The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Bobbie Ann Mason Volume III is now for sale at the Shepherd University Bookstore and online at www.shepherdbook.com. The newest edition presents a selection of stories, essays, poetry and photographic art which provides the readers with a look at the heritage of the Appalachians.

As with the previous volumes, a common center is provided by the literary art and talent of the 2010 Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence at Shepherd and recipient of the Heritage Writer’s Award Kentucky writer Bobbie Ann Mason. Mason’s work brings to literary life the common folk and the everyday working classes-living, learning, and trying to cope and survive in the complex world they find before them.

The book also contains stories by two winners of the 2010 West Virginia Fiction Competition selected by Mason.

Storytellers, poets and essayists from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and other states in the region are also published in the book, supported by the West Virginia Center for the Book and the Shepherd University Foundation. The work of Pushcart nominee Justin Anderson, as well as award-winning poets Mark DeFoe, Llewellyn McKernan, Lena Cantrell McNicholas, Edwina Pendarvis, Sue Silver and others grace the pages of this volume, as do the photographic art of some of the best photographers in the region.

Readings from the anthology will be held Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Robert C. Byrd Legislative Center with a reception for the writers and photographic artists at 8 p.m. in the Scarborough Library Reading Room. These events will be part of the 2011 Appalachian Heritage Writers Project and Festival.

For information about the Appalachian Heritage Writers Project and the Appalachian Studies Program, visit www.shepherd.edu/ahwirweb.