Barbara Presnell
A Lifetime of Words
"I love writers whose words skate in swirls
or whoop into a room."
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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.
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​Books
Otherwise, I'm Fine: A Memoir. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2025.
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Blue Star (poems). Winston-Salem: Press 53, 2016.
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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.
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Sherry’s Prayer (poems). NC Humanities Council, 2004. Winner, the Linda Flowers Prize, 2003.
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Los Hijos (poems). Fayetteville: Longleaf Press, 2002.
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Unravelings (poems). Fayetteville: Longleaf Press, 1998. Winner, the Longleaf Press Poetry
Chapbook Competition, 1998; Winner, the Oscar Arnold Young Prize, 1998.
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Snake Dreams (poems). Troy, ME: Nightshade Press, 1994. Winner, the Zoe Kincaid
Brockman Prize, 1995.​
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Collections
You Are the River (NC Museum of Art, 2021). Ed. Helena Feder.
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Crossing the Rift: NC Poets on 9/11 and Its Aftermath (Press 53, 2020). Ed. Joseph Bathanti and David Potorti.
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“Pauline Learns To Sew,” Our State Magazine, April 2014. “10 Poems Every North Carolinian Should Read.”
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Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Women's Studies (Oxford University, 2014).
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Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont (UNC Press, 2011). Ed Georgann Eubanks.
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Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia (University of Kentucky Press, 2006).
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Earth and Soul: An Anthology of North Carolina Poetry (Kostroma Project, 2003).
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Word and Witness: 100 Years of North Carolina Poetry (Carolina Academic Press, 2001).
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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.
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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.