919 | UPFRONT
919’S NEW
Piedmont Laureate
HEATHER BELL ADAMS HOPES TO BUILD LITERACY, CELEBRATE THE ART OF WRITING
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Photos Courtesy of Megan Cash Photography
aleigh-based fiction writer Heather Bell Adams is the region's 2022 Piedmont Laureate – a position she hopes will build literacy, and celebrate the art of writing. Throughout 2022, Bell Adams will appear at virtual and in-person programming, including workshops, reading programs, and speaking engagements throughout Wake, Durham and Orange counties. “Heather is a wonderful writer, but she is also a great advocate for writing,” said Tommy Jenkins, Professor of English at Louisburg College. “She shows the hard work that goes into writing and how our own histories can be inspiration.” As Piedmont Laureate, Bell Adams will also create at least one original activity to expand appreciation of the work of fiction. “Heather is a perfect example of someone who will highlight the craft of writing to all writers in the region,” said Linda Janssen and Jorge D. Cortese, Orange and Durham County Representatives, North Carolina Writers Network. “She manages to make complex subjects understandable to all writing levels, whether in-person for large groups or through online sessions. She succeeds at being comprehensive without overwhelming those at the beginning of their writing careers or practices.” Bell Adams’ novels – Maranatha Road (West Virginia University Press 2017) and The Good Luck Stone (Haywire Books 2020) appear on reading lists for Deep South Magazine, Writer’s Bone, The Big Other, and Buzz Feed. Winner of an IPPY gold medal, Next Generation Book Award, Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Award, Carrie McCray Literary Award, and James Still Fiction Prize, Heather’s fiction and literary scholarship are featured in The Thomas Wolfe Review, Atticus Review, Pembroke Magazine, The Petigru Review, Broad River Review, and other journals.
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North Carolina Fiction Writer Heather Bell Adams is the 2022 Piedmont Laureate
www.919Magazine.com
Winter 2022
