Author Bio • • •   Jack J. Prather is a multiple award-winning former journalist and public relations strategist, and the author of six books. In 2005, he moved to Hendersonville, N.C. from New Jersey after a two-year interlude at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.   Twelve Notables in Western North Carolina from Future Now Publishing (FNP), the company he founded in 1986, is potentially the launch of a new series of biographies about North Carolinians who have made their mark anywhere in the region, state or nation.   A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Jack’s books are dedicated to a new Young Writers’ Scholarship Fund that he founded in April 2012 at Warren Wilson College near Asheville.   Prather has written two mystery thriller novels, The Day of the Knights and Investigative Reporter, and Speaking Up in Poetry & Prose about social, political, religious and life issues of importance to all Americans that was featured for several years at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock where his poem Sandburg Homage was on display.   As a young journalist, he earned six NJ Press Association writing and editing awards, including Best Column in All Divisions. He later won prizes for magazine articles, op-ed pieces ghost-written for clients, and for poetry.   Jack founded The Prather Strategic Public Relations Group in 1978, and then wrote The PR Bluebook in 1986, The Power of PR video produced by WSUS Channel-8 TV in 1991, and All PR is Local in 2004. Diverse clients served as a PR strategist and crisis manager included two U.S. Congressmen, two state legislators, Warner Bros. Jungle Habitat, Space Farms Zoo and Museums, Playboy Resorts Inc., and conference centers, ski areas, healthcare entities, and legal, realty, accounting and financial firms.   Jack was the PR consultant to Ames Rubber Corporation, winner of the 1993 Malcolm Baldrige National Total Quality Award presented by President Bill Clinton and the late Secretary of Labor Ron Brown in Washington D.C. Prather’s several professional honors include The Communicator ‘Award of Distinction’ in 1996.    Recent magazine articles by Jack have been published in WNC and Legacy, as well as for several newspapers and journals.     He is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, Author’s Den, Book Tour, The Book Marketing Network, The Read WNC, The National Read.    

Magazine writing awards from Listen, Explorer, Prolific Writer and Jobber Topics; seven newspaper writing-editing awards from the New Jersey Press Association, including Best Column in All Divisions; various PR and marketing awards, including the Award of Distinction from The National Communicators; and several organizational honors, including Man of the Year from the Newton NJ Jaycees.