Public Radio East Regular Commentator Marion Blackburn

Marion Blackburn is a writer who grew up on a farm in Edgecombe County and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill. She studied and worked in France and in Prague, Czech Republic, where she worked as a freelance writer and English teacher. These days she lives in Greenville with three dogs, three cats, bluebirds, possums and other critters who expect her to feed them. She writes about medicine, archaeology and the arts and has a novel in progress The Curing Season. Her favorite writers are Dostoevsky, Jack Kerouac and Flannery O'Connor, and she probably reads more gossip magazines than she ought to. Visit her website Fiction Daily here.

Joan Carris

Joan Carris is a writing instructor and children’s novelist living in Beaufort. She is a graduate of Iowa State University with a double major in English and speech and also holds a masters in children’s literature from Hollins University. She has written a humor column and reviewed books and plays for NJ newspapers, written 70+ magazine and major news articles, been president of The National League of American Pen Women (Princeton chapter) and president of The Children's Book Guild of Washington, D.C., organized writing symposia for The Smithsonian Institute, appeared on dozens of radio and TV shows, and published 15 children's books. Her most recent children’s book is Magic at the Bed and Biscuit published by Candlewick Press. She also has written four high school textbooks published by Peterson’s Publishing of Princeton, NJ including, with Michael Crystal, the SAT prep manual “Panic Plan for the SAT.” Find out more about Joan by visiting her website by clicking here.