Writers

Mary Alice Basconi

Contributing Writer

Mary Alice Basconi grew up in Houston, wrote for newspapers in Dallas and Fort Lauderdale, then made Northeast Tennessee her adoptive home in 1983. Her work has appeared in many national and regional magazines and newspapers, but the job she likes best is that of a college writing coach. As a journalism teacher she helps students produce East Tennessee State University’s bilingual publication, El Nuevo, which reports on the region’s Hispanic community. She enjoys time with her husband, their three children and their organic garden near Elizabethton

Robert Bravender

Contributing Writer

Born and raised in the Midwest, Robert first joined the South by moving down to Memphis, Tenn. in 1981 to attend the University of Memphis. By 1986 he graduated with a B.A. from the College of Communications and Fine Arts, completing a double major in film/video production and history. In 1989, however, he ’stumbled’ into the print media when he became editor of a small magazine published by the National Muscle Car Association, a sanctioning body which put on drag racing events. At that time he also started contributing to various automotive titles. Today he writes and produces a variety of TV shows involving America’s love affair with the car. Happily married to his ‘Memphis Belle’ Nancy, they are now proudly raising four children in Appalachia.

Allen Gregory

Contributing Writer

Allen lives, writes and dreams from the Southwest Virginia community of Meadowview. His writing career has centered around daily journalism, including a one-year stint at Washington County News in Abingdon and the past 14 years at the Bristol Herald Courier. Allen’s relentless pursuit of interesting people and places has taken him from the Daytona 500 and various University of Tennessee athletic events to various stages and schools across the Mountain Empire.  Allen is a proud graduate of Virginia Intermont College, where he developed a passion for the arts. Allen is single and fits the profile of a Pisces dreamer. In addition to theatre, he enjoys Americana music, movies, the ocean and the wonderful world of books.

Nicole Sikora Heschong

Contributing Writer

Nicole M. Sikora is a former editor and special projects manager for Marquee Publications, Inc. She has also served as a freelance writer for Marquee magazine since 1999, when her work appeared in the very first issue. Nicole was born in Texas, but spent nearly 20 years calling Tri-Cities Tenn/Va home. She now lives in Charlotte, N.C., and writes travel, personality and business articles for Marquee, Today’s Charlotte Woman and Business North Carolina magazines. She is married to fellow “nearly native” Tri-Citian Christopher J. Heschong. By day, the couple work for the technology departments of two competing financial service companies.

Leigh Anne Hoover

Contributing Writer

Leigh Anne W. Hoover is a native of South Carolina and a graduate of Clemson University. With a B.A. degree in secondary education/English and a minor in general communications, Hoover has worked for over 20 years in the media. She has extensive writing and public relations experience in the region and has published articles encompassing personality and home profiles, arts and entertainment reviews, and weekend escape pieces. Notable features include one-on-one interviews with actress Andie MacDowell, artists Bob Timberlake and P. Buckley Moss, author Jan Karon, singer/songwriter Kenny Loggins, and Clemson University President James F. Barker. Hoover currently serves as president of the Literacy Council of Kingsport and co-chair of the Clemson University Parents’ Development Board. She and her husband, Brad, reside in Kingsport with their two children.

Tom Kerr

Contributing Writer

Tom Kerr grew up down south, where folks prefer compound prepositions and writers seldom let cold facts interfere with warm story telling. Voted Best Columnist in Western North Carolina 2003 by the Asheville Citizen-Times Newspaper, his book credits include Letters Home (Press Onward, 1995); The Underground Asheville Guidebook (Whisper Press, 2000); and The Adventures of Don Quixote & Sancho for Children (Glenndoman Publishers, 2006).  A regular contributor to MARQUEE since 2004, Kerr lives on the banks of the French Broad River, a stone’s throw from Asheville, NC.

Linda Kramer

Contributing Writer

Linda Kramer lives in Valle Crucis, N.C. and has been a contributing writer for Marquee for two years. She lives in an historic Bed and Breakfast catering to writers. Linda writes about the High Country for most of the major North Carolina regional publications. Lifestyles, getaways, restaurants, real estate development, history and features on extravagant mountain home living are her areas of interest. Linda owns an advertising agency and over the years has won many awards for advertising copywriting.

Susan Lachmann

Contributing Writer

With B. Ed and M Ed. degrees under her belt, Lachmann’s day job is in education, involving program design and delivery in the public school systems. When school’s out, however, she splits her time making music and art, working in radio programming for WETS-FM (Women On Air), and teaching various subjects including but not limited to African hand drumming, guitar, Italian cooking, and Creative Development in Young Children (at East Tennessee State University).

Donna Levine-Small

Contributing Writer

Donna Levine-Small is a freelance writer living in Greeneville, Tennessee. Her first published work was a children’s book for the American Cancer Society. She has traveled throughout New England working as a singer-songwriter, and has lived in Los Angeles to write and record with a rock band. After L.A., she switched to greeting card writing for Blue Mountain Arts, then became fascinated with medical writing and edited several books on natural health care and wrote newspaper columns about health. She’s also written features on law enforcement and Emergency Management personnel and has been published in national magazines, as well as contributing to Marquee.

John Quaintance

Contributing Writer

For the past 40+ years, John Quaintance has made a career in broadcasting. First, he made his mark in television news for organizations around the world; then he turned his attention to radio broadcasting for local East Tennessee shows. Currently, Quaintance is hosting a syndicated daily short-form program for Ducks Unlimited, the international wetlands and waterfowl conservation organization. His hobbies are mostly outdoor-oriented: hunting, fishing, hiking, shooting, and the like.

Fred Sauceman

Contributing Writer

A native of Greeneville, Tennessee, Fred Sauceman is Senior Writer, Executive Assistant to the President for Public Affairs, and Associate Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. He holds a B.A. in English and history and an M.A. in English from ETSU.

Fred is the author of a weekly food column, “The Place Setting,” for the Kingsport Times-News; food essayist for “Inside Appalachia,” a weekly radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting; and a contributing writer for Marquee.

His work has also been included regularly in Cornbread Nation: The Best of Southern Food Writing, a series of books published by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, the University of North Carolina Press, and the University of Georgia Press. Fred has been selected as editor of Cornbread Nation 5: The Best of Southern Food Writing, to be published by the University of Georgia Press. He is creator of the book Home and Away: A University Brings Food to the Table, published by ETSU in 2000.

His book, The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South, from Bright Hope to Frog Level, was published in March 2006 by Mercer University Press in Macon, Georgia, and a second volume followed in March 2007.

George Stone

Contributing Writer

George Stone is a native of Bristol, Tennessee having attended both King College and East Tennessee State University. Stone has been a journalist since 1976 first as a sports writer with the Johnson City Press-Chronicle and then the Bristol Herald Courier for 22 years, serving as sports editor from 1995-99. Stone is currently a freelance writer living in Bristol with wife Marcia and their son Michael and daughter Katye.

Emily Meade Strong

Freelance Writer and Blogger

These mountains have been like a boomerang for this native Tri-Citian writer.  Upon graduating from Central, Emily left to go to the other side of these hills to attend Appalachian State.  Then she crossed the ocean to study the Laplanders in Finland. After living in Denver, Colorado and teaching Montessori in Raleigh, North Carolina, she returned home for southern comfort during her divorce.  Now remarried with two children, she’s back again after a two year stint in Cincinnati. Emily writes for Southern Ledger, Marquee and has won several awards for her poetry from Lost State Writer’s Conference and NC Writer’s Workshop.  Presently, she’s burning the midnight oil working on the next great Oprah Book Club novel.  In short, Mrs. Strong unequally divides her time between taking care of her kids and writing about her Appalachian roots.  And, she’s glad to be back.  This time to stay.

Joe Tennis

Contributing Writer

A Virginia Beach native, Joe Tennis first came to the Tri-Cities in 1969, as an infant, to visit his grandparents in Greeneville, Tenn. Later attending Radford University, he spent a summer as an intern reporter on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for The Virginian-Pilot then became a full-time journalist in the Tri-Cities. He has written for both the Kingsport Times-News and Bristol Herald Courier. A frequent speaker on Virginia history and legends, he is the author of “Southwest Virginia Crossroads” and “Beach to Bluegrass,” both published by The Overmountain Press of Johnson City. He is also the author of “The Marble and Other Ghost Tales of Tennessee and Virginia,” published by the Johnson City-based Backyard Books. He is married to a Bristol native, and they have two children.

Ann N. Yungmeyer

Contributing Writer

Ann N. Yungmeyer is a freelance writer and frequent contributor in several regional magazines and news publications. She has published feature articles and profiles on business, health, travel and lifestyle topics. Ann has worked as a copywriter, case writer and research analyst. She graduated from Queens College with a bachelor’s degree in French and from West Virginia University with a master’s degree in business administration. Originally from Chattanooga, she has lived in Kingsport for ten years with her husband, Hal, and three daughters.