Hi, friends. I’m launching a podcast where I’ll be talking with some of my favorite writers about their work!

Follow Me on SoundCloud so you won’t miss any of these upcoming interviews:

Charles Dodd White is the recipient of the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for excellence in Appalachian Literature, the Appalachian Book of the Year award in fiction, a Jean Ritchie Fellowship from Lincoln Memorial University, and an individual artist’s grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. His novels are HOW FIRE RUNS (A Fall 2020 SIBA Okra Pick, IPPY GOLD MEDAL for Best Fiction in the South), IN THE HOUSE OF WILDERNESS (2018), A SHELTER OF OTHERS (2014), LAMBS OF MEN (2010), and the story collection, SINNERS OF SANCTION COUNTY (2011). He has also edited the anthologies, DEGREES OF ELEVATION (2010) and APPALACHIA NOW (2015). His newest book, A YEAR WITHOUT MONTHS, is a fragmented memoir available from West Virginia University Press. He teaches English at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Jessica Handler is the author of the novel The Magnetic Girl,  winner of the 2020 Southern Book Prize, an Indie Next pick, Wall Street Journal Spring 2019 pick, Bitter Southerner Summer 2019 pick, and a SIBA Okra Pick. Her memoir, Invisible Sisters, was named one of the “Twenty Five Books All Georgians Should Read,” and her craft guide Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss was praised by Vanity Fair magazine. Her writing has appeared on NPR, in Tin House, Drunken Boat, The Bitter Southerner, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Electric Lit, and More Magazine. She teaches creative writing at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, and lectures internationally on writing.

 

TAYLOR BROWN grew up on the Georgia coast.  His work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The Rumpus, Garden & Gun, Chautauqua, The North Carolina Literary Review, and many others. He is the recipient of a Montana Prize in Fiction, a three-time finalist for the Southern Book Prize, and was named the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year. He’s also been a finalist for the Press 53 Open Awards, Machigonne Fiction Contest, Wabash Prize in Fiction, Rick DeMarinis Short Story Contest, Dahany Fiction Prize, and Doris Betts Fiction Prize.  He is the author of a short story collection, In the Season of Blood and Gold (Press 53, 2014), as well as five novels:  Fallen Land (St. Martin’s Press, 2016), The River of Kings (St. Martin’s Press, 2017), Gods of Howl Mountain (St. Martin’s Press, 2018), Pride of Eden (St. Martin’s Press, 2020), and Wingwalkers (St. Martin’s Press, 2022).  Taylor, an Eagle Scout, graduated from the University of Georgia in 2005.  He’s settled in Savannah, Georgia, after long stints in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and the mountains and coasts of North Carolina.  He is the editor-in-chief of BikeBound.com, and he likes old motorcycles, thunderstorms, and dogs with beards.

Valerie Nieman is the author of five novels: In the Lonely Backwater, a YA/crossover thriller in the Southern gothic tradition, is now available for preorder on Kindle, and limited edition hardcovers from Regal House/Fitzroy Books. An audiobook version has just been released for To the Bones, a cross-genre mystery first published in 2019. Kirkus says: “Evocative, intelligent prose conjures an anxious mood and strong sense of place while spotlighting the societal and environmental devastation wrought by the coal mining industry.” Other novels are Blood Clay, a novel of the New South, which was honored with the Eric Hoffer Prize in General Fiction; Survivors, a novel about the Rust Belt of the 1970s, and her first book, Neena Gathering, reissued in 2012 as a classic in the post-apocalyptic genre. Nieman’s third poetry collection, Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse, debuted with a reading at the Coney Island Museum and was a runner-up for the Brockman-Campbell Book Prize. Her second poetry collection, Hotel Worthy, appeared in 2015 from Press 53, and poems from that book were nominated for The Pushcart Prize and Best Short Fictions of 2016, where the title poem was a finalist. She is also the author of Wake Wake Wake, and a collection of short stories, Fidelities. She was a 2013-2014 North Carolina Arts Council poetry fellow, and has received an NEA creative writing fellowship as well as major grants in West Virginia and Kentucky. Her awards include the Greg Grummer, Nazim Hikmet, and Byron Herbert Reece poetry prizes. Nieman graduated from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte. A former professor and journalist, she now teaches creative writing at conferences and venues such as the John C. Campbell Folk School.

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