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On Thursday, April 5th, Nikki Giovanni delivered the 2018 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee.   The Finalists for the 2018 Southern Book Prize have been announced. Winners will be announced on July 4rh. Literary Fiction The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash The Weight of This World by David Joy Juvenile Fiction Serafina and the Splintered Heart by Robert Beatty Biography and History The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kierman   The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has announced its Spring 2018...

Obituary for John Ehle by George Brosi             John Ehle, one of our most distinguished Appalachian literary figures, died on March 24 in his Winston-Salem, North Carolina, home at the age of 92.  His wife, Rosemay Harris, and their daughter, Jennifer Ehle, were at his side.  Ehle’s maternal ancestors were pioneers from families who settled in both Kentucky and Virginia, and his mother grew up on a dairy farm near Asheville. His paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Germany, and his grandfather was a tailor in Morgantown, West Virginia, who sent his son to The Bingham School in Asheville.  Ehle’s father remained...

Jayne Anne Phillips, a native of Buckhannon, West Virginia, and the author of five acclaimed novels and six story collections, is one of seven authors to be elected for 2018 into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, one of the most prestigious literary awards available. The Animators the first novel of Eastern Kentucky author, Kayla Rae Whitaker, made the Kirkus Reviews list of “The most overlooked books of 2017.” Each month the American Booksellers Association puts out a list called the Indie Next Previews. Their January, 2019 list included Fire Sermon, the first novel by Jamie Quatro, the Lookout...

The Fellowship of Southern Writers has awarded Terry Roberts its 2017 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South. From a Madison County, North Carolina, family, Roberts was raised near Weaverville and now lives in Asheville where he serves as the Director of the National Paideia Center. He is the author of two novels, A Short Time to Stay Here (2012) and That Bright Land (1916)   The Southern Independent Bookstore Alliance has announced its Okra Picks of books that have been or will be published this Winter. They include: Under a Cloudless Sky by Chris Fabry. A Christian...

On December 28, Anne Caudill, the widow of Harry M. Caudill who died in 1990, passed away. Anne worked closely with her husband in his writing career, both in research and editing. Best known for Night Comes to the Cumberlands, Caudill also wrote Theirs Be the Power that detailed how corporate interests ripped off the people of Eastern Kentucky – including Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s work in the Harlan County courthouse seeking coal lands for the Delano family interests. My Land Is Dying was one of the first books to explain and condemn strip mining for coal. Entertainment Weekly magazine posted...