Northern Appalachian Folk Festival Poetry Panel

A 90 MINUTE Folk reading and discussion of poetry and images at The Artists Hand Gallery exhibition Piercing the Veil-Appalachian Visions.  More specifically these are “Poets of the Wilds.” Poets located in and inspired by the Pennsylvania Wilds region. Piercing and pursuing the question, What is “Northern Appalachian Folk” in current poetic forms?

Panelists:

Byron Hoot - Author of poetry included in the exhibition, and a co-founder of The Tamarack Writers (1974).  Winner of the 2022 Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge.  His work has appeared in Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Tobeco Literary Arts Journal, in Tiny Seed, Adelaide Press and Keystone: An Anthology of Pennsylvania Poets published by Penn State University Press.  Proprietor of Hootnhowlpoetry.com

Greg Clary - Photographer of images included in the exhibition, and a retired Clarion University Professor of Rehab and Human Services. Photographer and writer published extensively, including Looking at Appalachia, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Watershed Journal, About Place Journal, Bluestone Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, The Bridge Literary Arts Journal, Northern Appalachia Review, and North/South Appalachia: Poetry and Art, vols I & II.

Brady Buchanan - A poet and musician who is a lifelong resident of Western Pennsylvania. He is active in several writing groups and is a member of the planning committee for Wildcat Lit Fest in Franklin. His poems have appeared in The Watershed Journal and the North/South Appalachia Anthology.

Tabissam “Tabby” Shah, the author of Red & Crescent Moons, her debut poetry collection which was awarded The Watershed Journal Literary Group’s Long-form Publishing prize and published by this Brookville, Pennsylvania independent publisher in December 2022. She grew up in the Carolina foothills of the Southern Appalachians and now lives in Northern Appalachia in the Pennsylvania Wilds region.

Wayne Swanger, a gardener, a grower, raised in a community of farmers and laborers. He lives close to the land, as so many of his poems attest. His book, Fields of His Heart, was published by The Watershed Journal Literary Group (2020).