Department of English

Education

• University of Pittsburgh: BA, 1975
• University of Pittsburgh: MA, 1988
• Warren Wilson College: MFA, 1991

Joseph Bathanti joined the Appalachian State English Department faculty in 2001. He is Professor of English & McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education and Writer-in-Residence of Watauga Residential College, as well as affiliate faculty in Appalachian Studies & The Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies. He is the recipient of Appalachian State’s 100 Scholars Research Award, 2009; the Provost's Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity, 2021; the Donald W. Sink Family Outstanding Scholar Award for 2020-21; and The Board of Governors Appalachian State University Excellence in Teaching Award, 2022. Bathanti is the former Poet Laureate of North Carolina (2012-2014) and recipient of The Order of the Long Leaf Pine and the 2016 North Carolina Award in Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor. He served as the 2016 Charles George VA Medical Center Writer-in-Residence in Asheville, NC, and is the co-founder of the Medical Center’s Creative Writing Program.

Books           

• Communion Partners (Poems), Briarpatch Press (Davidson, NC), 1986.
• Anson County (Poems), Williams & Simpson, Inc. (Greenville,NC), 1989.
• The Feast of All Saints (Poems), Nightshade Press (Troy, Maine), 1994.
• This Metal (Poems), St. Andrews College Press (Laurinburg, NC), 1996.
• East Liberty (Novel), Banks Channel Books (Wilmington, NC), 2001.
• Coventry (Novel), Novello Festival Press (Charlotte, NC), 2006.
• They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists, 1971-1995 (Nonfiction), The North Carolina Arts Council (Raleigh, NC), 2007.
• The Hight Heart (Short Stories), Eastern Washington University Press (Spokane, WA), 2007.
• Land of Amnesia (Poems), Press 53 (Winston-Salem, NC), 2009.
• Restoring Sacred Art (Poems), Star Cloud Press (Scottsdale, AZ), 2010.
• Sonnets of the Cross (Poems), Jacar Press (Durham, NC), 2013.
• Concertina (Poems), Mercer University Press (Macon, GA), 2013.
• Half of What I Say Is Meaningless (Creative Nonfiction), Mercer University Press (Macon, GA), 2014.
• The Life of the World to Come (Novel), University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 2014.
• A Conversation with Ronald H. Bayes in 1988 (Nonfiction), St. Andrews University Press (Laurinburg, NC), 2015.
• Twelve Poems (Poems), St. Andrews University Press (Laurinburg, NC), 2015.
• The 13^th Sunday after Pentecost (Poems), Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2016. 
• Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath, Press 53 (Winston-Salem, NC), Joseph Bathanti and David Potorti, eds., 2021.
  
• Rising Meadow (Poems in collaboration with photographer, Houck Medford), Horse and Buggy Press (Durham, NC), 2021.
• Light at the Seam (Poems), Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2022.
• The Act of Contrition (Short Stories), Eastover Press (Rochester, MA), forthcoming May 2023.
• The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), Blake Hobby, Alessandro Porco, and Joseph Bathanti, eds., forthcoming September 2023.

Selected Awards

•  North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in Literature (Poetry), 1994.
• The Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, presented annually by St. Andrews College for outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina over an extended period, 1995.
• Oscar Arnold Young Award, given annually by The Poetry Council of North Carolina for the best book of poetry published in a calendar year, 1997.
• 2001 Carolina Novel Award (for East Liberty)
• 2002 Linda Flowers Prize, awarded annually by the North Carolina Humanities Council.
• 2002 Sherwood Anderson Award, awarded annually by The Sherwood Anderson Foundation.
• 2006 Novello Literary Award (for Coventry).
• 2006 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction (for The High Heart).}
• 2007 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize, awarded annually by the Nuclear Age peace Foundation.
• North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in Literature (Fiction), 2009.
• 2010 Roanoke Chowan Award (for Restoring Sacred Art), given annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association for the best book of poetry published 2010 by a NC citizen in a given year.
• 2011 Donald Murray Prize, awarded annually from the National Council of Teachers of English, for an essay about teaching and/or writing published the previous year.
• Ragan-Rubin Award for Literary Achievement, awarded annually by the North Carolina English Teachers Association, 2012.
• 2012 Will D. Campbell Award in Creative Nonfiction (for Half of What I Say Is Meaningless), awarded annually by Mercer University Press, Macon, GA.
• 2013 Mary Frances Hobson Prize, awarded annually by Chowan University to recognize distinguished achievement in the field of arts and letters.
• 2014 Irene Blair Honeycutt Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts.
• 2014 Rita Dove Poetry Award, presented annually by The Center for Women Writers at Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC.
• 2014 Roanoke Chowan Award (for Concertina).
• 2014 Shenandoah Prize for Fiction.
• Lee Smith Award, awarded annually to recognizes an individual who has worked to preserve and promote Appalachian culture, 2019.
• 2021 EastOver Prize for Fiction (for The Act of Contrition).
• 2022 Roanoke Chowan Award (for Light at the Seam).