Barbara Presnell
A Lifetime of Words
"I love writers whose words skate in swirls or whoop into a room."
These lines, by my friend and fellow writer, Juanita Teshner, perfectly describe my lifelong relationship with words. Some writers get stuck in a single genre--fiction, poetry, journalism--and some find a form within that genre--the sestina, flash fiction, haiku, or free verse--and become so comfortable, they never leave it.
I learned early that words tell stories in all kinds of shapes. Like a woodcarver finding the face in a chunk of a tree, the words themselves must find their form, whether a poem, a play, or a memoir. Maybe as some say, we are all just telling the same story over and over, skating and whooping into each room to see where it fits best.
Books
Otherwise, I'm Fine: A Memoir. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2025.
Blue Star (poems). Winston-Salem: Press 53, 2016.
Piece Work (poems). Cleveland: Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2007. Winner of the
Cleveland State University First Book Prize, 2006; Selected as All-Freshman Read for students at Guilford Technical Community College, 2010-11; Selected as All-Freshman Read for students in the Honors Program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2009.
Sherry’s Prayer (poems). NC Humanities Council, 2004. Winner, the Linda Flowers Prize, 2003.
Los Hijos (poems). Fayetteville: Longleaf Press, 2002.
Unravelings (poems). Fayetteville: Longleaf Press, 1998. Winner, the Longleaf Press Poetry
Chapbook Competition, 1998; Winner, the Oscar Arnold Young Prize, 1998.
Snake Dreams (poems). Troy, ME: Nightshade Press, 1994. Winner, the Zoe Kincaid
Brockman Prize, 1995.
Collections
You Are the River (NC Museum of Art, 2021). Ed. Helena Feder.
Crossing the Rift: NC Poets on 9/11 and Its Aftermath (Press 53, 2020). Ed. Joseph Bathanti and David Potorti.
“Pauline Learns To Sew,” Our State Magazine, April 2014. “10 Poems Every North Carolinian Should Read.”
Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Women's Studies (Oxford University, 2014).
Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont (UNC Press, 2011). Ed Georgann Eubanks.
Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia (University of Kentucky Press, 2006).
Earth and Soul: An Anthology of North Carolina Poetry (Kostroma Project, 2003).
Word and Witness: 100 Years of North Carolina Poetry (Carolina Academic Press, 2001).
Claiming the Spirit Within: A Sourcebook of Women’s Poetry (Beacon Press, 1997).
Plays
Company K: From Asheboro to the Fields of France (full-length play). Commissioned by the Randolph Library and the City of Asheboro, produced by Rhinoleap Productions and performed at the Sunset Theatre, Asheboro, NC, on Sept. 29, 2018, Aug. 23-25, 2019, and Feb. 2-4, 2023. Filmed for PBS NC, 2023.
Piece Work (play). Adapted for stage by Brenda Schleunes and performed by the Touring Company of North Carolina at 12 NC community colleges, 2010-11.
Brenda Schleunes directs the cast of Piece Work, the play.
Nelson Kepley/News & Record
James Alton stars in Company K: From Asheboro to the Fields of France.