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.

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.

February, 2009

Monthly best-selling regional books, based on the sales of independent booksellers in far-western North Carolina counties. Special thanks in helping pull together this, our inaugural list, to City Lights Bookstore in Sylva and the Curiosity Shop bookstore, with locations in Murphy and Andrews.

1.		Serena Ron Rash
2.		Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains Edit.: Georgann Eubanks
3.		Sylva Edit.: Lynn Hotaling
4.		Ghost Cats of the South Randy Russell
5.		North Carolina Then and Now Kevin Adams
6.		Moon Women Pamela Duncan
7.		History, Myths and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees James Mooney
8.		The Blue Ridge Parkway by Foot Tim Pegram
9.		Trail of Tears: The Rise & Fall of the Cherokee Nation John Ehle
10.		The Fireman’s Wife Jack Riggs

Also receiving votes: Gratitude for Shoes by Cleo Hicks Williams (Self-published through I-Universe),
Promises of Change by Joan Medlicott, Month by Month Gardening in the Carolinas by Bob Polomski, Weird Carolinas by Roger Manley, The Secret War by Terrell Garren, Big Beautiful by Pamela Duncan, Hiwassee; Novel of the Civil War by Charles Price, Over in the Meadow illus. by E.J. Keats, One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash, Trouble at the Forks by Walter Middleton

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 – The verdict is in – book critics across the country are falling in love with “Serena,” the latest novel penned by Ron Rash, Western Carolina University’s Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture.

Since the September publication of “Serena” by HarperCollins, the positive reviews have been coming in fast and furious for Rash, a descendant of Southern Appalachian families who was raised in Boiling Springs, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English, and wrote three collections of poetry and two collections of short stories before transitioning to writing novels.

Read the Reviews

New York Times
Wilmington Star-News
Creative Loafing
About.com: Contemporary Literature
Washington Post
Raleigh News and Observer
BookPage.com
San Francisco Chronicle
Christian Science Monitor
Seattle Times

In early November, Rash learned that “Serena” had been named to the Publishers Weekly “Best Books of the Year” list, and that the novel had come in at No. 7 on the online retailer Amazon’s list of the 100 best books of 2008. Those accolades have been accompanied by a flurry of glowing reviews in newspapers and magazines across the nation, including the New York Times, in which reviewer Janet Maslin praised Rash’s “elegantly fine-tuned voice.”

Rash was recently notified that “Serena,” which is already being translated into Dutch and French, will be on a soon-to-be-released list of the New York Times’ best books of the year. Novelist Pat Conroy has stated that Rash’s fourth novel “catapults him to the front ranks of the best American novelists.”

Rash said the praise for “Serena” is encouraging because “it’s the book I worked on the hardest. It’s nice to get a good response to it,” he said.

As the literary praise comes his way, Rash stays busy as he teaches Appalachian literature and creative writing at WCU, and continues to prepare his next published work, a collection of short stories. He also is being called upon more often to present readings across the country, and in recent months has been to Boston, Portland and Cincinnati. “The best part of that is getting to meet writers I admire,” Rash said.

The Southern Appalachians are a common theme that runs throughout Rash’s poetry, short stories and novels, and “Serena” is no different. The novel tells the story of a timber baron, George Pemberton, and his ruthless wife, Serena, who come to the North Carolina mountains to create a timber empire.

Rash says each of his three previous novels began with a single image that came to his mind, but “Serena” started with two images: a huge table that he saw at a resort in Waynesville that had been hewn from a single piece of yellow poplar, and an image of a woman riding a ridge crest on a “magnificent white stallion” that popped into his head while he was driving through the mountains. That woman is his fictional Serena.