Meet local historian, author Oct. 3

Local history and mystery meet in the award-winning Dividing Ridge book series.

Chapters will host local author Stacy Hawks during a book-signing event 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3.

Hawks, of neighboring Alleghany County, N.C., is known for works that are deeply rooted in Appalachian history and culture.

While studying at Brevard College, she explored the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway and its lasting influence on local communities, an early foundation for the historical lens that now shapers her writing.

Her creative passions include photography, poetry, and reading presidential biographies, each contributing to the reflective, place‑centered style found throughout her work.

In addition to her debut novel, Dividing Ridge, Stacy has published three poetry collections—most recently Center Stage—as well as two additional novels in The Ridge Series, Devils Ridge and Patriots Ridge. Both n

ovels continue her focus on the stories and histories of local mountain communities.

Her commitment to preserving regional memory led to her selection as an Author in Residence for Appalachian Memory Keepers in 2019. She later became the first author in her county to be featured on the North Carolina Literary Map. She received the History Book Award for Excellence from the North Carolina Society of Historians in 2021 for Dividing Ridge: The Unsolved Murder of Elva Brannock.

Hawks completed The Ridge Series in 2023, bringing to a close a multi‑year project honoring the stories of her mountain community. Through her fiction and poetry, she strives to illuminate the people, places, and events that define rural Appalachia—a landscape she is proud to call home.

For more information about Hawks and her writing, find Dividing Ridge Books on Facebook or Instagram.