Becoming a Local by Emma Skurnik

Once, there was a woman who fell in love with a tiny town on the banks of the Haw River. The town was called Bynum, and the place became her home.

She had never lived in a town where a neighbor would hand her a tomato as she walked past, where the shopkeeper knew every person by name, or where a gliter-covered elephant might appear in her front yard while she was away at work. A web of stories and jokes, history and nicknames was woven among the rickety litle houses on the hill.

She wanted to extend her love of this community to friends in farr-off places, so she started to write a letter each month, telling some of what went on there. This book is a collection of those letters.

Emma Skurnick is a full-time artist, illustrator, and teacher of illustration and design. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and published internationally. She received her undergraduate degree in Fine Art from Binghamton University in New York, and her graduate certification in Science Illustration from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She currently lives on the banks of the Haw River, in central North Carolina.