WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA BOOKS
(Please feel free to make suggestions)
Written by Rob Neufeld, February 2007, Revised Sept. 2007
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Reading audience key: [E] Young children [C] all children [W] children with adult help [M] middle-school students [H] high school students [G] general readers [S] scholars
Poetry and Drama
• Asheville Poetry Review (latest issue) [G,S]
• Old Wounds, New Words: Poems from the Appalachian Poetry Project edited by Bob Henry Baker and others (Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1994). [C,M]
• Black Shawl by Kathryn Stripling Byer (LSU Press, 1998) [L,G,S] Poems inspired by the Black davy ballad.
• Catching Light by Kathryn Stripling Byer (LSU Press, 2002) [G,S]
• Coming to Rest by Kathryn Stripling Byer (LSU Press, 2006) [G,S] World-consciousness and a variety of forms follows Byer.
• The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest by Kathryn Stripling Byer (Texas Tech Press, 1986) [G,S]
• Wake by Kathryn Stripling Byer (Spring Street Editions, 2003)
• The Raindrop Waltz and Other Plays by Gary Carden (trillium Books, 2001) [H,G]
• Backsass by Fred Chappell (LSU Press, 2004) [G,S]
• Teller Tales by Jo Carson (Ohio University Press, 2007) [M,H,G,S] Oral history-based plays on the Overmountain men; and on Cherokee-European relations around Altapass.
• Family Gathering by Fred Chappell (LSU Press, 2000) [G,S] Rhyming verse about family members achieves top form.
• Midquest by Fred Chappell (LSU Press, 1981) [G,S] An epic modern poem involving local history and colloquialism.
• Chair in the Desert by Rick Chess (U. of Tampa Pr., 2000) [G,S] Poems by the head of Jewish studies at UNCA.
• The Ambiguity of Morning by Nancy Dillingham (WorldComm, 2001) [G,S] The Big Ivy writer combines poems and short prose, lyrical and grim.
• New Ground by Nancy Dillingham (WorldComm, 1998) [G,S]
• Thanks for the Dark but That’s Not Home: Poems and Stories by Nancy Dillingham (Big Ivy Books, 2006)
• An Endless Tapestry by Julia Nunnally Duncan (March Street Press, 2007). [G]
• The Book of Monsters by Keith Flynn (Animal Sounds, 1994, 1996) [H,G,S] Symbolism, allusions, and lyricism invest work of local poet-editor-rock musician.
• The Golden Ratio by Keith Flynn (Iris, 2007)
• The Lost Sea by Keith Flynn (Iris, 2000)
• The Talking Drum by Keith Flynn (Animal Sounds, 1991, 1996) [H,G,S]
• Southern Appalachian Poetry: An Anthology of Works by 37 Poets edited by Marita Garin (McFarland & Co. trade paperback, 2008).
• The Mountains Have Come Closer by Jim Wayne Miller (possibly out of print)) [M,H,G] A landmark work, bringing us an epic folk-figure. “The Brier.”
• The Strange Attractor: New and Selected Poems by Robert Morgan (LSU Press, 2004). [H,G,S] Morgan’s poems glitter with land-smart details and Anglo-Saxon sounds.
• Topsoil Road by Robert Morgan (LSU Press, 2000). [H,G,S]
• Zirconia Poems by Robert Morgan. [H,G,S]
• Among the Believers by Ron Rash (Iris Press, 2000). [G,S]
• Eureka Mill by Ron Rash (Bench Press, 1998). [G,S]
• Raising the Dead by Ron Rash (Iris Press, 2002). [G,S]
• Under the Sun: Poems by Glenis Redmond (Main Street Rag trade paperback, 2008). [W,M.H.G] Langston Hughes and Nina Simone are among Redmond’s muses in her celebrated lyricism about a wide range of subjects.
• The Serial Killer’s Daughter by Pat Riviere-Seel (Main Street Rag trade paperback, 2009). Poems compose a story, based on Velma Barfield, told from the daughter's view. [H,G,S]
• Jubilant Thicket: New & Selected Poems by Jonathan Williams (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). An anthology of much of Williams’ work, both erudite and grass roots.
• The Magical Campus: University of North Carolina Writings by Thomas
Wolfe edited by Matthew Brucoli and Aldo P. Magi (U. of S.C. Press, May, 2008). It contains “The Return of Buck Gavin: The
Tragedy of a Mountain Outlaw,” a folk play Wolfe wrote and produced in 1919. [G,S]
CLOSE NEIGHBORS
• The Arrowhead Scholar by Bennie Lee Sinclair (Wildernesse Books, 1978). The late South Carolina poet laureate's award winning elegy for her brother and for the land that he once roamed in Oconee County.
• The Chinese Poet Awakens by Jeff Daniel Marion (Wind Publications, 1999) [H,G,S]
• Ebbing & Flowing Springs by Jeff Daniel Marion (Celtic Cat, 2002) [H,G,S]
