Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 5.16 Literature and Poetry
Presentation #1 Title
Panel: New Appalachian Visions: Four Authors Discuss Their Novels and Creative Nonfiction Books of 2013-14.
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Panel: New Appalachian Visions: Four Authors Discuss Their Novels and Creative Nonfiction Books of 2013-14. In this exciting panel, four authors who each have a new book set in Appalachia present the history and visions that impelled them to write these books. Two books are novels, two are essay collections/creative nonfiction, and all four are being published by respected presses between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014. Authors will briefly read from their forthcoming books and discuss some of the complex realities of Appalachian place and identity, including choices they made in interpreting and portraying Appalachia. Authors are: Sara Beth Childers, a Huntington native whose essays about Appalachian family and storytelling are collected in her first book, Shake Terribly the Earth: Stories from an Appalachian Family ( Ohio U. P., Fall 2013); Sue Eisenfeld, a seasoned, award-winning journalist whose first book evolved from years of hiking and research as she uncovered the hidden and destroyed histories of the lost communities of the Shenandoah National Park (U. Nebraska, Fall 2014); Laura Long, whose third book and first novel, Out of Peel Tree, lyrically portrays an extended West Virginia family and the Appalachian diaspora (WVU P., Apr 2014); and Marie Manilla, an acclaimed fiction writer whose third book, The Patron Saint of Ugly, is a rich novel that explores the Italian-American experience in West Virginia and encompasses magical-realism and the Evil Eye (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2014). The panel plans time for discussion, including audience questions.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Laura Long's first novel, Out of Peel Tree, is forthcoming in April 2014 (WVU Press), and she is the author of two poetry collections, Imagine a Door and The Eye of Caroline Herschel: A Life in Poems. A West Virginia native, she teaches at Lynchburg College in Virginia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Sarah Beth Childers is the author of Shake Terribly the Earth: Stories from an Appalachian Family, a collection of essays (Fall 2013, Ohio U. P.). A native of Huntington, WV and graduate of the MFA program at WVU, Sarah Beth is currently writer-in-residence at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Learn more at: sarahbethchilders.com
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Sue Eisenfeld’s essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Gettysburg Review, and many other publications, and have been listed among the Notable Essays of the Year in 'Best American Essays' in 2009, 2010, and 2013. Her first book, on hiking and discovering the lost communities of the Shenandoah National Park, is forthcoming in Fall 2014 (U. Nebraska P). She teaches at Johns Hopkins. Learn more at www.sueeisenfeld.com.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Marie Manilla's forthcoming novel The Patron Saint of Ugly (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2014) explores the Italian immigrant experience in West Virginia. Her previous two award-winning books of fiction are the novel Shrapnel (River City Pub. 2012), and Still Life with Plums: Short Stories (WVU Press 2010). A native of West Virginia and graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, she is currently visiting faculty at W.V. Wesleyan's Low-Residency MFA Program. Learn more at: www.mariemanilla.com
Panel: New Appalachian Visions: Four Authors Discuss Their Novels and Creative Nonfiction Books of 2013-14.
Corbly Hall 354
Panel: New Appalachian Visions: Four Authors Discuss Their Novels and Creative Nonfiction Books of 2013-14. In this exciting panel, four authors who each have a new book set in Appalachia present the history and visions that impelled them to write these books. Two books are novels, two are essay collections/creative nonfiction, and all four are being published by respected presses between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014. Authors will briefly read from their forthcoming books and discuss some of the complex realities of Appalachian place and identity, including choices they made in interpreting and portraying Appalachia. Authors are: Sara Beth Childers, a Huntington native whose essays about Appalachian family and storytelling are collected in her first book, Shake Terribly the Earth: Stories from an Appalachian Family ( Ohio U. P., Fall 2013); Sue Eisenfeld, a seasoned, award-winning journalist whose first book evolved from years of hiking and research as she uncovered the hidden and destroyed histories of the lost communities of the Shenandoah National Park (U. Nebraska, Fall 2014); Laura Long, whose third book and first novel, Out of Peel Tree, lyrically portrays an extended West Virginia family and the Appalachian diaspora (WVU P., Apr 2014); and Marie Manilla, an acclaimed fiction writer whose third book, The Patron Saint of Ugly, is a rich novel that explores the Italian-American experience in West Virginia and encompasses magical-realism and the Evil Eye (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2014). The panel plans time for discussion, including audience questions.
