Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
“The alexin of our cure”: Exploring the Particular in Asheville’s Literature
Session Abstract or Summary
Asheville’s literary pedigree is well-forged with Thomas Wolfe, Wilma Dykeman, Charles Frazier, among others. But like Asheville itself, each of these writers is at times an island of his or her own. No one place, no one canon, no one genre can encapsulate any single writer or writing. The questions here are asked to explore and illuminate Asheville in a more particular way than the bright lights currently ablaze upon it. Each presenter here has researched the known canon and delved into lesser known works and asked less-answered questions about place, writing, and literature.
Terry Roberts looks to the work of John Ehle to trace his change as a writer, the growth of Asheville, and the struggle of leaving the mountain for town. Wayne Caldwell will draw on his lived experiences, Fred Chappell’s The Gaudy Place, and the novels and journalism of Lewis Greene to reveal a place before the brewery rush and a time when Broadway Avenue offered a much different list of goods and services. Brandon J. Johnson asks a bifurcated question of whether Thomas Wolfe and Asheville are Appalachian. In doing so, one must ask what “Appalachian” is. Each of these presenters live, write, and work in the Asheville area and bring experiences from three generations of Asheville literary scene. A fundamental human problem occurs when we don’t listen and don’t look. The goal for this panel is to complicate current and future narratives to allow more voices to be heard and more experiences to be felt.
Presentation #1 Title
Is Thomas Wolfe Appalachian?
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Thomas Wolfe and Asheville hold similar, problematic positions within the concepts and realities of Appalachia. Wolfe was born in the heart of Southern Appalachia but lived a life that was anything but rural. As a child, he traveled out-of-state routinely with his mother, and when he finally learned of Look Homeward, Angel’s publication, he was in Vienna. Wolfe sought adventure, exploration, and fame, in many cases the opposite of a stereotypical Appalachian existence. Asheville itself exists as a politically blue island in a sea of red. Its traffic, businesses, and pace differ sharply from towns and communities just minutes away. The beautiful mountain vistas seen from the west side of downtown can be viewed alongside the homeless, below the balconies of multi-million dollar apartment complexes. Paradoxes abound. Being from Asheville, Wolfe was objectively Appalachian, but his work is usually placed somewhere outside of the Appalachian canon. For much of his writing, that is just, but for other works like the unfinished novel The Hills Beyond, the play Welcome to Our City, and stories like “Child by Tiger,” the Appalachian-ness becomes blurred. I will seek to establish an idea of literary Appalachian-ness and argue for Wolfe’s position inside and outside of it using critical works about the region. In examining Wolfe and his place within Appalachia, we can establish a framework for evaluation of other authors, books, cities, and further ask the question of if we should still ask the question.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Brandon J. Johnson works and teaches at Mars Hill University. His fiction has been features in The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Still: The Journal, and The North Carolina Folklore Journal. He is active with the Wilma Dykeman Legacy and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial and plays mandolin with Asheville-based band, Rhiannon and the Relics. He is the director of the annual Bluff Mountain Festival held in Hot Springs, NC and makes his home with his wife and son in Barnardsville, NC.
Presentation #2 Title
Leaving the Mountains for Town: John Ehle’s Novels About Asheville
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Although John Ehle is justifiably famous for his series of mountain novels about the Wright and King families, it is less widely known that two of those novels are set not in the wilds of the Southern mountains but in Asheville during the first half of the 20th century. One of those novels, Lion on the Hearth (1961), was written early in Ehle’s career; and the other, Last One Home (1984) much later. Together, they provide a fascinating look into the social and cultural challenges faced by mountain people who leave the isolated coves to create a whole new life in town. Because of their relative position in Ehle’s creative life, these two novels also provide remarkable insight into his evolution as a writer. This paper will explore how these two important works illuminate the growth of Asheville as a hub of mountain life and how they simultaneously illustrate the growth of one of our most important writers.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Terry Roberts' debut novel, A Short Time to Stay Here, won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, and his second novel, That Bright Land, won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award as well as the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South. Both novels won the annual Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, given to the author of the best novel written by a North Carolinian. Born and raised near Weaverville, North Carolina, Roberts is the Director of the National Paideia Center and lives in Asheville, North Carolina. His third novel, The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival, was published by Turner Publishing in August of 2018.
Presentation #3 Title
This Bygone Asheville: Looking at Asheville through Fred Chappell and Lewis Green
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
Asheville enjoys a reputation for being cool, hip, and sophisticated. It was not always so. Our discussion will draw on my experiences as a native who knew the town in the nineteen-fifties and -sixties. I will also use Fred Chappell’s 1973 novel, The Gaudy Place, as well as various works of the late Lewis Green, novelist and journalist, an acquaintance of mine, to give us a taste of this bygone Asheville. I rather doubt anyone would want to retire to the town they describe.
Most of Chappell’s Appalachian novels are set in Haywood County, NC, but The Gaudy Place is set mostly in downtown Asheville. Much of Green’s fiction is also set west of Asheville, but he shows us the town’s underbelly in And Scatter the Proud (1969) and The High-Pitched Laugh of a Painted Lady (1989). I will also examine his journalism—he was a prize-winning reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times, fired for telling what he considered the truth. He then started a rival paper, The Native Stone, and, later, The Independent Torch. Green was seldom discreet, and loved to uncover hypocrisy in government.
We will discover a part of Asheville’s history that contemporary boosters would just as soon ignore. Asheville was once a rough, dirty (and dangerous, for outsiders) Appalachian small town, one the Vanderbilts would not have been comfortable in after dark.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Wayne Caldwell was born in Asheville NC. His degrees in English are from UNC-CH, Appalachian State University, and Duke University. The author of two published novels, Cataloochee (2007) and Requiem by Fire (2010), he has won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award from the WNC Historical Association, and the James Still Award for excellence in writing about the Appalachian South from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Another novel, Shadow Family, is in search of a publisher.
Is Thomas Wolfe Appalachian?
Thomas Wolfe and Asheville hold similar, problematic positions within the concepts and realities of Appalachia. Wolfe was born in the heart of Southern Appalachia but lived a life that was anything but rural. As a child, he traveled out-of-state routinely with his mother, and when he finally learned of Look Homeward, Angel’s publication, he was in Vienna. Wolfe sought adventure, exploration, and fame, in many cases the opposite of a stereotypical Appalachian existence. Asheville itself exists as a politically blue island in a sea of red. Its traffic, businesses, and pace differ sharply from towns and communities just minutes away. The beautiful mountain vistas seen from the west side of downtown can be viewed alongside the homeless, below the balconies of multi-million dollar apartment complexes. Paradoxes abound. Being from Asheville, Wolfe was objectively Appalachian, but his work is usually placed somewhere outside of the Appalachian canon. For much of his writing, that is just, but for other works like the unfinished novel The Hills Beyond, the play Welcome to Our City, and stories like “Child by Tiger,” the Appalachian-ness becomes blurred. I will seek to establish an idea of literary Appalachian-ness and argue for Wolfe’s position inside and outside of it using critical works about the region. In examining Wolfe and his place within Appalachia, we can establish a framework for evaluation of other authors, books, cities, and further ask the question of if we should still ask the question.
