Virginia Love Long (1941–2006), also known as Virginia L. Rudder, was a North Carolina poet and journalist from Hurdle Mills. She studied at Catawba College and worked for the Roxboro Courier-Times, earning awards for both journalism and poetry. Her books include After the Ifaluk and Other Poems and The Gallows Lord. Long published frequently in The Sun, where her poems and autobiographical writing reflected rural life, family, women’s experience, nature, and an enduring sense of wonder.