An Interview with Hazel Hale Bostic, as told to Gina McKnight.
Welcome AAG Author Hazel!
Hazel is an accomplished author, as well as a writer for select magazines, including Modern Mountain Magazine. Her premier book Harvesting Memories was published in 2011, selling 1,100 copies.
GM: What is the premise for Harvesting Memories ?
HB: Harvesting Memories is an essay collection whose characters are my family, based upon my life experiences.
GM: As an Appalachian writer, what do you find inspiring about living in Appalachia?
HB: I find everything inspiring about living in Appalachia, especially her people. True Appalachians are steeped in character.
GM: What is your advice to novice writers?
HB: My advice to a novice writer is be yourself. Your voice is unique. Use it, and don’t pattern yourself after someone else.
GM: Who is your favorite poet/author/writer? Why?
HB: I have several favorite writers, and they’re all Appalachian. Lee Smith heads the list. Sharyn McCrumb, Chris Offutt, Robert Morgan, James Still, and Rita Sims Quillen – to name a few.
GM: What are you currently writing?
HB: I’m currently preparing material for a possible fiction collection.
Biography
Hazel Hale Bostic
I graduated Honaker High School class of 1964, and stayed home because I wanted to. I quote my late dad as he sat on his Swords Creek front porch and appreciated the mountain view all around him. “Why in the world do folks want to run all over creation and back when we have everything we need right here?”
I’m proud of my heritage. Following a career as bookkeeper/office manager, I began writing in order to help keep my heritage alive. True Appalachians are steeped in family values, individual pride, and what I feel is the most valuable of values – identity.
May we never lose our identity.
As a testimony to the above statement, I accepted Dr. Thomas McKnight’s invitation to head Southwest Virginia Community Colleges’ Reminiscent Writers when he retired several years ago.
I’m from a long line of both storytellers and readers. As a kid I couldn’t wait for the annual Hale Family Reunion held at the Frazier Hale home place in the Gardner section of Russell County. The only things better than tables filled with delicious food were the stories told and re-told. Dad was one of the top-dog storytellers. My mother, an avid reader, exchanged books the way her Hale in-laws swapped yarns.
I write fiction and nonfiction, and sprinkle humor into both. I’ve won several awards for excellence in writing, and it’s usually the nonfiction category. Perhaps it’s because readers can often hardly believe the bigger-than-life characters and the situations they are in are NOT fiction.
I’ve published one very successful book, Harvesting Memories, and continue submitting and publishing with regional and national markets. I’ve twice placed first in our Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium – adult essay category, received numerous People’s Choice Awards sponsored by The Storyteller, and placed in each of the Chautauqua Creating Writing Contests I’ve entered. There are others too numerous to mention.
I was a presenter at the 2014 Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium, and so enjoyed my Dialogue Workshop.
I’ve spent my entire life in these up-close-and-personal mountains. I didn’t follow the great exodus from the hills of home. I loved home then. I love home now.
Welcome AAG Author Hazel!
Hazel is an accomplished author, as well as a writer for select magazines, including Modern Mountain Magazine. Her premier book Harvesting Memories was published in 2011, selling 1,100 copies.
GM: What is the premise for Harvesting Memories ?
HB: Harvesting Memories is an essay collection whose characters are my family, based upon my life experiences.
GM: As an Appalachian writer, what do you find inspiring about living in Appalachia?
HB: I find everything inspiring about living in Appalachia, especially her people. True Appalachians are steeped in character.
GM: What is your advice to novice writers?
HB: My advice to a novice writer is be yourself. Your voice is unique. Use it, and don’t pattern yourself after someone else.
GM: Who is your favorite poet/author/writer? Why?
HB: I have several favorite writers, and they’re all Appalachian. Lee Smith heads the list. Sharyn McCrumb, Chris Offutt, Robert Morgan, James Still, and Rita Sims Quillen – to name a few.
GM: What are you currently writing?
HB: I’m currently preparing material for a possible fiction collection.
Biography
Hazel Hale Bostic
I graduated Honaker High School class of 1964, and stayed home because I wanted to. I quote my late dad as he sat on his Swords Creek front porch and appreciated the mountain view all around him. “Why in the world do folks want to run all over creation and back when we have everything we need right here?”
I’m proud of my heritage. Following a career as bookkeeper/office manager, I began writing in order to help keep my heritage alive. True Appalachians are steeped in family values, individual pride, and what I feel is the most valuable of values – identity.
May we never lose our identity.
As a testimony to the above statement, I accepted Dr. Thomas McKnight’s invitation to head Southwest Virginia Community Colleges’ Reminiscent Writers when he retired several years ago.
I’m from a long line of both storytellers and readers. As a kid I couldn’t wait for the annual Hale Family Reunion held at the Frazier Hale home place in the Gardner section of Russell County. The only things better than tables filled with delicious food were the stories told and re-told. Dad was one of the top-dog storytellers. My mother, an avid reader, exchanged books the way her Hale in-laws swapped yarns.
I write fiction and nonfiction, and sprinkle humor into both. I’ve won several awards for excellence in writing, and it’s usually the nonfiction category. Perhaps it’s because readers can often hardly believe the bigger-than-life characters and the situations they are in are NOT fiction.
I’ve published one very successful book, Harvesting Memories, and continue submitting and publishing with regional and national markets. I’ve twice placed first in our Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium – adult essay category, received numerous People’s Choice Awards sponsored by The Storyteller, and placed in each of the Chautauqua Creating Writing Contests I’ve entered. There are others too numerous to mention.
I was a presenter at the 2014 Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium, and so enjoyed my Dialogue Workshop.
I’ve spent my entire life in these up-close-and-personal mountains. I didn’t follow the great exodus from the hills of home. I loved home then. I love home now.
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