Judith Stennett of Friars Hill has her poems published in the companion to Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry 1950-1999. This marks the first published works by the Monroe County native, other than in literary magazines. In describing the writers whose work was selected for this new volume, published in late October, Ace Boggess of Huntington notes that he selected up and comers, the young or not widely published poets who have recently begun to see their poems in print.

He added that he also picked writers who may have been overlooked in selection for previous publications and those who are new on the writing scene in WV.

Stennett, a native of Greenville, is the daughter of Rosalie Stennett of Greenville and the late Harold Stennett. She is a graduate of the former Union High School and she and her husband, Michael Rosolina, live in the Laurel Hill Road section of Friars Hill.

Earning a bachelor of arts degree from Concord University, she holds a Master of Arts from Marshall University and is working on a second Masters degree from North Central University in Arizona.

Comparing Wild Sweet Notes II to a garden, well known WV writer Colleen Anderson described the new book as “a whole new season of verse, varied and bountiful and nourishing.”

Meanwhile, David Citino, poet laureate of Ohio State University, describes the book as “ample proof that the state of WV is blessed with native birds-- rare, exotic, and commonly homespun--who sing their hearts out and touch our own. This collection is filled with the music and scents of home.” “We are very pleased to count Mrs. Stennett among the educational leaders of the Greenbrier Valley Campus of New River Community and Technical College,” notes Roger Griffith, director of the GVCNRCTC, who added that he and Dr. Ted Spring of Beckley, president of NRCTC, “have congratulated her on the publication of her poems.”

This spring, the English department with Stennett and eight other faculty members as well as the Kentucky Distance Learning program at the GVCNRCTC will be offering classes in Teaching of Composition, Children’s Literature, Major British Authors, Creative Writing Workshop, Literature of Appalachian Kentucky, Modern Traditions, Technical Writing, Composition II, Composition, and Developmental English.

For information on the classes and courses of study offered by GVCNRCTC, telephone 304-647-6560 or write or visit the campus offices at 101 Church Street, Lewisburg, WV, 24901.

Submitted by Mike Williams

December 6, 2005