Spring Retreat Instructors
Bonnie Proudfoot
Bonnie Proudfoot was born in NY City, but in 1979 moved to Wetzel County, WV. She received a BA from Fairmont State U, and MA from WVU and a second MA from Hollins University. Her fiction, poetry, reviews, and essays can be found in journals and anthologies. She has been nominated twice for Pushcart Prize as well as Best of the Net. Her novel, Goshen Road (OU/ Swallow Press) received WCONA’s Book of the Year Award and was Longlisted for the 2021 PEN/ Hemingway. Her 2022 poetry chapbook, Household Gods, can be found on Sheila-Na-Gig editions. A book of poems, Incomer, is forthcoming in 2025 on Shadelandhouse Modern Press. Bonnie resides in Athens, Ohio.
Sam Emerson Bodary
Sam Emerson Bodary is the singer-songwriter behind Hello Emerson — an ornamental americana band out of Columbus, Ohio. Their debut record in 2017 was heralded as “the sublime intersection of the best American indie-folk bands” by Glitterhouse, and their second was recognized by Columbus Alive as the best local release of 2020. Bob Boilen, creator of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, praised their third release in 2024 as “very beautiful.” They tour intermittently in Germany when Sam is not running youth programming at his local library in Columbus, Ohio. He is currently working on the fourth Hello Emerson album, inspired by his “Brief Interviews on Heartbreak” project via their Instagram account.
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Barbara Marie Minney
Barbara Marie Minney is a transgender woman, award winning poet, writer, speaker, teaching artist, guest reader/editor, and quiet activist. Her poetry and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Politico, The Buckeye Flame, The Gasconade Review, Gargoyle Magazine, The Pine Cone Review, Women Speak: Women of Appalachia Project, Woman Scream: The International Poetry Anthology of Female Voices, The New Wasteland, new words (issue one and issue two): a trans and gender-expansive journal, and I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing, Ohio’s Appalachian Voices. Barbara’s poetry has also been translated into Spanish. She is the author of If There’s No Heaven, the winner of the 2020 Poetry Is Life Book Award and an Akron Beacon Journal Best Northeast Ohio Book in 2020; the Poetic Memoir Chapbook Challenge; Dance Naked With God; and A Woman in Progress. Barbara is a retired attorney and a seventh generation Appalachian and lives in Tallmadge, Ohio, with her wife of over 43 years and a menagerie of stuffed animals.
Lawrence R Greene
Lawrence R Greene is the founder of Ugata: drum and dance. It was started as a way to connect Southern Ohio with Pan African culture. Ugata is the study of a set of rhythms from the African diaspora. Lawrence provides programs, classes and performances mostly in southern Ohio and West Virginia. He was a co-founder of Rising Appalachian Warriors, youth education camp. He was also lead naturalist at Highlands Nature Sanctuary and The Wilds. https://www.facebook.com/ugatas
Molly Jo Stanley
Molly Jo Stanley (they/she/we) is deeply enchanted by our miraculous existence. For over half of their lifetime, they have been immersed in the studies of regenerative stewardship practices - exploring how becoming more attuned to the world, communities, and bodies we inhabit can enrich our lives in limitless ways. In decades of wandering, they have collected their share of diplomas, certificates and degrees in Natural and Historical Interpretation, Yoga teacher training, Permaculture Design, Herbalism, Wilderness guiding, and a Masters of Education in Mindfulness and Sustainability. They’ve explored a gamut of livelihoods - learning, living, and teaching in a myriad of biomes as a wilderness trip leader, herbalist and yoga practitioner, farmer, sustainability director, traveling musician, ecstatic dance organizer, and environmental advocate. Ultimately, their work is rooted in stories – in listening to and sharing them. It is through the stories we learn, believe, and tell that we shape our world. Jo grows increasingly curious as to how we can shift our narrative from that of separation to one of connection and belonging. In rekindling inseverable connections to ourselves, each other, and all beings, Jo seeks a path toward an equitable, resilient, and vibrant future.
Megan Bee
Singer-songwriter Megan Bee writes with an unquenchable wanderlust and a deep love for the land. Her album Cottonwood has been called "as real as it gets" and was listed in the best of 2022 by Americana UK and No Depression Magazine. Her music is a blend of distinctly homespun vocals, acoustic simplicity, yearning soulfulness, and winsome storytelling. Her background as an environmental educator, farmhand, and vagabond once took her into a desert wilderness where she found her voice around a campfire. She bases in the rolling hills of Athens, Ohio and draws influence from the collision of Appalachian folk and modern songwriting. She has released five albums of original work and tours relentlessly. Words in the Hills is her passion project that brings together her love of writing, nature, and coming together to learn.