CHRIS ARVIDSON

Creating an opportunity for area writers to share their work via public readings, three area writers, Julie Townsend, Scot Pope and Chris Arvidson, have created Wordkeepers.

Designed as an open salon for area writers, Townsend, Pope and Arvidson, will each read from their latest work and they’ll provide an opportunity for other area writers to read as well in an open mic format. Writers interested in reading from their work should email Chris Arvidson at chris@​chrisarvidson.com, to secure their first-come, first-served spot on the bill, and to get guidelines for the salon.

WORDKEEPER BIOS

Julie E. Townsend is a Writing Lecturer in the Department of English at Appalachian State. She is a published short-story author who has won awards for her stories as well as first place in the “North Carolina Working Press” for an expose on a cult. Her first novel is "Seafood Jesus" published by Main Street Rag. She lives in the mountains near West Jefferson.

In 1992 Scot Pope escaped the Charlotte “rat race” to live a simple, humble life in rural northwest Ashe County. He is a nature photographer (vagabond images), a musician and sporadic writer of poetry and short stories. He volunteers for the Nature Conservancy, the Ashe County Arts Council and Ashe County Farmers Market.

Chris Arvidson lives in West Jefferson and works for the National Committee for the New River. She earned an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College, where she wrote a manuscript entitled “No, I Don’t Want to Hold Your Baby.” She has been a regular columnist for Charlotte’s “Creative Loafing”, and a frequent contributor to Forward Magazine, where she reviewed books and covered trends in the independent book selling and academic press world. She is the Regional Representative for the NC Writers Network; information about the Network will be available at Wordkeepers salons and at www.ncwriters.org.

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