Gervais Hagerty grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. After reporting and producing the news for both radio and television, she taught communications at The Citadel. When not writing, she works on local environmental and transportation issues. She lives in Charleston with her husband and two daughters. In Polite Company is her first novel.
On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author James Tate Hill about his new memoir BLIND MAN'S BLUFF. James Tate Hill is the author of Academy Gothic, winner of the 2014 Nilsen Prize for a First Novel, coming in fall 2015 from SMSU Press. He serves as Fiction and Reviews Editor for the literary journal Monkeybicycle, an imprint of Dzanc Books. His short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Story Quarterly, Sonora Review, The South Carolina Review, The Laurel Review, The Texa...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews scholar and editor Sylvia Shurbutt about a new collection of essays titled SILAS HOUSE: EXPLORING AN APPALACHIAN WRITERS WORK. Sylvia is the director of the Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities. She currently serves as the Appalachian Heritage WIR Project Director at Shepherd University and as the editor of the Anthology of Appalachian Writers.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot welcomes back author Karen Salyer McElmurrary to talk about her new book: VOICE LESSONS: ESSAYS. Karen Salyer McElmurray’s Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey, was an AWP Award Winner for Creative Nonfiction. Her novels are The Motel of the Stars, Editor’s Pick by Oxford American, and Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven, winner of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing. Her nonfiction work has been three times Notable in Best American Es...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks to thriller novelist David Bell about his latest novel KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS. David Bell is the USA Today-bestselling author of eleven novels from Berkley/Penguin, including KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS, THE REQUEST, LAYOVER, SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER, BRING HER HOME, SINCE SHE WENT AWAY, SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW, THE FORGOTTEN GIRL, NEVER COME BACK, THE HIDING PLACE, and CEMETERY GIRL. His work has been translated into numerous foreign languages, inclu...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Blake Scott Ball about his latest book CHARLIE BROWN'S AMERICA: THE POPULAR POLITICS OF PEANUTS. Blake is an Assistant Professor of History at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama and is a writer and historian of 20th century culture.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Jim Hamilton about his new novel THE LAST ENTRY. Jim Hamilton is a County Extension Director for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. While originally from a small town in east central Alabama, he's been huntin', plantin', transplanting, consuming, and teaching about ginseng in western North Carolina for the last 10 years. He holds a PhD in Forestry from NC State and is an adjunct professor at Appalachian State Univer...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author and podcaster Anna Sale about her new book LETS TALK ABOUT HARD THINGS. Anna is the creator and host of Death, Sex & Money, the award-winning podcast from WNYC Studios, where she’s been doing interviews about “the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more” since 2014. Before that, she covered politics for public radio for years. She grew up in West Virginia and lives in the East Bay in California with her husband...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, the special series on the business side of publishing concludes with a conversation with literary agent Alice Speilburg. Alice is the founding agent of Speilburg Literary and has worked in book publishing for more than a decade. She is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (formerly the AAR) and represents narrative nonfiction an d commercial fiction for adults and YA readers. Alice previously worked at John Wiley & Sons, and Howard...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, our special series on the business side of publishing continues with book publicist Maryglenn McCombs. Maryglenn is a 1993 graduate of Vanderbilt University and has been actively working in the book publishing industry for nearly 20 years. During that time she has been involved with literally hundreds of books. She discuss what a book publicist does for authors and why authors need them to help promote their work(s).
This episode of Now, Appalachia is the first episode in a series of podcasts focusing on the business side of writing and publishing. The guest for this episode is Ashley Runyon, of the University Press of Kentucky.The University Press of Kentucky has a dual mission—the publication of academic books of high scholarly merit in a variety of fields and the publication of significant books about the history and culture of Kentucky, the Ohio Valley region, the Upper South, and Appalachia. The Press i...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews Ohio author Jess Montgomery about her latest novel THE STILLS. Jess Montgomery is the “Literary Life” columnist for the Dayton Daily News and writes a new Writer's Digest magazine column, "Level Up Your Writing (Life)." Based on early chapters of the first in the Kinship Series, The Widows, Jess was awarded an Ohio Arts Council individual artist’s grant for literary arts and named the John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House in...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews Kentucky author Leesa Cross-Smith about her new novel THIS CLOSE TO OKAY. Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and the author of Every Kiss A War, Whiskey & Ribbons, So We Can Glow, and This Close To Okay. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and their two teenagers. Find more at LeesaCrossSmith.com.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews North Carolina author Renea Winchester about her new novel OUTBOUND TRAIN. Renea Winchester was born in Bryson City, North Carolina. She is the author of two nonfiction books set in Atlanta Georgia where she lived for 17 years. Outbound Train is her first novel.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews New York Times bestselling Appalachian author John Hart about his latest novel THE UNWILLING. John is the New York Times bestselling author of The King of Lies, Down River, The Last Child, Iron House, Redemption Road, and The Hush. The only author in history to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel consecutively, John has also won the Barry Award, the Southern Independent Bookseller’s Award for Fiction, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, a...
On the first episode of 2021, Eliot interviews author Michael Farris Smith about his new novel NICK. Michael is the author of Blackwood, The Fighter, Desperation Road, Rivers, and The Hands of Strangers. His novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists in Esquire, Southern Living, Book Riot, and numerous other outlets, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. He has been a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, the Gold Dagger Award i...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks to Brooks Rexroat, founder of Summer Camp Publishing. Summer Camp Publishing is a micropress specializing in brief but powerful works of prose and poetry. Based in Banner Elk, North Carolina, the press has a special affinity for the Appalachian and Midwestern roots of its founders but is home for compelling work from writers writing from anywhere and everywhere.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks to Tennessee historian and author Jeff Jackson about his latest book: PAPER BULLETS: TWO ARTISTS WHO RISKED THEIR LIVES TO DEFY THE NAZIS. Jeff is a is Professor of History at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. An expert on European history and culture, he is the author of Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910 and Making Jazz French: Music and Modern Life in Interwar Paris. He has appeared in documentar...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews Kentucky author Ellen Birkett Morris about her short story collection LOST GIRLS. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, AntiochReview, South Carolina Review, and other journals. She received the BevelSummers Prize for short fiction. Morris is a recipient of the Al Smith Fellowfrom the Kentucky Arts Council. Morris has an MFA from QueensUniversity-Charlotte.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews Ohio poet Ben Kline. Hailing from west Appalachian farm country, Ben Kline lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, writing poems and telling stories, drinking more coffee than might seem wise. His chapbook SAGITTARIUS A* will be published in 2020 by Sibling Rivalry Press. His work is forthcoming or has recently appeared in The Cortland Review, DIAGRAM, My Loves: a Digital Anthology of Queer Love Poems, Okay Donkey, Theta Wave, Screen Door Review, Hom...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews North Carolina author and podcaster Landis Wade. Landis Wade is a recovering trial lawyer, dog lover, host of Charlotte Readers Podcast and author of books and stories whose third book--"The Christmas Redemption"--won the Holiday category of the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. He won the 2016 North Carolina State Bar short story contest for "The Deliberation" and received awards for his non-fiction pieces, "The Cape Fear De...
On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks to North Carolina author Annette Clapsaddle about her new novel EVEN AS WE BREATHE. Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her work Going to Water won the Morning Star Award for Creative Writing from the Native American Literature Symposium and was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. S...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews journalist Jeff Young about his new book APPALACHIAN FALL: DISPATCHES FROM COAL COUNTRY ON WHAT'S AILING AMERICA. Jeff Young is the managing editor of Ohio Valley ReSource, a regional journalism collaborative reporting on economic and social change in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The ReSource includes seven public media outlets across the three states, and aims to strengthen news coverage of the area’s most important issues. Jeff p...
On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Carter Taylor Seaton about her latest novel THE OTHER MORGANS. West Virginia native Carter Taylor Seaton is a Marshall University graduate, a former marathoner and scuba diver, and the award-winning author of two novels, Father's Troubles, and amo, amas, amat . . . an unconventional love story, as well as non-fiction: Hippie Homesteaders: Arts, Music, and Living on the Land in West Virginia, and a biography of the late congressman Ken H...
On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot welcomes back Randal O'Wain to the show to talk about his latest work, a collection of short stories titled HALLELUJAH STATION AND OTHER STORIES. Randal is the author of Meander Belt: Family, Loss, and Coming of Age in the Working Class South. He is assistant teaching professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and serves as a National Endowment of the Arts Writing fellow at the Alderson Federal Correctional Instituti...
On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Jamie Poissant. is the author of The Heaven of Animals: Stories, in print in five languages, winner of the GLCA New Writers Award and a Florida Book Award, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, One Story, Ploughshares, and others. He teaches in the MFA program at the University of Cent...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author David Joy about his latest novel WHEN THESE MOUNTAINS BURN. David is the author of The Line That Held Us (winner of the 2018 SIBA Book Prize), The Weight of This World, and Where All Light Tends to Go (Edgar finalist for Best First Novel). His stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in a number of publications, and he is the author of the memoir Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey and a co-editor for Gather at the River...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Edward Farmer about his new novel PALE. Edward A. Farmer is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, where he journaled and cultivated stories his entire childhood. He is a graduate of Amherst College with a degree in English and psychology, and recipient of the MacArthur-Leithauser Travel Award for creative writing. He currently lives and writes in Pasadena, California. Pale is his first novel.
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews writer Karen Salyer McElmurray about her latest novel WANTING RADIANCE. Karen Salyer McElmurray won an AWP Award for creative nonfiction for her book Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey and the Orison Award for creative nonfiction for her essay "Blue Glass." She has had other essays recognized as "Notable Essays" in Best American Essays, while her essays "Speaking Freely" and "Attics" were nominated for Pushcart Awards. She curre...
On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews North Carolina author Meagan Lucas. Meagan Lucas is the author of the Southern Literary Fiction novel SONGBIRDS AND STRAY DOGS. Her short work has appeared in: The Santa Fe Writer's Project, The New Southern Fugitives, Still: The Journal, and The Blue Mountain Review among others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and she won the 2017 Scythe Prize for Fiction. Meagan teaches English Composition at Asheville-Buncombe Technical ...
