GREENSBORO, NC (November 8, 2011) – The North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is pleased to announce the selection of Joseph Bathani as a Council trustee to serve a three-year term starting October 2011. Bathanti, born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as an M.F.A. in creative writing from Warren Wilson College. He came to North Carolina in 1976 as a VISTA Volunteer to work with prison inmates. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, he is currently a professor of creative writing at Appalachian State University, where he is also co-director of the Visiting Writers Series, director of Writing in the Field at Appalachian State University, and Watauga Global Community Writer-in-Residence.
Bathanti is the author of six books of poetry: Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints; This Metal, which was nominated for The National Book Award and won the 1997 Oscar Arnold Young Award from The North Carolina Poetry Council for best book of poems by a North Carolina writer; Land of Amnesia, from Press 53 in 2009; and Restoring Sacred Art, from Star Cloud Press, winner of the 2010 Roanoke Chowan Prize, awarded annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association for best book of poetry in a given year.
His first novel East Liberty won the Carolina Novel Award in 2001, and his latest novel Coventry won the 2006 Novello Literary Award. The High Heart, a collection of short stories, was awarded the Spokane Prize in 2006. Bathanti published They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina's Visiting Artists, 1971-1995, a work of nonfiction, in 2007. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. He is a playwright, editor, lyricist and has served as a North Carolina Humanities Council Road Scholar and Let's Talk About It discussion series facilitator.
Bathanti is a two-time recipient of Literature Fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council (1994 and 2009). In 1996 he received a Fellowship from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Individual Poets. Also among his many honors are the Samuel Talmadge Ragan Award, the Bruno Arcudi Literature Prize, the Ernest A. Lynton Faculty Award for Professional Service and Academic Outreach, the Aniello Lauri Award for Creative Writing, the Linda Flowers Literary Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize, and the Donald Murray Prize. The North Carolina Poetry Society recently named him 2011-12 Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the Western Region.
Bathanti is a currently a member of the Associated Writing Programs, the NC Writers' Network, and the NC Writers Conference. He has served on the boards of the North Carolina Arts Council, the Watauga Library, the Council of Authors and Journalists, the NC Writer-in-Teacher Project, the Bring Sam Home Advisory Committee, the Iredell County HIV/AIDS Task Force, the Iredell Arts Council, and the NC Poetry Society, for which he was chair of the ZoŁ Kinkaid Brockman Award Committee. From 1989 to 1994, Bathanti chaired the NC Writers' Network Prison project.
The North Carolina Humanities Council is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Humanities Council serves as an advocate for lifelong learning and thoughtful dialogue about all facets of human life. It facilitates the exploration and celebration of the many voices and stories of North Carolina's cultures and heritage. In addition to grants and publications, the Council offers the Road Scholars speakers bureau; the Let's Talk About It library discussion series; the traveling exhibition Museum on Main Street, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution and rural communities statewide; the Teachers Institute, a professional development program for the state's public school teachers, and Literature and Medicine, and a scholar-facilitated book discussion group for hospital staff to reflect on the larger mission of medicine. To learn more about the North Carolina Humanities Council, visit www.nchumanities.org.