Local authors bare their hearts.

by H. Byron Ballard

Western North Carolina is blessed with strong women writers who have no trouble revealing their deepest feelings. Love comes in many forms, and whether you’re looking for riveting tales with dollops of affection or love stories that require a box of tissues, here are some choices to consider.

Irons in the Fire: Stories from the Flatiron Writers, By Genève Bacon, Tony Heaton and Heather Newton

These writers have been meeting in and around the Flatiron Building in Asheville since 1993, and they’re pulling in new collaborators all the time. This book is a beautifully written collection of stories with a section for each contributor. In Genève Bacon’s story collection, “What I Did for Love,” she tells of wild, young love, one that leads to heartache as well as maturity.

Chains, By Cheri L. Jones

There’s compelling juxtaposition in this book of poems. The words are printed on pink pages but wracked with pain and longing, while the facing pages hold old photos. These shreds of family memory could come from any family album, and they evoke the secrets all families bear (and often conceal). Jones writes of hard love, dark love and love that rains down like a blessing. She is a poet to watch.

A Slender Volume of Poems, Essays and Stories, By Sara Margaret Mitchell Rhodes

The author, better known to her friends and students as Peg, has been many things—violinist, music teacher, mother, artist, widow. A Slender Volume contains short stories, plays, poems and philosophy too practical for philosophers. The soul of a remarkable woman is revealed in this one book, a gift of love from a life well lived.