Synopses & Reviews
Fiction. "Hard, brilliant, and dark as coal, this brand new and necessary volume captures Appalachia today, a place where the old bedrock verities of family, community, belief, work, and the earth itself are all in painful "Upheaval"—to use the title of Chris Holbrook's story herein. From manic to elegiac to rough, raw, beautiful, and heartbreaking, these stories will strike the reader as both absolutely true and as unforgettable, like the high pure ring of an ax on a cold winter morning, vibrating across distance, hanging in the air long afterward"—Lee Smith.
Review
From New York Journal of Book Review
Degrees of Elevation provides a variety of characters portrayed in their deepest and most exposed moments. You aren't likely to forget their stories.
White and Seay have done us all a favor by gathering these remarkable stories together. White writes, "We do not believe any one view of Appalachia is a Truth entire. But somewhere in the patchwork, we have tried to present the hard beauty of the land and the history of a unique country and its people."
They have succeeded. Degrees of Elevation is a wonderful collection that deserves to be read, savored, and remembered.
Synopsis
The stories of Appalachia are the stories of America. This collection is an important step towards understanding Appalachia as it is, and as it has become. It is a step long overdue. . . .Innovation and reinvention are at the heart of Appalachian identity. Our goals for this book are to reveal the values and forces of our contemporary culture, to share the exciting change occurring in our writing, and so to celebrate this powerful force in American literature.
From the Preface by Charles Dodd White
Synopsis
16 stories of Appalachia today by some of our top writers. This collection brings us into the present with its struggles and beauty. Human character remains strong in these stories of life in Appalachia. Writers include: Rusty Barnes, Sheldon Lee Compton, Jarrid Deaton, Richard Hague, Silas House, Chris Holbrook, Denton Loving, Mindy Beth Miller, John McManus, Jim Nichols, Valerie Nieman, Chris Offutt, Mark Powell, Ron Rash, Alex Taylor, Crystal Wilkinson
Synopsis
Degrees of Elevation: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia
Synopsis
Group readings, press release, Appalachian conferences, etc.
About the Author
Charles Dodd White is the author of Lambs of Men: A Novel. Silas House is the Author of Crazy Quilt and other novels set in Appalachia. Chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College and on the fiction faculty at Spalding University's MFA in Creative
Writing Chris Holbrook is the author of Hell and Ohio, and Upheaval, short stories set in Appalachia. A graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, Holbrook is associate professor of English at Morehead State University Valerie Nieman has received an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry, two Elizabeth Simpson Smith prizes in fiction, and the Greg Grummer Prize in poetry. A graduate of West Virginia University and the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte, she teaches writing at N.C. A&T State University and is a regular workshop leader at the John C. Campbell Folk School and the North Carolina Writers Network. She is poetry editor for the online/print literary journal, Prime Number. Chris Offut's work has beenrecognized by fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. His works has also received a Whiting Writer award, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for "fiction that takes risks." He's also written comic books, essays, stage plays, and screenplays. His work appears in many anthologies, is widely translated, and taught in high schools and college. Richard Hague's books include 11 volumes of poetry, a multigenre poetry collection/teaching memoir called Lives of the Poem, and Milltown Natural: Essays and Stories from a Life in Ohio ( nominated for a National Book Award). His Alive in Hard Country (Bottom Dog Press, 2003) was named Poetry Book of the Year in 2004 by the Appalachian Writers Association Crystal Wilkinson is winner of the 2002 Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature, and Water Street, a finalist for both the UK's Orange Prize for Fiction and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She teaches at Moorehead University in Kentucky. RON RASH is the author of four novels, four books of short stories, and three books of poems. He has been awarded NEA fellowships in fiction and poetry. His short story collection, Chemistry, and the novel, Serena, were both Pen/Faulkner Award Finalists. His most recent book, Burning Bright, won the 2010 Frank O'Connor Short Fiction Award. He teaches at Western Carolina University. ALEX TAYLOR lives in Rosine, Kentucky. He has worked as a day laborer on tobacco farms, as a car detailer at a used automotive lot, as a sorghum peddler, at various fast food chains, as a tender of suburban lawns, and at a cigarette lighter factory. He holds an MFA from The
University of Mississippi and now teaches at Western Kentucky University. His work has appeared in Carolina Quarterly, American Short Fiction, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. His story collection, The Name of the Nearest River, was published by Sarabande
Books in 2010. MARK POWELL is the author of the novels Prodigals and Blood Kin. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Breadloaf Writers' Conference. Born and raised in the mountains of South Carolina, he now teaches at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida.