Joseph Bathanti

Joseph Bathanti is the former North Carolina Poet Laureate (2012-14) and recipient of the North Carolina Award in Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor.

The author of over twenty books, Bathanti is McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor of Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, and is the recipient of the Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award. 

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. His coedited volume, The Anthology of Black Mountain College Poetry, from University of North Carolina Press, is forthcoming in November of 2024. He will be inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in October of 2024.

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