October 2019 News from the Appalachian Literary Scene
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes is on the New York Times Bestseller Lists in hardback fiction, jumping up to #9 in Hardcover Frontlist Fiction on their October 6-12 list.
The Giver of Stars was also on the October 2019 Library Reads list and the American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next list for October, on the Fall/Winter Buzz Books list, AND is a 2019 Fall Okra Pick from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson is also a Fall Okra Pick and on both the Fall/Winter Buzz Books List and the Library Reads List.
Another Fall Okra Pick is Watershed by Mark Barr. It is also on the Southern Living list of recommended books for this Fall.
Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography by George Ellison and Janet McCue has won the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award for 2019. It is published by the Great Smoky Mountains Association.
The 22nd Annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards Celebration was held October 19th. The winners announced included:
Poetry: Search and Rescue by Michael Chitwood.
The People’s Choice Award in Fiction went to Tony’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani, who grew up in Big Stone Gap. The book is set on the Jersey Shore, Las Vegas, and Hollywood.
On the October 2019 Indie Next List Now in Paperback is Sugar Run by Mesha Maren.
Rob Neufeld of Asheville, who wrote a weekly column on local history for the Asheville Citizen-Times, died on October 23 at the age 65 of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease –He is the author of A Popular History of Western North Carolina: Mountains, Heroes & Hootnoggers and 27 Views of Asheville. He also served as co-editor with Gail Godwin of her The Making of a Writer: Journals.
