Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls who grew up in McDowell County, West Virginia, is now number nine on the New York Times Best Seller list for hard cover fiction.
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips who grew up in Upshur County, West Virginia, is a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction.
The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life by Lee Maynard who grew up in Wayne County, West Virginia, is a finalist in New Mexico Book Award adventure fiction category .
Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story by Anna Egan Smucker who grew up in Hancock County, West Virginia, represented the state's literary heritage at the 2009 National Book Festival.
Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart by M. Glenn Taylor was a Fall 2008 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, aw well as a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction.
Crystal Wilkinson, the featured author of the Spring 2006 issue of Appalachian Heritage, has founded a new literary magazine – Mythium.
The Library of Virginia has announced that for their 12 Annual Awards Celebration this year they will honor Charles Wright as one of two Weinstein Poetry Prize Recipients. Also The Hemingses of Monticella: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed is one of three books nominated for the non-fiction award. Read More.
The Hook's [A Charlottesville, Virginia, arts weekly] 2009 Fiction contest judged by John Grisham was won by "Remote Control" by Rachel Unkefer. It is a story centered around an Eastern Kentucky mine disaster.
Gurney Norman, Featured Author for the Summer 2005 issue of Appalachian Heritage and author of Divine Right’s Trip and Kinfolks, has been appointed by Gov. Steve Beshear to serve as Kentucky Poet Laureate for a two-year honorary term. Norman is the head of the creative writing program at the University of Kentucky, a post he has held for nearly 30 years. He is also the writer in residence at the Hindman Settlement School's annual Writers Workshop. Norman will be formally introduced as poet laureate on April 24 in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort as part of Kentucky Writers Day. Read more
Monica Silvera, a high school senior from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was the first place winner in Hazard Community & Technical College’s third annual Young Appalachian Poets Award. Students throughout Appalachia were encouraged to submit their work. Silvera’s poem, “Misfortunes in a Bathroom Stall,” will be published in the college’s literary magazine, Kudzu. The magazine will be available to the public on April 30 as part of HCTC’s Evening with Poets. As winner of this contest, Silvera will also receive a check for $100, copies of Kudzu, and she will read at Evening with Poets. For more information on the Evening with Poets event or the Young Appalachian Poets contest, contact Scott Lucero at (606) 487-3200 or ScottLucero@kctcs.edu.The 2008 National Book Award in Non-Fiction went to Annette Gordon-Reed for her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. Also, Gail Godwin was the Chair of judges for the fiction award. Read more.
George Scarbrough, died quietly in his sleep at the Brake bill Nursing Home in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the morning of December 2, 2008. George had celebrated his 93rd birthday about six weeks earlier on October 20 of this year. George was mentally sharp until the end of his long life, but has been declining physically for the past few years. George was a unique and important voice in 20th century American poetry, and he was known and admired by most of the important poets of the last 60 years. Iris Press has been working on George’s final two collections of poems, and they will be published posthumously. A Memorial Service was held on Saturday December 13, 2008, at the Weatherford Mortuary in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where Scarbrough lived during the later part of his life until he went to the nursing home. His ashes were interred with his parents at the Cemetery of the Friendship Baptist Church in his native Polk County on December 14th. William Crawford Plumley, one of the region’s multi-talented scholars, died November 27, 2008, at his retirement home in Florida. He was 71. Born in Hamlin, West Virginia, Bill or Billy, as he preferred to be called, served in the United States Air Force in Europe prior to obtaining a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, and a second master’s from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. To read the full obituary by Phyllis Wilson Moore, please click here.
Author, Lee Maynard reads his latest most lyric and elegant prose, "The Pale of Sunlight: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life ." This reading can be viewed on YouTube by clicking on the following link: YouTube reading.
Marianne Worthington, poetry editor of Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, serves as the Poetry Editor of the new online journal, Still: Literature of the Mountain South, working alongside Fiction Editor, Silas House, and Nonfiction Editor, Jason Howard. Still is published three times a year, in October, February and June. The submission period is December 1 through December 30 of each year. The mission of Still is to provide a free website that offers the finest in contemporary literary writing of Central Appalachia, or the Mountain South. For information on the online journal, please visit Still Journal