Joseph Bathanti

Former Poet Laureate of North Carolina (2012-14), recipient of the 2016 North Carolina Award in Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor, and a member of the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, Joseph Bathanti teaches creative writing in Appalachian State University's Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and is writer-in-residence for the university’s Watauga Residential College. He is also the university's McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor in Interdisciplinary Education.

Bathanti has authored 13 volumes of poetry, three novels, two short story collections, two books of nonfiction and two co-edited volumes. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bathanti describes Pittsburgh as “my beloved hometown, but North Carolina is my beloved home state.” He writes about both, his work often referencing his working-class background and paying homage to his parents, who inspired him to become a college graduate and eventually a college professor. He has given readings and lectures at colleges and universities across the country, as well as The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Having moved to North Carolina in 1976 as a member of the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) anti-poverty program, Bathanti began what would become a multi-decade endeavor teaching and working on literature projects with correctional facility inmates. He credits this work with teaching him the significance of telling one’s own personal story, and he has facilitated numerous workshops and writing projects for military veterans and their families managing the aftereffects of combat and trauma related to military service. During the spring semester of 2016, Bathanti served as the Charles George Veterans Affairs Medical Center Writer-in-Residence in Asheville, N.C. and is the co-founder of its creative writing program.

Bathanti is also the recipient of; the Sherwood Anderson Award; the Irene Blair Honeycutt Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts; the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, awarded to individuals who have a proven record of extraordinary service to the state of North Carolina; the Lee Smith Award, given annually to an individual who has worked to preserve and promote Appalachian culture; Appalachian State University’s Provost’s award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity; the Donald W. Sink Family Outstanding Scholar Award, awarded annually to honor a tenured faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences who has made outstanding scholarly contributions throughout his/her career; The Board of Governors Appalachian State University Excellence in Teaching Award; and many others.

Areas of expertise

• Literature and writing
• The value of story
• Writing workshops with veterans, prisoners and battered women
• Southern and ethnic writers, marginalized writers (African-American, LGBTQ, veteran)
• New voices in storytelling
• Grassroots writing
• Writing organizations
• Poetry societies
• North Carolina through the eyes of Poet Laureate traveling to small towns
• N.C. Writers Network, which was once the largest writers network in the U.S.