Charlotte Writers Club Readers

     Barbara Conrad's poems have appeared in Tar River Poetry, Iodine, Aurorian, Main street Rag and other journals. She received the Marjorie Blankenship Melton and league for Innovation Awards for her poetry, as well as Honorable Mention from Icarus, 2004. In 2005, her work was chosen for publication in Kakalak, an anthology of North and South Carolina writers. Her chapbook, The Gravity of Color, was published in January, 2006, by Main Street Rag Publishing Company.
    Conrad edited an anthology of writings and art from Charlotte's Urban Ministry Center, Waiting for Soup, where for three years she led a creative writing workshop for homeless "neighbors", demonstrating her belief in the healing power of telling one's stories. She lives in Charlotte, NC, where she continues to work with the homeless, plays Djembe with Charlotte Community Drummers and enjoys visiting her grown daughters in Atlanta and Seattle.

    Formerly a magazine an newspaper editor, Ann Campanella turned to creative writing in order to nourish her soul.  Her full-length poetry collection, What Flies Away, was published by Main street Rag Publishing Co. in 2006.  The book tells the story in poetry of her mother's descent into Alzheimer's, her father's death and, after 17 years of being childless, the miraculous birth of her daughter. Campanella has twice received the Poet Laureate Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. Her writing, nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Main Street Rag, has appeared in various journals.  She lives on a small horse farm with her husband and daughter.

    Clarence A. Eden, Jr. was born in Gastonia, NC. He graduated from Wake Forest College (now Univeristy). After a stint in the U.S. Army he received a seminary degree and served as a Baptist minister for almost twenty years. He then became a field underwriter with the New York Life Insurance Company during which he received CLU and ChFC degrees from the American College in Bryn Mawr, PA. He and his wife ahve lived in Charlotte, NC since 1980. they have two daughters and four grandchildren.  He retired in 1995 and soon became a poet and writer. 
    He has prose published in several venues, including the Novello Festival Press anthology, 'TIS THE SEASON. His poetry has appeared in a number of journals, including Pinesong, Kakalak, Iodine, Beginnings, Apostrophe, Thrift, In the Yard, Mountain Time, Home for the Holidays, and Spinning Words Into Gold (by Maureen Ryan Griffin, Main Street Rag Publishing Co). His hymn lyrics, A SERVANT CHURCH, for St. John's Baptist Church's 75th anniversary was published by the church. His poetry
collection, SEASONINGS, was released in September 2006 by Main Street Publishing Co.