Authors on the Air Global Radio Network Host and thriller author Eliot Parker interviews poet Rita Quillen. Rita Quillen’s novel Hiding Ezra was published in 2014 from Little Creek Books; it was a finalist in the 2005 DANA Awards competition, and a chapter of the novel is included in the new scholarly study of Appalachian dialect just published by the University of Kentucky Press entitled Talking Appalachian. Her poetry chapbook, Something Solid To Anchor To, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2014. Her new full-length poetry collection, THE MAD FARMER'S WIFE, was published in the fall of 2016 from Texas Review Press, and was a finalist for the prestigious WEATHERFORD AWARD IN APPALACHIAN LITERATURE from Berea College.
One of six semi-finalists for the 2012-14 Poet Laureate of Virginia, her poetry received three Pushcart nominations as well as a Best of the Net nomination. Her collection Her Secret Dream, new and selected poems, is from Wind Press in Kentucky and was named the Outstanding Poetry Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association in 2008. Previous works are poetry collections October Dusk and Counting The Sums, as well as a book of essays Looking for Native Ground: Contemporary Appalachian Poetry.
Rita is also a musician, playing guitar, mandolin,piano, dulcimer, autoharp, bass, and bodhran, and she has recently began writing songs. She won first place in the 2015 Gathering in the Gap Songwriting Contest and was also a finalist in the Richard Leigh Songwriting Competition that same year. She has performed at many venues in the region as part of various groups or as a singer/songwriter.
She lives and farms on Early Autumn Farm in Scott County, Virginia. Contact her through her author Facebook page linked on this page: www.facebook.com/ritaquillenhidingezra.
