Appalachian Author Interviews

Willie Carver Wants To 'Poke The Bear' With His Book, Gay Poems For Red States

Willie Carver was Kentucky’s teacher of the year in 2021. Carver is openly gay. And not everybody was OK with a gay high school teacher. Carver said he — and his LGBTQ students — faced homophobia and were frequently harassed. And so in 2022, he resigned from the high school. Last summer, he released "Gay Poems for Red States."

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W.Va. Students To Read ‘Fallingwater’ In All 55 Counties This Week

West Virginia authors Anna Egan Smucker and Marc Harshman, the state’s poet laureate, wrote a children’s book titled, “Fallingwater: The Building of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masterpiece.”

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New Children’s Book Looks At 'Affrilachia'

When Frank X. Walker looked up the word Appalachia in a dictionary 30 years ago, he saw it was defined with the phrase “the white residents of the Appalachian mountains.” As a man of color, he said that shook him. His latest work is a children’s book, using the alphabet to identify and focus on people of color who grew up in Appalachia. It is called “A is for Affrilachia.”

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W.Va. Native Looks At Depression, Treatment In New Novel

Debut novelist William Brewer teaches creative writing at Stanford University, but his Morgantown roots have deeply influenced his writing, and even the main character of his new book — "The Red Arrow" — is also a West Virginia native.

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