Tracy SeffersTracy wasn't born in West Virginia, but as the saying goes, she got there as soon as she could. The path to her West By God Virginia homeplace wandered through Texas, Arkansas, Florida, (then) West Germany, California, and Virginia. During her half-alifetime of wandering, she earned a bachelor's and a master's degree, both in English, from Lyon College (formerly Arkansas College) in Batesville, Arkansas; and from The College of William and Mary in Virginia in Williamsburg. She currently serves as registrar for Shepherd University, a public liberal arts university in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, where she also coordinates a local chapter of the national non-profit, Team River Runner, serving veterans in recovery from combat by teaching them recreational, therapeutic, and adaptive kayaking. All of her homes have been near rivers or other flowing water: the Lampasas, the Spring, the Hillsborough and the Gulf of Mexico, the White, the Main, and now the Potomac and the Shenandoah. She now lives with her family on the banks of the Shenandoah River, under the shadow of the Blue Ridge. Though her study of poetry was deep and delicious, she did not begin writing her own poetry until she moved to her West Virginia riverside home, in 2003. She is grateful for the small, steady stream of positive responses to her work through the West Virginia Writers community and through various regional literary journals, both print and online, including Bluestone Review, Backbone Mountain Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Literary Journal, the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, and in online journals including Still: The Journal and Assisi: an Online Journal of Arts and Letters. Her 2013 participation in the Appalachian Writer's Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School in Kentucky was an important catalyst for many of the works in this volume. She is grateful beyond measure to her teachers, mentors, and encouragers across the miles and years: to Drs. Terrell Tebbetts and Charles Oliver* of Lyon College; to F. Ethan Fischer* and Dr. Sylvia Shurbutt of Shepherd University; to her companions and teachers at the AWW-Hindman program; and of course to her husband George, whose quiet encouragement for over 30 years has been both an open door to exploration, and a deep welcome back home. *deceased Read More Read Less