Local Poetry Reading: Arlene Neal, Scott Owens, Tim Peeler

Join us for an fun evening featuring three local authors reading selections of their poetry. Books will be available for purchase and signing. This program is presented in partnership with Redhawk Publications.  

Labeled Renaissance Woman by former students, Arlene Neal holds a B.S. in biology and an M.A. in English education from Appalachian State University. A former Catawba Valley Community College English chair, she writes a weekly column for the News-Topic of Lenoir, NC, and The Daily Courier of Rutherfordton, NC. She has a column collection What Came to Me in publication as well as her first poetry collection, There is Always Light. Her poems have appeared in numerous online magazines and in greeting cards of friends and family for decades. 

Scott Owens is the author of 22 collections of poetry and recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Next Generation/Indie Lit Awards, the NC Writers Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC. His poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac 8 times, and his articles about writing poetry have been used in Poet’s Market 4 times. He has twice been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and to be NC Poet Laureate. Owens holds degrees from Ohio University, UNC Charlotte, and UNC Greensboro. He is Professor of Poetry at Lenoir Rhyne University, and former editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and Southern Poetry Review. He owns and operates Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse and Gallery and coordinates Poetry Hickory in Hickory, NC. 

Tim Peeler is a retired educator from Western North Carolina who has written twenty-two books of poetry, short stories, and regional history. He has twice been a finalist for the Casey Award for baseball book of the year, and five of his books are housed in the library at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  Most recently he has collaborated with the Appalachian photographer Clayton Young on books that combine verse narratives and rural images.