OUR AUTHORS:

• Acclaimed poet and author Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., whose “Gay Poems for Red States” earned multiple awards and accolades after it was published in 2023 by the University of Kentucky Press. With permission from UK Press, MAS Communications now offers the book as an Audio Book, read by the author. Upon release in December 2025, the audio book reached No. 1 on Amazon’s Poetry Audio books and propelled the print edition into the Top 15 again. Willie is an LGBTQ+ youth advocate and KY Teacher of the Year. “Gay Poems for Red States” is a Stonewall honor, Whippoorwill, American Library Association, Read Appalachia, and Book Riot Award recipient shortlisted for the 2024 Judy Gaines-Young Book Award. His novel, Tore All to Pieces arrives March 2026 from the University of Kentucky Press. Willie’s writing has been published in Appalachian Journal, Southern Humanities Review, Young Ravens Review, Another Chicago, Harbor Review, Smoky Blue Literary, Miracle Monocle, Good River Review, Salvation South,  Gay & Lesbian Review, among others. He writes from Appalachia and believes everyone’s story matters.

• Award-winning and best-selling poet Clem Stambaugh, author of three MAS Com books: his debut in 2020, “In Black and White”; the follow-up in 2022, “The Ghosts of Gold”; and, in 2024, “Hisses Like Whispers.” All three have topped Amazon poetry charts. His books have twice been tapped by New York City-based Independent Press Awards as a Distinguished Favorite. Clem lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his spouse, Ben Kincer, and an ever-growing number of cats. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the College of Fine Arts. He has earned praise from fellow poets and authors. Katherine Hale Stringfield says, Clem’s poems “have reached a part deep in my mind and soul,” whereas Donna Ison says Clem “invites the reader to experience a gamut of emotions from the pulsing pain of longing to the bliss of a first kiss to the torture of remorse. Ultimately … a truly gorgeous collection of poetry.” Clem’s books are available on Amazon. A special and expanded edition of “The Ghosts of Gold” is available on the Barnes & Noble website.

• PEN/Hemingway nominee and South Carolina resident Robert Lamb is a celebrated author and educator. His most-recent novel, “The Ties That Bind (A Family Saga),” was published by MAS Com in 2023. Author Mark A. Bradley called Lamb’s latest as “The best of Poet Conroy and Sam Shepherd rolled into one.” Lamb grew up in Georgia and was graduated from the University of Georgia. Following a career in journalism, he taught writing at the University of South Carolina for 20 years. His first novel, “Striking Out,” was nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His second novel, “Atlanta Blues,” was a Southern Book Critics Circle Selection and was cited in a year-end roundup of new books as “one of the three best novels of the year by a Southern writer – and maybe the best.” His third novel, “A Majority of One,” is about a clash between religion and the U.S. Constitution over book-banning in public schools. His poetry and short-story collections, “Six of One, Half Dozen of Another (Stories & Poems + 1),” features works representing a lifetime of writing, with an afterword on the origins of the poems and stories, one of which, “R.I.P.,” was a winner in the 2009 South Carolina Fiction Project. His 2014 novella, “And Tell Tchaikovsky the News,” is a delightful rock ‘n’ roll tale.

• Tennessee newspaper columnist O. Ray Knapp‘s 2011 folklore tales debut, “Legends, Lies & Other Tales: Stories from Flag Pond & the Mountains of Northeast Tennessee.”

• Award-winning newspaper publisher and author Mark A. Stevens, who’s penned a series of best-selling history books, including MAS Communications’ own pictorial “The One & Only: A Pictorial History of the the Clinchfield No. 1,” now available in a special anniversary edition. He and Alf Peoples are also the authors of a written history book about the steam engine titled “The Clinchfield No. 1: Tennessee’s Legendary Steam Engine,” published by The History Press. A preview of his upcoming fiction, “Remembering Something I Forgot,” is available as a two-story book titled “A Thought or Two.”

• North Carolina historian Janie Edwards Franklin is the author of two books, “Willis Cove Through the Eyes of Miss Bonnie” and, from MAS Communications, its 2012 follow-up, “Precious Memories: The Other Side of the Mountain.”