Buchanan County Public Library

Local Author Festival

The BCPL Local Author Festival will be held on Thursday April 13, 2023 at 6pm. This event celebrates authors from our region who are sharing their stories, memories, and imagination.  The Local Author Festival is a great opportunity for authors and readers to chat, purchase books, and get autographs in a friendly, relaxed setting.  If you are an author interested in attending, please call the Buchanan County Public Library at 276-935-5721 or email sherry@bcplnet.org to reserve a table no later than March 31st.   The library provides table space, chairs, and event promotion.  Authors may decorate their space in whatever family friendly way they choose and are responsible for their own book sales. There is no charge to attend this event.

Confirmed Authors:

Penny Bevins

Penny Bevins has been married to Dave Bevins for fifty-six years. They have two sons, David and Bobby, and seven grandchildren. Penny has worked in education, banking, accounting, and social work during her career. Her hobbies are reading, writing, photography and travel. Her memoir, Leaving the Holler and Other stories from the Creek, is her first published book.

Carol Cutler

Carol Cutler (April Cleveland) lived in southwest Virginia for thirty years. Now living in Albemarle County, she is a member of Blue Ridge Writers Club and the Appalachian Authors Guild of Virginia. A graduate of the University of Virginia and the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, her fiction, poetry and nonfiction has been published as author Carol Cutler in the Skyline series of prose and poetry of central Virginia authors (2017- 2022), the Virginia Writer’s Club Centennial Anthology (2018), and the 30th Anniversary Anthology of Blue Ridge Writers (2020). She has three grown children and four grandchildren.

Linda Hoagland 

Linda Hudson Hoagland has won acclaim for her mystery novels that include the recent Dangerous Shadow, Onward & Upward, Missing Sammy, An Unjust Court, Snooping Can Be Helpful – Sometimes, Snooping Can Be Uncomfortable, and Snooping Can Be Scary.  She is also the author of works of nonfiction, including the 3 volume set of Ellen Chronicles, 3 collections of short writings along with 3 volumes of poems.  Hoagland has won numerous awards for her work, including first place for the Pearl S. Buck Award for Social Change and the Sherwood Anderson Short Story Contest.

Franklin Horton

 

Franklin Horton lives and writes in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. He submitted his first writing project to a magazine at thirteen years old, receiving the first of what would eventually be hundreds of rejections from agents and publishers. He’s now completed over thirty-five novels and sold over a million books in ebook, paperback, and audio. He lives a hermit’s life on a remote mountaintop, splitting his day between writing and tinkering in his shop like one of his characters.

Sara M. Robinson

Sara M. Robinson, retired industrial chemist and minerals mining executive, and former Instructor of a course on Contemporary American Poets at UVA-OLLI, was poetry columnist for Southern Writers Magazine and inaugural poetry editor for Virginia Literary Journal. She has served as guest lecturer at UVA’s College at Wise, Wise, VA. Her poetry has appeared in various anthologies, including We Grew Wings and Flew (2014), Scratching Against the Fabric (2015), Virginia Writer’s Club Centennial Anthology (2017), Blue Ridge Anthologies and Mizmor Anthology (2018). Journals include: Loch Raven Review, The Virginia Literary Journal, vox poetica, Jimson Weed, Whisky Advocate, and Poetica. She is poet and author of Love Always, Hobby and Jessie (2009), Two Little Girls in a Wading Pool (2012), A Cruise in Rare Waters (2013 Stones for Words (2014), Sometimes the Little Town (2016), a finalist for the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2017 Book Award. In 2019, Needville, her poetry about effects of coal mining on SW Virginia was released, and in 2020 debuted as play in Charlottesville. Her most recent publication is Simple River (2020, Cyberwit). Her current project is a book on the craft of writing poetry based on her columns from Southern Writers Magazine and the Suite T Blog. Sara resides in Albemarle County.

Frank Kilgore

Frank Kilgore resides in Russell County, Virginia, and graduated from Clinch Valley College (now the University of Virginia’s College at Wise), where he designed and completed the nation’s first Appalachian Studies college major. He is the descendant of a dozen or so Patriots that fought at the Battle of King’s Mountain, and the son, grandson, nephew, and cousin of dozens of coal miners.

The author has been a country trial lawyer for nearly forty years, an Appalachian conservationist, historian, author, and he’s the proud founder of the Appalachian College of Pharmacy located in Buchanan County, Virginia.

Frank has also designed and helped build over seventy miles of hiking and biking trails in what is known as Far Southwest Virginia and mentored over a hundred at-risk young mountaineers along the way.

In addition to this book, Frank is the author of The Clinch River: A World-class Treasure, a science textbook highlighting the natural resources and conservation activities within the watershed. Soon thereafter he researched and edited The Virginia Headwaters of the Big Sandy River: A Story of Revitalization and Nature’s Resilience, a textbook focusing on a neighboring watershed. Both books were donated to high school students as part of a place-based science studies project within their watersheds.

Frank’s book Far Southwest Virginia: A Postcard Journey, co-authored with Katharine Shearer, came out in 2004. An expanded and redesigned edition titled Far Southwest Virginia: A Postcard and Photographic Journey, was published in 2014.  His latest book is J.D. Vance is a Fake Hillbilly.

Joe Gary Street

Joe Gary Street is a local businessman born and raised in Buchanan County, Virginia.  Joe has been a public servant his entire life, having served on numerous boards to including the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, Buchanan County School Board, Grundy National Bank Board of Directors, YMCA Board, Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA), and the Virginia High School League Executive Board to name a few.  He has been married to his wife, Lanette, for almost fifty six year. They have two daughters, Jodi Reynolds and Jessica Savage.  Joe spends his free time chasing after and spending time with his four grandchildren – J.J. Reynolds who is fifteen, Lucy Savage who is eleven, Cael Savage who is eight and Mary Bryce Savage who is five.

Ellen Elmes

As a young college volunteer, visual artist Ellen Elmes was initially drawn to mountain life in the late 1960s by the intrigue of people and place in McDowell County, West Virginia. She has now written a memoir, An Appalachian Labyrinth: Painting to the Center, which chronicles her stories and paintings created since then as evidence of why she and her husband Don have made the mountains of Southwest Virginia their home for more than fifty years. In her book, Elmes provides a spirited reflection on how the development and content of her murals and watercolors have been profoundly impacted by the beauty, people, and experiences of living in Central Appalachia.

Sam Varney

Sam Varney is a native of the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Born in the rich coalfields of Southern West Virginia, he was raised in the equally rich coalfields of nearby Virginia and has always had an active interest in the history of the mountains. He was educated in the public schools of Buchanan County, Virginia, and attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree. He later did post-graduate work at Troy State University in Alabama.

Born in the 1935, just after the dark years of the Depression, his early life and surroundings allowed him to witness the passing of the traditions and folkways of his parents and grandparents and the beginning of the modern era. His interest in preserving this colorful mountain history led him to write a series of articles devoted to the lore and legend of the hills. The articles were published from 1972 to 1981 in The Virginia Mountaineer, a weekly publication in Grundy, Virginia.

The articles were a few of his childhood memories which were written originally to be passed to his grandchildren in order to give them a brief account of how it was to live in a far different time and place that will never be again. The articles were later placed in book form to be passed to future generations.

Sam and his wife, Martha, currently reside at 700 Hayter’s Gap Road, Honaker, Virginia 24260. He can be contacted at spiperv@gmail.com

Victoria Fletcher

Victoria Fletcher began her writing career in 2011 with the release of The Bible Tells Me So: Old Testament and New Testament stories for children. She now has 24 books of her own and has poems and short stories in 14 anthologies. Besides writing, she is the president of the Appalachian Authors Guild and enjoys being part of that group of writers. She lives in Damascus, Virginia.

Georgia Fitzgerald

Georgia Charles Fitzgerald, author of Murder in the Mountains – The Justice and Meadows Family Massacre.  Georgia is the great granddaughter of Elizabeth Baker Justice.  She grew up hearing the story of what happened as told by her family members.  Many years ago she decided it was best to tell the story of what happened, as history had recorded it.  While searching the archives of the newspapers and the court records, it was found that Howard Little had been tried and convicted for killing a man in Kentucky.  He was incarcerated in a KY prison for five years, and then the Lieutenant Governor gave him as well as other prisoners a pardon.  So he was out of prison for 11 years and then these murders happened.

A lot of people asked when will she write another book?  This book was written because it was so important to tell the story of what happened in the family and to record the facts of what happened.  So this being accomplished, there is no other book being considered.

Ms. Charles has recently retired in 2019 after many years working in community services and criminal justice system.  She recently took a trip to Germany to the town where her paternal 7 times great grandfather was born and visited the church where he was baptized in 1732. The church is still in operation and Sunday services are performed every week.

Teresa & Scott Mullins

Teresa Hawkins Mullins and Jim Scott Mullins are Dickenson County natives. The couple shares a love of local tradition and culture that serves as their writing inspiration. Teresa previously wrote for The Dickenson Star newspaper and was the recipient of several Virginia Press Association awards in a variety of categories. She especially enjoyed sharing stories that highlight the rich culture and heritage of the southwest Virginia region. Scott shares that same love of mountain culture and comes from a long line of traditional gospel singers, songwriters and musicians. He has sung in many churches, festivals and community gatherings throughout the region for more than three decades, carrying on his family’s musical heritage with his own traditional mountain gospel group, New Harvest Brothers. Teresa and Scott released their debut novel, Holly Creek, in the fall of 2022.

Amanda Sexton

Amanda Sexton is a wife, mother, minister, and counselor whose life’s calling is to provide hope to the hopeless, especially those struggling with addiction and trauma.

Dave Bevins

Dave Bevins is widely known for his 52 years working for the Buchanan County School System. During his tenure, he served as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal at several different schools. He is also known for being the most prolific writer in Buchanan County’s history. His column has appeared weekly in the Virginia Mountaineer for almost 50 years.

Rachel Riggsby

A native and lifelong resident of Buchanan County, Rachel Riggsby is the author of the book “Miscellanea: from the Sidelines of the Sixties”  published in 2001. She is a former columnist,  reporter, and news editor of the Virginia Mountaineer and worked for several years as Buchanan County correspondent for the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, covering breaking news and weekly feature stories. Her book is a collection of poetry, short stories, essays and commentary, including many items published in her earlier newspaper column, and selections from her other writings. Her work has also appeared in numerous other publications through the years. She helped found the regional Appalachian Authors Guild, served on its board for many years, and continues as a member. She also worked for many years with the AAG’s annual Writer’s Symposium.

 

Light refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Library.  For more information or to reserve a table, contact the library at 276-935-5721.

 

  • Hours

    Mon: 1pm-8pm
    Tues-Wed: 8:30am-5pm
    Thu: 8:30am-8pm
    Fri-Sat: 8:30am-5pm
    Sun: Closed

  • Get in touch

    276-935-5721

    Fax: 276-935-6292

    Email: sherry@bcplnet.org

  • Find us

    1185 Poe Town Street
    Grundy, VA 24614

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