Kaleigh Cox moved to the hills of Athens in 2012 and hasn’t looked back. She graduated from OHIO with two degrees in education and has been teaching English in southeastern Ohio ever since. She was recently awarded a Growing Home Fellowship through the Foundation of Appalachian Ohio, and she is working to cultivate a multigenerational culture of learning and loving storytelling through this festival initiative as well as creating a district literary anthology publication through Logan-Hocking School District where she is finishing up her seventh year teaching.

Brianna Johnson is a Hocking County native passionate about Appalachian culture and its connection to literature and performing arts. Brianna is a fellow through the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio’s Growing Home Fellowship program. Brianna has a bachelor’s degree in English from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree in English education from Ohio University. She has been teaching middle school language arts to children in Appalachia for ten years.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and recipient of the James Boatwright III Poetry Prize, Jane Ann Devol Fuller was born and raised in the Hocking Hills of southeastern Ohio. Her poetry manuscript Half-Life (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2021) was a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Awards. Jane Ann taught creative writing at Hocking College for many years and her poems appear in several literary journals, including Shenandoah, Still:The Journal, I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing, Women of Appalachia Project, Verse Daily, The Pikeville Review, Calyx, SWWIM and elsewhere.

Lia Silver Birnbaum is a librarian and writer who has loved living in Appalachian Ohio for the past twelve years.  She is the branch manager of the Nelsonville Public Library, the main branch of the Athens County Public Libraries system.  She holds an MLIS from Kent State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in Saint Louis, from which she also received a Writer in Residence fellowship.  Her short fiction has been published in the Michigan Quarterly Review, The Journal, and Joyland. 

Casey Cox lives in Nelsonville, Ohio with his wife, Kaleigh, and two kids, Tanner and Cooper. He teaches English, Appalachian Literature, and Creative Writing at Nelsonville-York High School, where he also coaches JV basketball. Appalachia has always been home to Casey and he considers himself blessed to live in, teach about, and contribute to the rich community that has made him into the person he is today. 

Jami is a small business owner in Nelsonville and a retired social worker. Born in Cincinnati and raised in Vinton/Athens Counties Jami loves the community pride and family heritage that comes with being from Appalachia. Jami is a 4th generation Athens County resident and is so excited to see her new grandson -6th generation-raised here as well. Jami particularly likes the rich story telling and history of the area and incorporates this into her small business, repurposing and refinishing lost treasures of Appalachia into art.

Jennifer

As a lifelong resident of Gallia County, Aaron Walker is devoted to educating high school students and providing them authentic opportunities to engage with their Appalachian culture and identities. He designed a course in Appalachian Studies that has facilitated students’ interaction with their own culture outside the classroom and within the local community. This class has become the foundation for classes just like it in other area schools. He graduated from OSU with a BA in English and earned an MA in Education from OHIO. He has been teaching for 18 years.