Linda is a disabled Army Veteran and former Army Combat Medic, she went from healing the body to additionally healing the mind. She plans to live out a life of service for the rest of her days
Flossie McNabb has been a bookstore owner for 15 yeas and is currently the owner of Union Ave Books, an independent bookstore located in downtown Knoxville, TN. Union Ave Books has been open since 2011, and has a wide array of books, greeting cards, games, and many other items. Her establishment also supports works by local artists and has hosted a long list of local and regional authors.
Visit Ivy Love brown’s website where you’ll find she is “native to Florida, is an emerging author in East Tennessee, home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Greatly influenced by her dual time spent around the ocean and the mountains she was inspired to write.” Her stories are captivating and she weaves endings that haunt the mind well after reading them. Visit her website and follow her on Facebook.
Ryan McGill is an emerging writer in Knoxville, Tennessee who has dedicated his life and efforts to crafting an original and engaging writing style.
Kipper Evans is a husband and father of two young boys. He loves poetry and literature, and “Louis” is his first submission. He is an 8th generation Blount Countian and lives in the same house he grew up in. His ancestors rest in a cemetery near his home, from Great to 6th Great-Grandparents. Both sides of the Civil War, War of 1812, and Revolutionary War grandfathers are all buried there. He loves genealogy, Southern antiques, privacy, and his family.
Daniel Dassow is a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he studies English Literature, Creative Writing, and Religious Studies. He serves as a Staff Writer with UT’s editorially-independent student newspaper The Daily Beacon and is a member of the Chancellor’s Honors Program. His short story “Him” was runner-up in the university’s National Novel Writing Month short story contest in 2019.
Bridgette Johnson holds a Bachelor’s of English from East Tennessee State University and Master’s in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She is a mentee in Author Mentor Match, pairing un-agented writers with agented writers. When it’s not a pandemic, she loves attending geek conventions and hiking the mountains of Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Southeast Kentucky. She also firmly believes we need two Halloweens every year because it’s the best holiday.
Qudsiyah Gray is a college professor in East Tennessee and a student and teacher in the Inayati lineage of Universial Sufism.
Heather Lee Schroeder is an English professor at Pellissippi State Community College.
Stephen Lyn Bales is from Gatlinburg and is the grandson of Pearl and Homer Bales. He is a natural historian, speaker, and author of three natural history books: Natural Histories, Ghost Birds, and Ephemeral by Nature, all published by the University of Tennessee Press. Follow his blog and on Facebook and Instagram.