The Southern Highland Reader

Ron Rash

CULLOWHEE – Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, is recipient of the 2009 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction for his fourth novel, “Serena.”

The award is presented annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in recognition of works of fiction that exhibit “creative and imaginative quality, excellence of style, universality of appeal, and relevance to North Carolina and her people.”

Rash will pick up his award at a February meeting of the association in Greensboro. He also won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award in 2006 – that one for his third novel, “The World Made Straight.”

Published in October 2008, “Serena” tells the story of timber baron George Pemberton and his ruthless wife, Serena, who come to the North Carolina mountains to create a timber empire. The book drew widespread praise from critics across the nation after its release. A New York Times reviewer complimented Rash’s “elegantly fine-tuned voice” and listed the book as one of her 10 favorites of 2008, and “Serena” made the “best of 2008” lists of Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. The book also was No. 7 in online retailer Amazon’s list of the 100 best books of 2008.

A native of Boiling Springs, Rash teaches Appalachian literature and creative writing at WCU. His next book, a compilation of short stories titled “Burning Bright,” will be released in March.

ROBBINSVILLE-Zelerie Rose at the Graham Star writes that $120,000 of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supports a program to control invasive plant species and support habitat of two federally-listed endangered species along the Cheoah River.

Here’s a clip from Rose’s story:

The three-year project started this fall, involves nine miles of river and will protect the Virginia Spiraea, a federally-threatened shrub, and the Appalachian Elktoe, a federally-endangered mussel.

The treatment of the non-native species such as mimosa, Oriental bittersweet, yam, privet, Japanese honeysuckle, princess tree, kudzu, and multiflora rose, is the collaborative effort of Western North Carolina Alliance, the Cherokee Environmental Natural Resource Office, and North Carolina National Forests.

“Our job is to work with the various organizations involved in the project and educate them about non-native invasive plants,” said Bob Gale, ecologist for WNC Alliance. “These plants were introduced both intentionally and accidentally and have no natural controls limiting their spread. Left untreated they can threaten or endanger native habitats and native wildlife species.”

Read the story from the Graham Star here.

From the folks at City Lights Bookstore:

CULLOWHEE–Dorothy Allison, a major literary voice from the South, talks about her work in an audience participation program, 7:30 p.m., November 19, in the UC Theatre at Western Carolina University. Allison’s novel, “Bastard out of Carolina” is the focus of the show, which will be simulcast with interaction on http://www.Citizen-Times.com. The event is free and open to the public.

The program, called a WNC Read-for-All, begins with a twenty-minute author feature and continues with forty minutes of discussion, emceed by Rob Neufeld. (Several WCU students have read Allison’s book in preparation for the event). See the website, “The Read on WNC” for more details and a Reader’s Guide. Representatives from REACH and The Jackson County Community Table will attend the event, and books will be available for signing courtesy of City Lights Books. The event is funded by the Parris Distinguished Professorship in Appalachian Cultural Studies.

The first member of her family to graduate from high school, Allison attended Florida Presbyterian college on a National Merit Scholarship and studied anthropology at the New School for Social Research.

Bastard out of Carolina contains many remarkable features: the story of a girl who forges a positive identity in the teeth of her stepfather’s abuse; the depiction of a poor, Southern extended family; and great storytelling. Allison received mainstream recognition with this novel, a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. The novel won the Ferro Grumley prize and became a best seller and award- winning movie. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

The expanded edition of Allison’s short-story collection Trash (2002) included the prize winning short story, “Compassion,” selected for both Best American Short Stories 2003 and Best New Stories from the South 2003. Allison’s chapbook of poetry, The Women Who Hate Me, was published with Long Haul Press in 1983. A novel, She Who, is forthcoming.

Dorothy Allison was Emory University Center for Humanistic Inquiry’s Distinguished Visiting Professor, Spring, 2008. In 2006, she was writer in residence at Columbia College in Chicago. This fall, Allison is the McGee Professor and writer in residence at Davidson College in North Carolina.

Read Rob Neufield’s interview with Allison here.

REGIONAL–Dave Tabler’s Appalachian History blog touches on an interview with herbalist Tommie Bass (1908-1996), and Bass’s take on giving money to politicians. Here’s Bass:

I figured . . . the fact of the business is a fellow running for office, a man or a woman, I’m like the little boy was about the peckerwood.

Peckerwood pecked a hole in a hollow tree and he went in there, and the little boy he drove a peg in behind it. Somebody said to him, “Son,” said, “you shouldn’t of done the little bird that way.” [And the boy said], “Well the son-of-a-gun pecked in, now let him peck out”.

And so I’m that way about a politician. If he wants to get into office, let him get in there (chuckles), but I ain’t gonna try to help him. Course, if he’s a good guy, I’d talk for him, but as far as paying him in there, I don’t go along with that.

Read the post here.

Tommis Bass. Photo by Tom Rankin, 1983

REGIONAL–The Southern Appalachian Bear Study Group, a group of biologists from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia who study black bear populations, think that the current population of bears across the Southern Appalachians is the highest on record.

An excerpt from Morgan Simmons’ story in the Knoxville News Sentinel:

The latest UT studies put the black bear population in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at around 1,500, or about two bears for every square mile of the park.

The number of bears taken by legal hunting in Tennessee has increased dramatically since 1982, when the harvest was only 21 bears. In 1997, hunters harvested a record 370 bears. Many biologists thought the population had peaked that year, but then came the 2008-09 hunting season, when Tennessee hunters harvested 446 black bears for yet another record.

[Research ecologist] Frank Van Manen said that while the region may be biologically capable of supporting even more bears, it’s clear that in some areas, the population has reached its cultural capacity as determined by people’s willingness to tolerate bears visiting their bird feeders or breaking into their homes.

Read the story here.

GSMNP–Great Smoky Mountains National Park managers have announced that the Park’s cooperating partner, Great Smoky Mountains Association, has just published and released its newest book, Smoky Mountain Magic, a novel by Horace Kephart.

Horace Kephart

Although completed in 1929, two years before the author’s death, the novel was never published until now.

Cathy Cook, Chief of Resource Education and Science at the Smokies said, “We had no idea that a Kephart novel even existed. The unpublished manuscript for Smoky Mountain Magic was handed down within the Kephart family until it was finally brought to the attention of park superintendent, Dale Ditmanson, by Libby Kephart Hargrave, the author’s great-granddaughter, at one of this year’s 75th Anniversary celebrations.

The typewritten manuscript was complete, having gone through numerous drafts and revisions over the course of the eight years that Horace Kephart labored over it.”

Smoky Mountain Magic’s fictional story takes place during the summer of 1925, mostly along the Deep Creek watershed in the Great Smoky Mountains, but also in a thinly-disguised Bryson City (called Kittuwa) and the Cherokee Indian Reservation. Characters include a mysterious stranger (who resembles the author in his youth), a greedy land baron, a cadre of mountain folk ranging in constitution from stalwart to conniving, a beautiful botanist, a Cherokee chief, and a witch. The novel fits the adventure story genre of the day with a bit of romance interwoven.

The famed author and outdoorsman first came to the Great Smoky Mountains in 1904 looking for a fresh start in life. He moved into an abandoned cabin on a tributary of Hazel Creek, a remote area even by early 20th century southern Appalachian standards. There Kephart befriended his independent and self-reliant neighbors and pursued his passions for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, and generally living off the land.

The result of his time in what Kephart described as the “back of beyond” were Our Southern Highlanders, the classic work on the people of the Smokies, and Camping and Woodcraft, the definitive work on enjoying the out of doors. Both works are still in print and continue to nurture an enthusiastic following.

During the 1920s, Kephart and his friend and fellow hiker George Masa began a vigorous campaign to have the Great Smoky Mountains protected as a national park. Kephart wrote letters, articles, and a booklet championing the cause, and Masa contributed his breath-taking landscape photographs.

Together they raised awareness of the significance and beauty of the Smokies and sounded the alarm over the devastation being caused by unsound, industrial logging operations. Both Kephart and Masa figure prominently in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park segment of a new 12-hour documentary series by Ken Burns entitled “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” which will begin September 27 on PBS.

For their successful effort, both Kephart and Masa have neighboring mountains named for them. A stream, trail, and camping shelter in the national park also bear Kephart’s name.

The 248 page Smoky Mountain Magic is now available in both paperback ($12.95) and hard cover ($19.95). All proceeds are being donated to the Horace Kephart Foundation (in support of the annual Horace Kephart Days Celebration in Bryson City), Great Smoky Mountains Association, and Friends of the Smokies.

REGIONAL–Two fascinating posts in a pair of regional blogs: one, from Dave Tabler at the amazing Appalachian History, describes efforts a century ago to push a railway up from Georgia to connect with the WNC railroad at Almond. Turns out they made it as far as Franklin, which is news to me.

The second, from Gulahiyi at Ruminations from the Distant Hills, remembers a 1977 flood that killed 39 people at Toccoa Falls College.

First, the railroad; the Murphy branch of the Southern Railroad is a long, lonesome and fragile strand of rails. It is the only railroad line west of Asheville, and it connects a string of small towns that once depended on it for their existence. That the line itself still exists is remarkable. Southern says it is still profitable as far as Sylva, and the Great Smoky Mountains Railway owns the line on west to its terminus in Murphy.

As I understand it, state law says it can’t be abandoned, so if the GSMR were to close up shop, ownership would revert to Southern.

Coming west, the line leaves Waynesville and climbs up to Balsam, which once boasted the highest railroad depot east of the Rockies. Balsam is still home to a railroading throwback – the grand, century-old Balsam Mountain Inn. The 42,000 square-foot inn, which had 100 rooms when it opened, was one of many such grand hotels that the railroad served. The line then drops down a serious incline (for rail) into Sylva, crossing and re-crossing Scotts Creek over dozens of trestles as it comes.

Tabler’s description of the Tallulah Falls Railway describes similar countryside.

An excerpt:

Perhaps the most distinguishing single characteristic of the Tallulah Falls Railroad was its fascinating variety of trademark trestles. Forty-two of these massive wooden wonders had to be negotiated along the scenic journey, each having to bear the full weight of a 140,000 lb. locomotive and its heavy load. It is these forty-two trestles which created much of the line’s personality, and more than any other single feature dramatically reflected the type of country that the TF served – rugged, wild and often dangerous.

The trestles of the Tallulah Falls Railroad were quite varied. The shortest of the trestles was approximately 25 feet in length, while the longest is generally considered to be the 940 feet long scenic wonder which skirted the rooftops over the town of Tallulah Falls. The only exception to the wooden trestles along the line was the massive 585 feet long steel and concrete bridge spanning Tallulah Lake.

Read Tabler’s post here.

Recent wet weather — the first such weather in the southern mountains in a few years — brought to mind for Gulahiyi the dam break just over 30 years ago.

He has a link to video from Toccoa Falls this week, and some nice photography of his own.

Read his post here.

Jennifer Pharr Davis hiked the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail in 57 days, five hours and 35 minutes – 30 days faster than any other women have ever made the trip, and faster than all but four men.

SYLVA–The Women’s Appalachian Trail Record Holder and Blue Ridge Outdoors 2008 Outdoors Person of the Year, Jennifer Pharr Davis, will be at Southwestern Community College on Wednesday, Oct. 14, to speak to students, faculty and the community about how her journeys and adventures. She’ll share her insight on what hiking more than 8,000 miles of trails has taught her about goal setting, sacrifice and achievement.

“Jennifer will inspire and teach you to experience the woods and life in a new and exciting way,” said SCC’s outdoor leadership director Paul Wolf. “In her presentation she stresses ‘you are never too young to set goals and never too old to dream.’”

This two-session event, a part of SCC’s “Discover America Series,” will take place in the Balsam Building on the Jackson Campus. Following pizza at noon, the program titled Life Lessons from the Appalachian Trail will be from 12:30-2 p.m. in the auditorium.

In session two, How to Plan, Prepare for and Execute Adventure Events, from 2-4 p.m. Davis will provide in-depth discussion about the logistics, planning and execution of such adventures, including nutrition, gear, training, schedules, budget and more.

All students, faculty and the public are invited to this event which is sponsored by SCC’s Student Life Committee.

Read more about Pharr Davis’s feat here.

CULLOWHEE–The Mountain Xpress’s Kent Preistly offers a review of George Masa’s enigmatic life and of the current exhibit of some of Masa’s work at the Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University.

An excerpt:

Masa, a Japanese immigrant who died on June 21, 1933, blazed a singular path through the North Carolina mountains. He was, among a number of things, a photographer of rare skill and sensitivity, a dogged advocate for the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a key figure in the identification and naming of the park’s natural features, and a chief engineer of the North Carolina portion of Appalachian Trail.

This year, the celebration surrounding the 75th anniversary of the dedication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has stirred to life what might be described as the year of George Masa. Earlier this summer, Masa’s landscapes were featured in an exhibit at the Asheville Art Museum; another exhibit of Masa’s work is ongoing at Western Carolina University, in Cullowhee. The late photographer has been the subject of recent features in the regional and national press, including WNC Magazine and National Parks magazine. And next month, Masa’s life and achievements will reach their widest audience yet, as part of Ken Burns’ new documentary on PBS, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

Another:

Despite all the attention, Masa remains an elusive figure. He is a knot of contradictions: a socialite of scant means, a stranger with a thousand friends. He was an intensely private man who nevertheless managed to leave behind stacks of correspondence and handwritten records. As a businessman, he was shrewd but constantly in need of money. Trusted by many of the region’s most powerful men and women, he was once suspected of being nothing less than an international spy.

A quote from museum director Martin DeWitt:

“People think of our mountains and the words ‘divine inspiration’ come to mind,” says Martin DeWitt, director and curator of Western Carolina University’s Fine Art Museum. “Well, Masa achieved that feeling by capturing a precise atmospheric moment. You can imagine him out there waiting for a sunrise, having left Asheville at probably three in the morning, sitting out in the cold and rain and finally, here it comes—the moment that he’s been waiting for. There’s more than just an artistic vision at work in his photographs; there’s a tremendous sacrifice there as well.”

Read the piece here.

REGIONAL–Almost every morning in summer, songbirds delight us with a sunrise chorus.

On this day, as I walk in a Great Smoky Mountains spruce-fir forest with Cherokee Middle School science-campers, the avian concert includes the bouncy tunes of a winter wren and endless trills from a slate-colored junco, strangely resembling a cell phone jingle.

Up at around 6,000 feet in elevation, birds that live in an Appalachian high mountain fir forest find food in pines and berry bushes, grab insects on the wing (of which there are plenty here now), and search the leaf litter for moist and meaty invertebrates such as snails.

Contributor Blair Ogburn is Senior Naturalist at Balsam Mountain Preserve. She, her husband Jon and son Sam live in Addie Community

Ground snails feed on leafy vegetation and microscopic soil particles. Amazingly, they are able to gather and store calcium from the soil and soft rock. In spruce-fir habitat, snails make up an important part of a bird’s diet.

Thrushes, from the bird family Turdidae, which includes robins and bluebirds, eat lots of snails while on their nesting grounds. The feeding cycle from soil to snail allows for the production of strong shells (through the collection of calcium carbonate). Birds eat the snails and ingest calcium they can use for their own egg production.

Environmental changes, like an increase in pollution, may potentially alter the makeup of minerals in soil and/or air chemistry. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, acid deposition is a form of pollution (and a by-product of the coal-fired power plants in NC and TN) that affects high elevation forests and has been shown to alter soil, air, and water chemistry which might affect the food chain.

What if land snail populations were to decline because of acid deposition? This could happen if calcium became unavailable or scarce in the soil. Could thrushes (at the top of the soil/snail/bird food chain) be negatively affected since they gather calcium from eating snails?

These are the kinds of questions being asked by scientists in the Smoky Mountains and around the globe in an effort to monitor and manage natural areas, based on biological data and changing interrelationships.

Today at Clingman’s Dome, just below 6,000 feet in elevation on the North Carolina side of the park, the science campers and I join park rangers to collect data from the spruce-fir habitat. Our goal is to capture snails and birds that live up here, so that they can be identified to species, then recorded and released. Sleepy students come alive as they leave for their “snail shell scavenger hunt”.

Our work will help biologists catalog which snails live here, and which, if any, are being affected by pollution and monitored soil chemistry. Perhaps the process will help to answer important biological questions.

REGIONAL-This well-written eastern Kentucky blog offers plenty of thoughts about off-the-grid Appalachian living and parenting.

And in the case of one of her most recent posts, a time-honored point of caution.

An excerpt:

I have been taught since childhood about the importance of watching out for snakes.  I learned how to identify the different species and the ones that were the most dangerous.  I was told what to do if I saw a snake, or if I was bit by one.  It comes with the territory being a child of Appalachia.  One of the things that I have always remembered is – where there are blackberries, there are snakes.

I don’t know if it is the brambles that attracts them, or the plethora of little critters coming to eat berries.  If I were a snake, I’d say it is a little of both.

Here’s the whole post.

Copperhead

Mark O'Connor

REGIONAL--Fans of bluegrass and newgrass recognize Mark O’Connor’s name instantly; his career stretches back more than two decades, and he has a rumpus-room full of country music awards to show for it.

But his musicianship stretches far beyond his Appalachian successes, as this feature interview in the Wenatchee World well describes.

An excerpt:

By the time he was in his teens, the Seattle native had wowed classical violinists, bluegrass masters and jazz giants. Reared on the European masters, he went on to study with Texas folk fiddler Benny Thomasson and won four championships at the National Old-Time Fiddler’s Contest in Weiser, Idaho. Then, at 17, he toured in the Gypsy jazz combo fronted by one of the music’s creators, Stephane Grappelli. Then on to Nashville, where he became a coveted session player and won six Country Music Association awards from 1991 to 1996.

Then, into new territory — creating solo, ensemble and orchestral works that unite all these fields. His “Fiddle Concerto” was the thin end of the wedge, the first of more than 40 compositions that use chamber string instruments — violin, viola, cello — but can’t comfortably be classed in any of the existing genres.

<snip>

I know that I’m a very unusual artist in that I’ve been able to experience artistic success in the main genres, the classical, the jazz and folk and country. I can say it’s an exceptional career for 2009, but in my opinion, I think that’s just an open door for more people to do something similar. I think 10 years from now, 15 years from now, you’re gonna see more people with careers that are similar. I think the instrumental world demands that the artist be a bigger-tent artist. How far are they pushing the boundaries?

Read the whole piece here.

SYLVA–Landscaping crews are wrapping up the placement of sod at Sylva’s Bridge Park this week, just in the nick of time for the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural “Concerts on the Creek” series, to take place each Saturday in August.

Dehlia Low

The 2009 series will feature five top-notch regional bands.

“All the bands have regional recognition and we hope people will visit Sylva for a nice evening and maybe dine out or shop around,” says Chamber representative Mary Kelley. “We’ll have information available for local restaurants, as well as arts and crafts exhibits.”

Music fans are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for the free shows, which run from 6-9 p.m. each Saturday in August.

Aug. 1–Chris Cates and the Master Plan
Asheville band with an eclectic sound that blends rock and roll, funk and R&B, with a dash of beach music.

“Well take everyone on a journey through the history of rock, R&B and beach music, playing a lot of favorites, as well as a few from our latest CD,” said Cates.

Aug. 8–Angi West

A Jackson County native returns home with her Asheville-based band having just released her second CD, “Love is a Special Way of Feeling.” Her avant-garde folk rock music has been described as “Appalachian anti-pop.” In addition to possessing an unforgettable voice, West is also an accomplished pianist.

Aug. 15–The Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet

This unique group serves as quintet in residence at Western Carolina University and has performed nationally in such venues as Carnegie Hall. Their unique music ranges from early renaissance to rock.

Aug. 22–High Windy Band
The future of bluegrass music is showcased by this band from Asheville. This award-winning group brings a modern spin to bluegrass with a high-energy mix that prompted WNC Magazine to name the band one of the top regional acts for 2009.

Aug. 29–Dehlia Low

A critically-acclaimed band from Asheville, this bluegrass group focuses on songwriting that draws from the sounds of early roots country, with instrumentation influenced by early and modern bluegrass. The five band members hail from all points of the bluegrass nation: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Mississippi. Their self-titled EP was named No. 16 in the top 100 releases in 2008 by WNCW.

CULLOWHEE– Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, is winner of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance book award in the category of fiction for his novel “Serena.”

Rash’s “Serena” has been a critical success since its 2008 release and has catapulted the South Carolina-born author to the forefront of the literary world.

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is a regional organization that represents more than 300 independent bookstores and storeowners throughout the Southeast.

Ron Rash

“Serena” is set in pre-Depression-era Appalachia, and tells the story of a timber baron and his ruthless wife who come to the North Carolina mountains to seek their fortune.

In addition to his SIBA award, “Serena” made Rash a finalist for the 2009 Pen/Faulkner Award, was called “one of the best books of the year” by Publishers Weekly, and was Amazon’s No. 7 most sought-after book in 2008.

Critics have praised Rash’s ability to majestically convey the North Carolina backcountry, which is a trademark of his work. The Columbia, S.C., newspaper, The State, praised Rash for his ability to “capture the speech and landscape of the Carolinas with an elegant precision” when commenting on his 2006 novel “The World Made Straight.”

Rash is no stranger to critical acclaim. His 2002 novel “One Foot in Eden” won the Appalachian Writers Association’s Book of the Year award and received a gold medal from ForeWords Magazine for best literary novel.

In April, Rash was a featured speaker at Western Carolina’s Spring Literary Festival. He continues to host readings of his work across the country.

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK–The Nanthala Outdoor Center’s online coordinator, Barbara Rodichok, reviews the area hike she calls her favorite: Silers Bald, along the Appalachian Trail.

Her lead:

When I first moved to Wesser six years ago, I spent my afternoons snapping photos of NOC rafters at Nantahala Falls. My evenings were spent chasing sunsets across the county with my own camera. One of the first places I went is still my favorite, the hike to Silers Bald.

Silers Bald/Barbara Rodichok photo

Here’s another review from hikinginthesmokies.com.

Book:

The Work of Joe Webb
Appalachian Master of Rustic Architecture
By Reuben Cox

A photographer studies the work of a log cabin craftsman

During the 1920s and 1930s, builder Joe Webb constructed nearly three dozen log homes in the tiny Appalachian town of Highlands, North Carolina. The cabins were built without the aid of power tools–or architectural plans–and all of these exquisite structures are located within a five-mile radius.

In The Work of Joe Webb, photographer Reuben Cox captures the atmosphere and ambience of these idiosyncratic and important historic buildings. Using a large-format field camera, Cox has documented all of Webb’s extant cabins. Beautifully presented in tritone, his images explore the lush, rhododendron-filled settings of Webb’s constructions as well as the rich grain of their chestnut and pine posts and beams. Cox, a Highlands native, also includes an essay that places the work within a regional and historical context. Yet this is less an analytical taxonomy of Webb’s cabins than an expansive meditation in which Cox employs his own art to understand another man’s life work and the extraordinary qualities of that which is handmade and unique.

Reuben Cox is a photographer who divides his time between Highlands, North Carolina, and New York City. Cox’s work has appeared in several one-man shows and is represented by Bespoke Gallery. His photographs have also appeared in Blind Spot, Aperture, Doubletake, the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, House and Garden, and other publications. Find out more about Cox and his work at www.reubencox.us.

More images

CULLOWHEE – For the second year in a row, Ron Rash, Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, has been named one of four finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States.

Ron Rash

The honor comes to Rash in recognition of his latest novel “Serena,” which was published by HarperCollins in October. Rash was named a PEN/Faulkner finalist in 2008 for his compilation of short stories, “Chemistry and Other Stories.”

The names of this year’s PEN/Faulker winner and four finalists were announced recently after contest judges reviewed about 350 novels and short story collections written by American authors and published during 2008. Winner Joseph O’Neill, author of the novel “Netherland,” will receive a $15,000 prize, while Rash and the other three finalists receive $5,000 each. All five authors will be honored in a ceremony on Saturday, May 9, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

“Serena,” Rash’s fourth novel, tells the story of timber baron George Pemberton and his ruthless wife, Serena, who come to the North Carolina mountains to create a timber empire. The book drew widespread praise from critics across the nation after its release last fall. A New York Times reviewer complimented Rash’s “elegantly fine-tuned voice” and listed the book as one of her 10 favorites of 2008, and “Serena” made the “best of 2008″ lists of Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. The book also was No. 7 in online retailer Amazon’s list of the 100 best books of the year.

Rash wrote three books of poetry and two short story collections before transitioning to writing a series of award-winning novels, and he learned recently that his fiction piece, “Into the Gorge,” will appear in the 2009 edition of “The Best American Short Stories.” The story was originally published in The Southern Review.

A native of Boiling Springs, Rash teaches Appalachian literature and creative writing at WCU. He is currently preparing his next work, a collection of short stories, for publication.

CULLOWHEE – Nature essayist and environmental activist Jan DeBlieu, national best-seller Jeffrey Lent and newspaperman and National Public Radio contributor Scott Huler will be among the panel of noted authors featured at Western Carolina University’s seventh annual Spring Literary Festival March 30-April 2.

Over the years, the festival has included authors Pat Conroy, Lee Smith, Rick Bragg, Silas House and Kathryn Stripling Byer.

“This widely imitated festival has put WCU on the region’s literary map while giving our students the chance to meet living, working writers who appeal to real Americans,” said Mary Adams, festival director and WCU English professor. “This year’s writers get to the heart of the issues their readers really care about.”

DeBlieu, who will read at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in the auditorium of the Coulter Building, is the author of four books and dozens of articles and essays about people and nature. Her first book, “Hatteras Journal,” is considered a regional classic on the Outer Banks where DeBlieu’s activism helped form a group that successfully kept oil companies from drilling off the North Carolina coast.

“The stories I tell are true; I write nonfiction because I keep coming across stories that are more interesting, complex and surprising than anything I could make up on my own,” DeBlieu said. “More than anything, I’m trying to make connections that haven’t been made before-often between parts of the world that don’t seem to fit together.”

Interweaving personal observation with facts about nature is what creates successful environmental literature, “I write about subjects and situations that interest me as a way of figuring out how I feel about them. At a deep level my writing is an act of exploring my own mind. The best essays-mine and others-are always a personal exploration,” DeBlieu said.

Writers such as DeBlieu are finding new interest in their works as the public becomes more aware of its integral role in the natural world. “The public at large is very much aware that environmental problems like global climate change have the capacity to change the course of our lives. So there’s a lot more reason for the general public to sit up and take notice of environmental literature,” DeBlieu said.

Author Jeffrey Lent’s novel “In The Fall” was a national bestseller and New York Times Book Review notable book for 2000. His follow-up, “Lost Nation,” was a summer reading pick for the Washington Post and USA Today. Both novels are under film option. His latest work is “After You’ve Gone.”

With a diverse background, Scott Huler has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, NASCAR to the stealth bomber. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Fortune magazine, among others. His fifth book is “No-Man’s Lands.”

WCU’s new Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies, Robert Conley, will read from his body of work that includes more than 80 books, many about Cherokee people. Conley has received the Western Writers of America Spur three times and earned the Cherokee Medal of Honor in 2000.

Pamela Duncan, a new member of WCU’s creative writing faculty, joins fellow professors and writers Ron Rash and Catherine Carter in presenting their recent work. Duncan was the 2007 recipient of the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South.

Rash is enjoying the success of his fourth novel, “Serena,” which has been named to the Publishers Weekly “Best Books of the Year” list. His multitude of awards includes the O. Henry Prize. He has written three collections of poems and three collections of stories in addition to his three previous novels, “One Foot in Eden,” “Saints at the River” and “The World Made Straight.”

Carter is the mentor for the western division of the Gilbert Chappell Distinguished Poets Series, which was created to foster the reading, writing, and enjoyment of poetry across North Carolina. Her full-length book of poems “The Memory of Gills” won the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry, and one of her poems was selected for the 2009 edition of “Best American Poetry.” She will host a reading by competitively selected student poets from Western North Carolina.

Also as part of the festival, poets Brian Brodeur and C.S. Carrier will hold a joint reading. Brodeur’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Gettysburg Review, Margie, The Missouri Review, River Styx and Verse Daily. Carrier, a WCU graduate, has published poems in Pleiades, Verse, Redactions, LIT, Castagraf and Good Foot.

Oprah Winfrey chose festival participant A. Manette Ansay’s first novel “Vinegar Hill” as her November 1999 book club selection. Ansay has gone on to publish five additional works and win a Pushcart Prize. Her forthcoming novel, “Good Things I Wish You,” will be published this summer.

Steve Yarbrough comes with a Southern Renaissance man’s upbringing. His father was an auto mechanic, cotton farmer, gin operator and technician at a TV station while his mother was a store clerk. Yarbrough was an all-state football lineman and played in various country and rock bands before becoming a professor of creative writing. His novel “Prisoners of War” was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award.

Jewell Parker Rhodes is the author of five novels: “Voodoo Dreams,” “Magic City,” “Douglass’ Women,” “Voodoo Season” and “Yellow Moon,” as well as a memoir, “Porch Stories: A Grandmother’s Guide to Happiness.” Her sixth novel, “Hurricane Levee Blues,” is forthcoming, as is a young adult novel titled “Ninth Ward.”

All readings, except the event featuring DeBlieu, will be held in the theater of WCU’s A.K. Hinds University Center. The reading with DeBlieu will be in Coulter auditorium. All events are free and open to the public. Authors will sign their works after each reading.

Events are scheduled as follows:

Monday, March 30 – Robert Conley at noon, Brian Brodeur and C.S. Carrier at 4 p.m., A. Manette Ansay at 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, March 31 – Jeffrey Lent at 4 p.m., Steve Yarborough at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 1 – Scott Huler at 4 p.m., Jewell Parker Rhodes at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 2 – Catherine Carter at noon, Pamela Duncan and Ron Rash at 4 p.m., Jan DeBlieu at 7:30 p.m.

The WCU Visiting Writers Series; Visiting Scholars Fund; English department; Lectures, Concerts and Exhibition Series; and Office of the Chancellor sponsor the Spring Literary Festival.

For more information, call (828) 227-3265, e-mail info@litfestival.org or visit www.LitFestival.org. Directions and a campus map may be found at www.wcu.edu.

REGIONAL–Dave Tabler, the blogger of Hillbilly Savants and Appalachian History fame, put together this nice piece on “madstones”.

No longer used, madstones are still treasured by families that own them. Image from nchealthandhealing.com

These were rocks (or calculus from the bellies of deer, depending on who you ask) that, when applied to a wound, would draw the “poison” out.

Rabies is caused by a virus, of course, but belief in the effectiveness of madstones was widespread before Pasteur developed his vaccination, and before his successful cure came about, death was nearly assured – unless you had a madstone. Probably even then, come to think of it.

Here’s an excerpt from Tabler:

To treat someone bitten by a rabid animal you’d boil the madstone in sweet milk and then, while it was still hot, apply the stone to the wound, states Douglas Mahnkey in ‘Hill and Holler Stories.’

“If the dog was actually mad, the stone stuck to the wound and would draw the ‘pizen’ out,” he continues. “Once the stone was filled with the poison it would drop off, and it was again boiled in sweet milk and applied to the wound. The milk would turn green. This process was repeated until the stone no longer adhered to the wound.”

SYLVA-The 12th annual Greening Up the Mountains spring festival provides a fun-filled day in downtown Sylva on Saturday, April 25.

The festival draws its name from the way spring creeps up the mountain sides. It began as a celebration of Earth Day and has evolved into a community celebration of spring under the guidance of the Downtown Sylva Association.

Sylva’s Main Street will be lined with a variety of booths, showcasing everything from local artisans to environmental education groups to food vendors. There will be activities for children, along with live music throughout the day featuring well-known local and regional acts playing a variety of genres.

This year’s music headliner is regional bluegrass favorite Balsam Range.

The center block of this year’s festival will be devoted to environmental education and other “green” initiatives, featuring demonstrations and information from community groups such as WATR, Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Jackson County Green Energy Park.

The Jackson County Cooperative Extension is hosting a scavenger hunt that will search the festival for all things “green.”

A special section of heritage craft demonstrations, called the Traditional Heritage Walk, will be hosted by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia. The walk will feature 10 crafters demonstrating skills passed down through the generations. This includes: caning chairs, quilting, wood carving, canning and preserving, sewing, pottery, cross-stitching and doll making. This area will also feature a return of the Heritage Alive Mountain Youth Talent Contest, showcasing local talent.

The free festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., begins with the annual Greening Up the Mountains 5K run/walk.

For more information, visit www.downtownsylva.org or call festival coordinator Larissa Miller at (828) 586-1577. Lodging information is available by calling (800) 962-1911.