Notorious Nora

Anna Lena Phillips Bell is the author of Ornament, winner of the Vassar Miller Poetry Prize. Her artist's books and broadsides, including the poetry guide A Pocket Book of Forms, have appeared in exhibitions at Abecedarian Gallery and Asheville Bookworks. The recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in literature, she teaches at UNC Wilmington, where she is editor of Ecotone and Lookout Books. She lives with her family near the Cape Fear River, and calls Appalachian square dances in North Carolina and beyond. Find more about her work at todointhenewyear.net. Dasan Ahanu is a poet, educator, scholar, and performing artist born and raised in Raleigh. His work has been featured on National Public Radio in appearances on "News and Notes with Ed Gordon" and "State of Things with Frank Stasio." Dasan is a resident artist with the St, Joseph's Historic Foundation/ Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, where he has developed poetry and spoken word programming for youth and adults. He is co-founder and managing director of Black Poetry Theatre, a Durham-based theatre company that creates and produces original poetry and spoken word-based productions. In 2004 he was awarded an Indy Arts Award by Independent Weekly Magazine for his work in arts and activism. In 2015, he was awarded the honor again, the first time in the award's history that has happened. His three poetry collections include The Innovator (2010), Freedom Papers (2012), and Everything Worth Fighting For (2016). Ricardo Nazario y Colón was born in the South Bronx, NYC and raised in the Highlands of Puerto Rico. Presently he lives and works in the Appalachian region of North Carolina. His first poem was written during boot camp in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1991 as an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, he became a co-founder of the Affralachian Poets. His work has been widely published and anthologized in both print and online publications. He is the author of the chapbook The Recital (Winged City, 2011) and the full collection Of Jíbaros and Hillbillies (Plain View Press, 2010).