BOONE— Cold Mountain Review, the literary journal housed in the Department of English at Appalachian State University, has released its spring 2008 issue.

The issue contains the work of artists with links to and an interest in the region and its culture, including Joseph Bathanti, Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Robert Morgan, Tim Peeler and Mark Vogel.

Bathanti, a professor of English at Appalachian, is the author of the award-winning novels “East Liberty” and “Coventry” and the short story collection “High Hearts.”

His piece “The Cameraphone” is included in the current issue of Cold Mountain Review. The piece is based on Bathanti’s recollections from his youth of walking with his mother past an adult theatre in East Liberty, Penn. “Its very name to me was sin,” he writes.

Morgan, perhaps best known for his works of fiction, such as “Gap Creek” and “The Truest Pleasure,” contributed three poems to the review. In “Pockets” he ponders what men did before pockets were added to pants. “Hands need a place of privacy and safety,” he writes. In “Singing to Make the Butter Come,” he writes of the challenges of hand-churning butter from a crock of sour milk.

Peeler, who teaches at Catawba Valley Community College, writes of little league coaches. Vogel, a professor in Appalachian’s Department of English, has more than a dozen works of poetry included in the review, with titles ranging from “Midwest beauty” and “Red rooster gone” to “The words of kids.”

Kirkpatrick, who also teaches in Appalachian’s Department of English, incorporates vignettes from every-day life into her poertry.

The spring edition was edited by Leon Lewis, a professor in Appalachian’s Department of English. He is the author of “Henry Miller: The Major Writings” and articles on contemporary American and British writers, including the essay “Frost Among the Infinities” published in the spring/summer issue of Shenandoah.

He was assisted by managing editor Betty Miller Conway and associate editor Mark Williams.

Since its first issue more than 35 years ago, CMR has published some of the most accomplished writers in the nation, including Sydney Lea, Lyn Lifshin, Houston Baker, Fred Chappell, R. T. Smith and Susan Ludvigson.

Cold Mountain Review is a non-profit literary journal supported by donations, grants and subscriptions.

For more information, visit www.coldmountain.appstate.edu or e-mail conwaybm@appstate.edu.

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