Lee Smith is simply not only one of the most popular Appalachian authors, she is also one of the most loved. Her magnetic personality spills out all over every room she enters. Lee Smith was born and grew up in Grundy, Virginia, deep inn the coalfields. Her father owned and operated both the Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store and the Ben Franklin Five and Dime store there. Smith published her first book when she was a student at Hollins University, but didn't start writing about Appalachia until she was teaching junior high school in Nashville while her first husband was teaching poetry at Vanderbilt. She is such a good story-teller, that sometimes the wisdom she conveys about the human condition takes the reader by surprise. Her work includes many novels and story collections.
Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi, 2001. Trade paperback.