The writers who find their way to Pisgah Press reflect the very best of our creative spirit.
They are bold and determined, talented and gracious, and eager for their work to find an audience as dedicated to fine writing as they are. They also reflect remarkably wide-ranging backgrounds.
Jan Atchley Bevan (co-author, Letters of the Lost Children—Japan: WWII) is an author of poetry and children’s books and was Author in Residence of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Jacksonville, Florida from 2000 to 2008. She was a literary art educator in the Education Department of the Cummer Museum and went into the public schools to promote reading and writing to many students. Her honorarium as Author in Residence continues throughout her career as an author and poet. Jan was a literary artist connected with Very Special Arts in the State of Florida and the national office in Washington, DC. Very Special Arts was founded by Jean Kennedy Smith for artists and writers with disabilities. It is affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Jan was president, 2010-14, of the National League of American Pen Women, Jacksonville, Florida branch.
After his graduation with the first co-ed class at Vassar College, Barry Burgess studied dance with Elena Tchernichova in New York’s Harkness School of Ballet. Later in life he became a designer in NY’s garment industry and now, in semi-retirement, studies gemology. His imagination was sparked in part by the magical garden behind his house in Yonkers, NY, where the namesake of the character Patti, his late cousin Patrice, inspired him to create the magical Painted Valley of his novel.
Donna Lisle Burton grew up beside the Ohio River in an area of coal mines and steel mills. For most of her life she lived in the South, in Montgomery and Tuskegee, Alabama, then for many years in Greenville, SC. In 2001 Burton moved to a house in Fairview, NC, a few miles south of Asheville, where she lived until her death in December 2020, at age 91. Donna studied with such luminaries as Gilbert Allen of Furman University in Greenville, SC, and Cathy Smith Bowers, North Carolina’s 2010-12 Poet Laureate, and her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Illuminations, Potpourri, and other publications, and nine of her drawings, including the self-portrait on the cover, are included in Letting Go—her first collection of poetry to be released by Pisgah Press. Her next collection, Way Past Time for Reflecting, comprises some five dozen poems written late in life, and was followed by the more whimsical From Roots … to Leaves, published when she turned 90.
Michael Amos Cody (Gabriel’s Songbook; A Twilight Reel: Stories) is a professor in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University. A songwriter and musician whose early career took him to Nashville, TN, he later earned his PhD in English from the University of South Carolina. His short fiction has appeared in The Tampa Review, Yemassee, and other publications, and his albums include Homecoming and Wonderful Life. Gabriel’s Songbook is his first novel; his short story collection A Twilight Reel was released in May 2021 to great acclaim. In her review for Chapter 16, Tina Chambers described the book as “a collection of haunting stories—quiet, meditative tales that build to a climax without giving up all of their secrets, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. Cody’s stories are peopled with complicated characters: lost, angry, grieving, lonely, violent, and filled with regret, each one searching for some kind of peace. They linger in the mind’s eye long after the telling ends.”
Reinhold C. Ferster (co-author, Letters of the Lost Children—Japan: WW II) was born in Buffalo, NY, and studied commercial art at the University of Buffalo and Rochester Institute of Technology. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard destroyers and later, as an illustrator in the Admiral’s Public Information Office, Newport, Rhode Island. He also served simultaneously as a 2nd Lt., Rhode Island Militia, historical command, Newport Artillery Company. After working as a commercial artist and copywriter at ad agencies, Reinhold opened an advertising and marketing agency in Buffalo and Toronto, Canada. With a passionate interest in world cultures, he coined the phrase, “Visual Protocol,” meaning the perception and interpretation of visual messages by cultures other than our own. He wrote a series of articles for the Jacksonville Business Journal, titled “As They See It.” Reinhold also was a political cartoonist.
Robin Russell Gaiser has written two successful memoirs (Musical Morphine: Transforming Pain, One Note at a Time; Open for Lunch), performed at the Kennedy Center, and has seven albums in the Smithsonian’s collection. She earned her BA in English at The College of William and Mary, taught writing and literature in Fairfax County, VA, gave private lessons in guitar and dulcimer and performed publicly under the auspices of the Fairfax County Council of the Arts, sang in classical choirs, and recorded numerous albums. Her children grown, she earned an MA in psychology from Marymount University and worked as a guidance counselor for eight years and then, after relocating to her home ground in upstate New York, enrolled in a certification program for therapeutic musicians, trained to provide live, bedside, one-on-one acoustic music to critically and chronically ill, elderly, and dying patients. Buoyed in equal measure by credentials, talent, and passion, she set herself to writing about her experiences as a Certified Music Practitioner (CMP): Musical Morphine is the result.
The late Joseph R. Haun enjoyed a 40-year career as a botanist, both in the field and in the classroom, but he spent a lifetime in search of wisdom. From his early enthusiasm over the scientific method as he learned to track the productivity of the family’s egg-laying hens, to his excitement at becoming a pilot and flight instructor during World War II, to his quest for a philosophical understanding of the “world of the spirit,” Joe applied his intellectual rigor to his endeavors. In rearing his five sons, he sought out a religious tradition that would fit skeptical inquiries; their world travels became learning experiences for the boys as well as the parents. Even Joe’s generosity as a philanthropist was invariably preceded by thorough research and hands-on involvement in the good works of the organizations he supports. Joe died in January 2013 at the age of 90; he lived a good life, wrote a good book, and leaves a great legacy.
Michael Hopping, MD, has a PhD in Psychiatry, and is the former medical director for a community mental health center in North Carolina. He developed his skills as a member of the Wednesday Afternoon Writers Group, meeting weekly to share and review one another’s work, refining their story-telling skills as they learn from each other. He also studied with other acclaimed writers in the Great Smokies Writing Program, and he honed his talent with his novel, Meet Me In Paradise (2007). Before collecting the 14 tales of MacTiernan’s Bottle, Mike had stories published in Spoiled Ink, The Great Smokies Review, fresh, and the Mad Hatters’ Review blog. His second novel, rhythms on a flaming drum, carries on Mikes’ intellectual curiosity and unflinching vision of a dark future.
Al & Sunny Lockwood have spent their retirement years traveling and writing about traveling. They have cruised Europe, the Atlantic, the Panama Canal, and the Mississippi River. Their newest book, Cruising from Boston to Montreal: Discovering coastal and riverside wonders in Maine, the Canadian Maritimes and along the St. Lawrence River, will be released in softcover by Pisgah Press in May and by their own imprint in March as an eBook. The title is long, but the read is quick and fun. And everywhere they go, they capture unforgettable moments—Al with his camera and Sunny with her reporter’s notebook. Sunny, who grew up in the Midwest, developed publications for universities, wrote for magazines, and worked as a newspaper editor. (She also did some skydiving and produced a TV show called “Women Working” at Gill Cable in San Jose, California.) When she was working as editor and part-owner of a monthly community newspaper, she met Al, who had retired from a career in engineering to photograph wildflowers growing along mountain trails and cliff-sides. They both lived in the western foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, and were married in less than a year. Their work has been published in magazines and newspapers. It has been recognized with awards from the National Federation of Press Women and the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
Peter Loewer, a.k.a. The Wild Gardener, wrote more than two dozen acclaimed books on gardening before submitting The Last of the Swindlers to Pisgah Press. A writer, graphic artist, photographer, and botanical illustrator, he graduated from the Albright Art School of the University of Buffalo with a degree in graphics and a minor in art history, and upon graduation was awarded the Max Beckmann Fellowship to the Brooklyn Museum Art. Among his groundbreaking works are the first book on ornamental grasses, Growing and Decorating with Ornamental Grasses (1973); the first book on nocturnal flowers for bloom and fragrance, The Evening Garden (1994); and Thoreau’s Garden and Jefferson’s Garden. His eponymous book, The Wild Gardener, was named one of the best 75 garden books of the 20th century by the American Horticultural Society. He has hosted a long-running radio show and taught at the North Carolina Arboretum, UNC Asheville’s OLLI Center, Montreat Elderhostel, Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and at Penland School in Spruce Pine. He also worked for a time as a small-town newspaper editor, out of which experience came the inspiration for The Last of the Swindlers.
Jeff Douglas Messer, a native of Waynesville, NC, has made a name for himself as an actor, playwright, and radio talk-show host. Red-state, White-guy Blues is Jeff’s scathing indictment of the political scene in western North Carolina and the state government in Raleigh. His plays have been produced in theaters all around the Southeast including at the Footlight Theater during the prestigious Charleston, SC, Spoleto Festival. His first play was the first script ever allowed by the Irving Berlin estate, and his “Anglo-White-Heterosexual American Men was selected as second runner-up regionally in the Kennedy Center College Short Play Competition. Jeff appeared as an actor at the Edinburgh, Scotland Fringe Festival, opened his own theater in Asheville in 2002, and continues to write such blockbusters as Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood and Esley, about the talented, but often unsung, musician Lesley Riddle, a black guitarist whose style was adopted by the Carter Family.
D. Patrick O’Sullivan came to Pisgah Press via our sister business, MyOwnEditor.com, when he asked owner A. D. Reed to do a final edit on his finished manuscript. Months later, unhappy with his publisher, Patrick came back and asked, “Would Pisgah Press still be interested in publishing A Green One for Woody?” No question! Patrick is one of those rare individuals who is a natural at telling a tale—and he tells his demanding story with the clarity of language and the purity of a heart that has been tested in the crucible of a difficult childhood and not found wanting. He distills his experiences in growing up—experiences that few of us would eagerly lay claim to—into their essence: love, respect, and pride without ego. Patrick’s character is even more distinctive than his personality—and it’s no wonder that he has a vast number of followers and friends and admirers. When you read A Green One for Woody, you’re certain to join them.
Editor-in-chief A.D. Reed was privileged to be offered top-quality education from his earliest years, attending Asheville (NC) Country Day School (now Carolina Day) before moving to New York as a Columbia College undergraduate, Class of ’74. Over the next 22 years in New York he worked as personal assistant to concert pianist Rosalyn Tureck, for producer Drea Besch at ABC Radio, as a marketing director at NBC TV Networks, and briefly for Simon & Schuster as a proofreader on Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition. Wherever he went, he put his writing and editing skills to work, in broadcast and print, marketing and publicity, and even speechwriting for NBC talent and executives. After returning to Asheville, he launched his career as a freelance editor and writer, leading to the establishment of Pisgah Press in 2011 and the publication of his reference guide, Reed’s Homophones.
Dave Richards spent part of his life as a Russian language interpreter for the U.S. Army in Germany. He also lived and taught in Japan and Korea, and earned his MA in Slavic and East European languages from Ohio State University. Dave began working on Swords in Their Hands in the late 2000s, and like Patrick O’Sullivan he first encountered A. D. Reed as an editor who offered a critique of his manuscript. One year later, Pisgah Press was eager to sign a contract to publish Dave’s book. As an avid student of history and popular speaker and writer on the subject, Dave is a natural to have tackled this buried piece of American Revolutionary War history. While numerous articles in print and online mention the conspiracy, and while scores of other historians have touched upon it in their own work, none has delved as deeply as Dave to present the whole story. And while Dave brings a scholar’s talent for research to his work, he writes not as an academic or for academics, but for everyone who likes reading about American history. Swords in Their Hands was nominated for, and became one of four finalists, for the 2014 USA Book Award in History.
Sarah-Ann Smith earned her PhD in international relations at American University in Washington, DC and served in Southeast Asia in the diplomatic corps of the U.S. State Department before writing her highly praised novel, Trang Sen: A Novel of Vietnam. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, she did tours of duty in Taiwan, at the American Consulate in Hong Kong, and at State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. She followed the age-old guide for writers: write what you know. Drawing on her successful career in the diplomatic corps, she brought to her story her knowledge of Asian cultures, and to her literary style her profound knowledge of English literature. She asked for advice and criticism from the Harcourt Road writers group in Washington, D. C. and from professional colleagues and friends in international relations; she researched in depth the history of Vietnam and the Vietnam War, and finally distilled her knowledge and insight into the brilliant, moving story of a young woman caught up in the turmoil of events and the people whose lives touch hers as she finds her way in the world
Nan Socolow has been writing poetry her entire life, beginning at Connecticut College where she studied with the future Poet Laureate of the United States, William Meredith, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her former husband, the late Sandy Socolow, was Executive Producer of CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and the couple reared three children, Elisabeth, Michael, and Jonathan, all now enjoying successful careers across the globe. Immersed in the nexus of politics, news, the television business, and the cross-pollinating culture of New York and Washington, DC—she worked in Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter’s White House, for the USIA and State Department, for Ford’s Theatre and at Princeton University—Nan was constantly writing, and her poems appeared in such publications as The Washingtonian, The New Republic, and Rolling Stone. Invasive Procedures: Earthquakes, Calamities, & poems from the midst of life, is her first collection, and it brilliantly reflects both the élan with which she has pursued her journey and her wry, ironic, and joyful reflections on life’s most cherished moments … along with its unexpected earthquakes and calamities.
After RF Wilson retired from a career in counseling and substance-abuse treatment, he turned his talents to writing. As he honed his skills he joined the WNC Mysterians, a group of avid writers of mysteries, for mutual support, critique, and development, and soon he completed the first of his two manuscripts featuring detective Rick Ryder—a one-armed, alcoholic, environmental lawyer who finds himself drawn into intrigue and corruption wherever he turns. His book Killer Weed was released by Pisgah Press in April 2014; Deadly Dancing, though written first, was the second published, in May of 2016, and was followed in 2019 by The Pot Professor. His next mystery novel will be forthcoming in 2022.
