Unlock your creative potential at the Bootheel Writers' first gathering with acclaimed authors John and Carol Fisher

Bootheel Writers' inaugural meeting is at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Dunklin County Library Main Branch at Kennett.

Library official and columnist Julie Orf said authors John and Carol Fisher are the scheduled guests.

The Fishers will navigate writers through exercises and conversations to inspire the creative product to print, Orf noted.

If you wish to attend, please call Julie Orf at 573-888-3561 to register for this event.

Writers should bring a notebook, pen or pencils, questions, ideas, and enthusiasm, Orf said.

Carol Fisher is a retired English teacher who signed her first publishing contract a year before retiring. After retiring, she moved forward as a full-time freelance writer.

The American Cookbook: A History, explores the cookbook genre from 1796 until modern times. The first American cookbook was "written" by a cook who could not read or write.

After farming for more than thirty years in Southeast Missouri, John C. Fisher began freelance writing in 1995 and for several years, wrote a column for Missouri Life magazine.

In 2003, the University of Missouri Press published Fisher's first book, Catfish, Fiddles, Mules, and More: Missouri's State Symbols.

Another book, Pot Roast, Politics, and Ants in the Pantry: Missouri's Cookbook Heritage, followed in 2008, also with the University of Missouri Press.

Fisher co-authored this book with his wife and writing partner, Carol Fisher.

In 2011, McFarland published a third book, Food in the American Military: A History, also co-authored with Carol.

This volume won first place in the Missouri Writer's Guild Walter Williams Major Work Award competition.

Fisher's fourth book is Southeast Missouri from Swampland to Farmland: The Transformation of the Lowlands, and it is considered a valuable history of the Bootheel region.

Plan to attend and learn writing skills from award-winning professionals.

The library is located at 209 Main St., Kennett.