Kirk Judd
Kirk Judd will be signing copies of his poetry collections from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm outside the Craft Shop.
Kirk Judd has lived, worked, trout-fished and wandered around in West Virginia all of his life. Kirk was a member of the Appalachian Literary League, a founding member and former president (and JUG recipient) of West Virginia Writers, Inc. , and is a founding member of and creative writing instructor for Allegheny Echoes, Inc., dedicated to the support and preservation of WV cultural heritage arts. Author of 3 collections of poetry Field of Vision 1986, Tao-Billy 1996, and My People Was Music 2014, and a co-editor of the widely acclaimed anthology, Wild, Sweet Notes – 50 Years of West Virginia Poetry 1950 – 1999, he is widely published. Kirk was honored to be one of the 5 readers selected for the installation ceremony of Louise McNeill Pease as Poet Laureate in 1979 at the WV Cultural Center on the Capitol grounds in Charleston, WV, and currently sits on the board of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation headquartered in Hillsboro, WV. He is internationally known for his performance work combining poetry and old time music, and has performed poetry in Ireland and across West Virginia at fairs, concerts, and festivals for the past 35 years.
Natalie Sypolt
Natalie Sypolt will be signing copies of her book from 1:00pm-2:30pm outside the Craft Shop.
A native of Preston County, Natalie Sypolt lives and writes in West Virginia. She is the author of The Sound of Holding Your Breath (2018, West Virginia University Press) and her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Appalachian Review (formerly Appalachian Heritage), Still: The Journal, r.kv.r.y., Superstition Review, Paste, Willow Springs Review, and The Kenyon Review Online, among other fine journals. Natalie is the winner of the Glimmer Train New Writers Contest, the Betty Gabehart Prize, the West Virginia Fiction Award, and the Still fiction contest. She was the first runner-up for the Poets Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. Additionally, Natalie is co-owner and editor of Change Seven Magazine and is the immediate past President of the Appalachian Studies Association.
Torli Bush
Torli Bush will be signing copies of their poetry collection, Requiem for a Redbird, outside of the Craft Shop from 2:30 pm – 4:00pm.
Torli Bush is a poet from Webster Springs, WV. They hold a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University and a MFA in Creative Writing from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Torli is currently a poetry editor for Heartwood Literary Magazine and their work has appeared in K’in Literary Journal, Appalachian Lit, Callaloo, In the Shadow of the Mic: Three Decades of Slam Poetry in Pittsburgh, and Anthology of Appalachian Writers – Ann Pancake Volume XVI. A significant portion of their first collection, Requiem for A Redbird, originally entitled American Psalms, was also named as a finalist in the 2023 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Book Prize from the University of Pittsburgh.