Sheri Castle hosts and produces “The Key Ingredient,” an Emmy-winning food show on PBS. She’s also an award-winning professional food writer, recipe developer and cooking teacher known for melding stories, humor and culinary expertise. She’s authored sixteen cookbooks, and her writing appears regularly in national publications. The Southern Foodways Alliance presented Sheri with their prestigious Keeper of the Flame Award and named her one of 20 Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller.

Derek Davidson teaches Playwriting at Appalachian State University. His solo pieces, “Ox” and “Furrow,” were part of Piccolo Spoleto and Asheville Fringe; “Furrow” had its NYC premiere as part of the NYC New Works Festival. His internationally performed play “Blackjack” was published in “Lighting the Way: An Anthology of Short Plays about the Climate Crisis.” His writing has been published in “Grey Sparrow,” “Jalmurra,” “Indelible,” “MER” and nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2023.

Edward H. Davis is Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Emory & Henry University. He earned his Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Illinois. He has co-authored several books including “A Virginia Creeper Trial Companion” and several works on rural history and rural change in the South, including “Collards: A Southern Tradition from Seed to Table,” and “Religion, Sustainability, and Place.” He has authored several papers with his students, including a recent one on the geography of college football.

Bonny Gable is the author of “The Martha Odyssey,” a historical novel set at Martha Washington College in early 20th century Abingdon, Virginia, and the play “Lysistrata Wears Prada,” a modern adaptation of an Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy. Her career as a theater professor and director, first at King College and later at Virginia Intermont College, fueled her love of storytelling. She shares stories as a fiction author, arts journalist, playwright and a member of Dramatists Guild of America. She is a native of the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia.

Alix Harrow is a Virginia writer who has emerged as one of the most acclaimed contemporary writers of fantasy, gothic and science fiction. Her first novel, “The Ten Thousand Doors of January,” was nominated for numerous awards including the Hugo Award and a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. A second novel, “The Once and Future Witches,” won a British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Her most recent novel, “Starling House,” was nominated for the People’s Choice Award at the Virginia Literary Awards from the Library of Virginia.

Matthew B. Kelley is a writer from Atlanta. He holds degrees from Morehouse College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow in fiction. He has received fellowships from Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and Kimbilio (Fiction). He is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Emory & Henry University.

Ann Ledgerwood is a practicing pediatric physical therapist, musician, radio and podcast host, and self-published author of four books for children and families. Ann has worked with hundreds of children and families across Southwest Virginia for 45 years in homes, schools and clinics. Bringing her knowledge of Appalachian culture and the insight she has developed over the years, Ann writes books that are designed to be read together so that families can discuss acceptance, friendship, fear, failure, bullying, foster care, adoption, special needs and more from the perspective of a child.

Denton Loving is the author of the poetry collections “Crimes Against Birds” and “Tamp,” and the recipient of the Tennessee Book Award in Poetry. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal “Cutleaf.” His fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including “The Kenyon Review,” “Iron Horse Literary Review” and “Ecotone.” His third collection of poems, “Feller,” is forthcoming in 2026 from Mercer University Press.

“Trail Magic,” Felicia Mitchell’s recent book of poems, is about her relationship with the natural world she reveres and learns from on hikes in southwestern Virginia (and sometimes beyond). Her poems about the natural world have been published in several anthologies, including “Mountains Piled upon Mountains,” “Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene” and “Writing the Land: Virginia.” In 2020, Mitchell retired from Emory & Henry College, where she taught the poetry workshop and a course in the haiku tradition for many years. She remains active as a workshop leader, poetry reviewer, avid hiker and volunteer.

Mary Munsey taught elementary, middle and high school choral for 18 years and recently retired as the director of the music department at Virginia Highlands Community College. She’s had a wide and varied career in music performance—from teaching to playing multiple instruments to singing. Her songwriting has been featured for many years nationally and locally, including performances at Nashville’s Bluebird Café, the Grand Ole Opry, Ralph Stanley’s Festival and many more. Her awards include winner of the Woody Guthrie International Folk Songwriting Contest, the Neuse River Songwriting Contest and the Smoky Mountain Songwriting Competition.

Charles Vess is a world-renowned fantasy illustrator/artist. He began his career in NYC by drawing for Marvel’s “Spider-Man” and other comic book publishers. Over the years he has collaborated with many top-notch authors including Ursula K. LeGuin on “The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition”; Neil Gaiman (many times) but particularly on the novel “Stardust” that was made into a major film; plus various works by George R.R. Martin (“A Storm of Swords”), Joanne M. Harris (“Honeycomb”) and Charles de Lint (“The Cats of Tanglewood Forest” and “Seven Wild Sisters”). Charles’ artwork has also been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, and he has won several World Fantasy Awards and Hugo Awards for Best Artist.

A Tennessee native, Rebekah Wilson has been writing since she could hold a pencil. The beauty of her home in the Appalachian Mountains, along with the folklore of that area, is what inspires the unique plots and settings captured in her young adult fiction. She is the internationally bestselling author of The Iron Crown Faerie Tales and the Lost Cove Darklings series. Rebekah is also a freelance writer and editor and an occasional adjunct professor.