Mike Hembree, a newspaper and magazine journalist in the Carolinas for 35 years, has written or co-written 10 books on a variety of subjects. He is the author of Hub City’s The Seasons of Harold Hatcher (2000) and was among the writers whose was work featured in Hub City Christmas and Textile Town (1997) and (2001).

He has worked in the news and sports departments of three newspapers in South Carolina and currently is an associate editor of Charlotte, N.C.-based NASCAR Scene, a weekly publication that covers NASCAR auto racing. He lives in Spartanburg, S.C.

Hembree’s books include three on NASCAR racing, four on textile mill history in upstate South Carolina and a short biography of Harold Hatcher, founder of a popular public garden and woodland preserve in Spartanburg. Hembree has won numerous national, regional and state writing and reporting awards, including a national first place in investigative reporting from the Associated Press Sports Editors Association.

He is a four-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association’s Writer of the Year award and also has won the Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism twice. Hembree and his wife, Polly, have three children -- Holly, Stacey and Chris -- and two grandchildren – Maggie and Gus.

Contact information: paperinker@aol.com; 531 Heritage Hills Drive, Spartanburg, SC 29307