Quillen, Rita Sims 1954–

PERSONAL: Born September 8, 1954, in Kingsport, TN; daughter of Malcolm J., Jr. and Gloria Joan Sims; married Gary Mac Quillen, August 31, 1973; children: Kelsey Lee, Zachary Teague. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Mountain Empire Community College, A.S., 1978; East Tennessee State University, B.S., 1980, M.A., 1985. Politics: Independent. Religion: Methodist. Hobbies and other interests: Music.

ADDRESSES: Home—Gate City, VA; Weber City, VA.

CAREER: Northeast State Technical Community College, Blountville, TN, associate professor and director of Honors Program, 1987–99; Mountain Empire Community College, Big Stone Gap, VA, instructor, 1999–. Also teacher at East Tennessee State University; workshop presenter.

AWARDS, HONORS: First place awards from Mockingbird Poetry Contest and Virginia Highlands Festival creative writing contest.

WRITINGS:

October Dusk (poetry), Seven Buffaloes Press (Big Timber, MT), 1987.

Looking for Native Ground (essays), Appalachian Consortium (Boone, NC), 1989.

(Associate editor) A Southern Appalachian Reader, Appalachian Consortium (Boone, NC), 1989.

Counting the Sums (poetry), Sow's Ear Press (Abingdon, VA), 1995.

Her Secret Dream: New and Selected Poems, Wind Press, 2006.

Work represented in anthologies, including A Gathering at the Forks, edited by Gurney Norman, George Ella Lyon, and Jim Wayne Miller, Hindman Settlement School, 1994; Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers, edited by Joyce Dyer, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1998; Girls like Us: Forty Extraordinary Women Celebrate Girlhood, edited by Gina Misoroglu, New World Library, 1999; and Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia, edited by Sandra L. Ballard and Patricia L. Hudson, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 2003. Contributor to literary journals and little magazines, including Georgia Journal, Laurel Review, Now and Then, Old Hickory Review, Appalachian Journal, Appalachian Heritage, and Cumberland.

SIDELIGHTS: Rita Sims Quillen once told CA: "There seems to be an increased interest in writing from my region, a sort of 'Appalachian Renaissance,' and I'm proud to be a part of that. I think America sees Appalachia as its memory, in a way, of the frontier, of the country's youthful innocence and exuberance."