Rusty Barnes's Blog: Fried Chicken and Coffee, page 49

New Content Coming Soon

Just letting you all know.


  I think it's a sign my family's getting older and older, or just not hunting, or something. No one got a deer on the first or second day, or at all that I've heard of. And I know the PA deer population is exploding and has been for some time. I never got one. I had a chance a couple times. My brother and I were right down behind the house at joining of our feeder crick with Seeley Creek. I didn't have my mind in the hunt--I often didn't--so my brother tapped me on t...

Books

I owe a whole shit-ton of you (meaning contribs) books. I've been so busy for the last two months I'd forgotten about that, uh, very important part of the deal for publishing here. Please remind me in comments if I haven't sent you a book and indicate your preference for fiction or poetry. Also send your snail-mail address to rusty.barnes@gmail.com.

Books

I owe a whole shit-ton of you (meaning contribs) books. I've been so busy for the last two months I'd forgotten about that, uh, very important part of the deal for publishing here. Please remind me in comments if I haven't sent you a book and indicate your preference for fiction or poetry. Also send your snail-mail address to rusty.barnes@gmail.com.

Dark Hole, fiction by Rosanne Griffeth

If you misstep just six inches to your right, you will fall right into it. It swirls brightly and is fit only for trout to live in. If you do misstep, you will plunge up to your neck in the freezing water. Of all the swimming holes along Big Creek, those deep pockets of cold water children play in all summer; the Dark Hole is the loneliest one. No one wants to swim there.

She was pretty and delicate in a Melungeon way, lighter of skin than most of her relatives and shy like a white calf. Her...

William Gay Interviewed at the Oxford American

William Gay has carved for himself an enduring position in the modern Southern literary landscape, and the echoes of his work have reverberated far beyond the red clay hills surrounding his home in Hohenwald, Tennessee. The South of his books is often dark and violent, yet thankful for such simple sights as a hayfield at dusk filled with fireflies, or a demure feminine smile. In a 2000 NEW YORK TIMES book review, fellow Southerner Tony Earley wrote, "At his best, Gay writes with the wisdom...

A Writer's Apprenticeship: Larry Brown – Part II of VIII

Hi--here's a quick link to the next Larry Brown post on Darnell Arnoult's blog.


More from Fried Chicken later on this week. We're digging out from book boxes right now.

Larry Brown News

I post it when I have it, folks. And as I'm right in the middle of moving sixty-five cases of books, along with the unimportant stuff, this is likely all you'll get out of me this week, so pay attention to Darnell Arnoult at Dancing with the Gorilla.

Larry Brown (July 9, 1951 – November 24, 2001) is one of the most important contemporary Southern writers, and he is also one of the most important American writers. Brown's work often focuses on the rural and small-town working class and those m...

Norma White Dead

Sad news. Thanks to Kevin Stewart off Facebook for the link. Her husband of course, was The Dancing Outlaw, Jesco White. 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In a West Virginia-produced film about them, Jesco "The Dancing Outlaw" White and his wife Norma J. White gave the world a glimpse into their unusual lives. Norma White, 70, died in Charleston Thursday after suffering from a terminal illness.


Filmmaker Jacob Young helped bring Jesco to the attention of a national audience when Young created his...

Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mothers

Still: Literature of the Mountain South

Here's a magazine and a notion that's sure to become a favorite. Celebrate the inaugural issue of Still, edited by Silas House (fiction) Marianne Worthington (poetry) and Jason Howard (nonfiction). From their 'about the name' page:

About our name . . .

To be a writer is to learn how to be still.

The moonshine still is one of the stereotypical images of Appalachia.

As a culture, Appalachia has been told for decades that it is disappearing.  We are still here, proud and strong as ever.

James Stillspan