Debuting in 2019, the Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia honors the authors, past and present who occupy a unique place in this part of the United States. The goals of the annual conference are to help writers continue to evolve, progress, and improve their work while highlighting the region, and its character.

Sunbury Press is a sponsor and supporter of this event, held this year at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania. Producer Tory Gates sat down with several participants in this conference, and in this first special episode, heard from three of the voices of the region.

PJ Piccirillo is a founding father of the WCONA Festival. A two-time winner of the Appalachian Writers Award for Short Fiction, he is the author of the novels Heartwood and The Indigo Scarf. He is also an editor of the Northern Appalachia Review, available through Sunbury Press' imprint, Catamount Press.

Ben Moyer is an outdoor writer and essayist, whose work appears in numerous publications. Smoke to See By is a new release on Catamount Press, a collection of 21 stories and essays, which won the WCONA Book of the Year Award.

Paul T. Ricci is a statistician, author, blogger and educator, with a degree in biostatistics and research methodology from the University of Pittsburgh. The founder of Allegheny Independent Media, Ricci is the author of Wuthering Depths in Johnstown: By the Numbers, a look at the changes of his hometown, and he speaks of Johnstown's history, and what its future may hold.