ISSUED: 27 June 2019
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s “Anthology of Appalachian Writers: Karen Spears Zacharias, Volume XI” is now available. The book, published by Shepherd and the West Virginia Center for the Book, features poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction of writers from across the country and the region that focuses on common themes in Zacharias’s work such as the complexity of family relationships, post-traumatic stress disorder, the trauma of war and violence, and the military.
Zacharias and award-winning author Silas House have pieces published in the book, as do West Virginia poet laureate Marc Harshman and Shepherd poet-in-residence Dr. Hope Maxwell Snyder, director of Shepherd’s Society for Creative Writing. Other writers featured include Jayne Moore Waldrop, Ginny Fite, and West Virginia Fiction Competition winners Kelley Altizer, Ellen Skirvin, and Letitia Six. The edition also contains a story by heritage writer James Still, “The Quare Day.”
One of the literary editors for the anthology was Caitlyn Sheets, a recent Shepherd graduate from Shepherdstown. The anthology is part of the Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence project and the West Virginia Center for the Book’s One West Virginia One Book common read program, which provided some funding and distributes the books to school and public libraries throughout the state. The Shepherd University Foundation is also a major supporter. The book is available at the Shepherd University Bookstore, Tamarack in Beckley, and other bookstores.
For more information, contact Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt, director, Shepherd Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities, at sshurbut@shepherd.edu.
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