WATAUGA — Monty Joynes, a much-published author who has resided in Watauga County for 40 years, is being featured in an edition of the best-selling nonfiction anthology series Chicken Soup for the Soul. With hundreds of editions published since 1993, the theme of the March 2023 release is “The Advice that Changed My Life.” Joynes’s story is titled “You Are a Writer.”
In 1962, at the University of Virginia and after suffering extensive surgery to rebuild his lower femur, which was followed by a severe case of mononucleosis, Joynes lost his academic scholarship and was distraught. It was then that two English professors individually recognized his talent as a creative writer with literary potential. In exposing Joynes to personal experiences with William Faulkner and Robert Frost, among other great writers, the advice of his two academic mentors altered the direction of his life.
He became a magazine editor and writer and went on to publish more than 20 books. His five novels in the “Booker Series” became hallmarks of a new genre of literature termed Visionary Fiction.
Joynes is recognized as the founding president of the Blowing Rock Stage Company in 1986 as well as the founding director of the Blowing Rock Kiwanis Club.
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Thanks to modern technologies, you and more people are reading the Watauga Democrat than ever before. Freedom of the press is essential to preserving democracy: But a free press isn't free. It takes significant resources for Mountain Times Publications' 8 full-time journalists and editors to provide credible, fact-based and ethical journalism in the High Country. So, we are asking you to join our advertisers and print subscribers in supporting local journalism with your dollar. Your financial support will help sustain these services that you use to inform your decisions and engage with your community.
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