Rita Sims Quillen is the author of the full-length poetry collection The Mad Farmer’s Wife (Texas Review Press), a finalist for the 2017 Weatherford Award in Appalachian Literature. Her novel Hiding Ezra has a chapter included in Talking Appalachian (University of Kentucky Press), a scholarly study of Appalachian dialect. One of six semi-finalists for 2012 Poet Laureate of Virginia, Quillen received a Pushcart nomination in 2012 and 2015 and a Best of the Net nomination in 2012. Her previous poetry collections include Her Secret Dream, which received the Book of the Year award from the Appalachian Writers Association.
