In part two of a three-part series, HQ profiles six intriguing books that all have ties to the Huntington region.
By Nicole Sheets
HQ 56 | SUMMER 2005
We never outgrow the pleasures of stories, or music.
In the last issue of Huntington Quarterly, we sampled summer reads by writers with ties to Huntington, from history and memoir to debut novels. In this second segment we spotlight stories for both children and adults, as well as the music of poetry.
Wild Sweet Notes II: More Great Poetry from West Virginia
Ace Boggess, editor
One volume just isn’t enough to showcase Mountain State verse. Following the success of Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry (2000), this most recent collection, edited by Huntington resident Ace Boggess, boasts more than 200 poems from 60 poets – “all West Virginians by birth or calling.” Boggess’ own achievements include a volume of poetry, The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (2003), and novel, Displaced Hours, an e-book published last October (www.gattopublishing.com).
Huntington’s bards are well represented in the anthology, with more than 15 area poets included.
The anthology roughly divides into thirds by “newcomers, up-and-comers, and how-comers,” Boggess explained. Wild Sweet Notes has a strict five year residency rule for contributors, and some newcomers, including Huntington writer Mary Moore, were eligible for this second volume.
Up-and-comers are poets with talent who Boggess helped gain publishing experience. How-comers include established poets Tom Andrews and Martin Lammon, founder of Kestrel magazine, and others whose omission from the first volume puzzled poetry fans.
“For people who really like poetry, there’s a lot in here that they’re going to love,” Boggess said.
Contributor Marged Howley had similar praise: “In a world where the sense of place is becoming increasingly irrelevant and yet still matters so much to West Virginians, this anthology serves as a kind of buoy.”
The book is available at Borders, Empire Books, www.amazon.com or by calling Publisher’s Place at (304) 697-3236.
Black Patent Leather Shoes & Transparent Pie
Sydney Burns Turnbull
“When I found out people laughed, I kept writing,” said Sydney Burns Turnbull, author of Black Patent Leather Shoes & Transparent Pie: An Eastern Kentucky Girl Remembers. A Louisa, Kentucky native, Turnbull has lived in Huntington for over 50 years.
Turnbull originally set out to write a murder mystery. As a participant in Dr. John Patrick Grace’s Life Writing class, though, Turnbull produced a memoir of her life from age 8 to 18.
For Turnbull, the book was also a tool for coping with the death of her husband, William C. Turnbull. As she mined the past for stories, she was in another “time zone,” she said. “Every time I was back here, I wasn’t grieving but remembering.”
Black Patent Leather brims with colorful, often laugh-out-loud funny anecdotes, and a celebration of what Grace called an “apple-pie adolescence.” Turnbull said, “It’s a time that won’t ever come again because the world has changed.”
Proceeds from the book will benefit the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.
The book is available at Borders, Empire Books and www.amazon.com.
Far Appalachia: Following the New River North (2001)
Noah Adams
Rivers make good symbols. Just ask Mark Twain.
National Public Radio fans have enjoyed journalist Noah Adams’ dispatches for years.
In Far Appalachia, Adams, an Ashland, Kentucky native, moves with the New River through North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia in this “quietly personal chronicle,” concluding at Hawks Nest and Gauley Bridge.
Adams weaves together “the experiences of many trips set in the narrative form of a single river adventure,” he explains early in the book. These encounters move from springtime to fall, and occur on foot, by bike, canoe and white water raft.
There’s also a guidebook element to Far Appalachia, as Adams includes the latitude and longitude of his adventures for readers who wish to retrace his steps.
Coursing through the book is Adams’ voice, witty yet humble, setting down the way things look, the way they sound.
“This is just a book about a river,” Adams claims in the book’s preface. “There was no quest involved, only a wish to understand more about this part of the country and my family’s past.” The fulfillment of that wish compels us to read more.
The book is available at Borders, Empire Books, the Jesse Stuart Foundation (www.jsfbooks.com) and www.amazon.com.
Tragedy on Greasy Ridge: True Stories from Appalachian Ohio
Danny Fulks
When writer Danny Fulks moved from his native Gallia County, Ohio, to teach at Marshall University, he realized how easily defined Appalachian Ohio could be. “Folks from both sides of the river have some of the same characteristics – primarily white Protestant rural. They like ham and eggs. They have revivals and like bluegrass,” Fulks said.
Tragedy on Greasy Ridge is a collection of previously published narrative essays – a “greatest hits” – as well as a new essay, the title piece.
“I use small words,” Fulks said of his style. “I want hard nouns and verbs, and if a person’s dead, they’re dead.”
Recalling childhood in Appalachia, Fulks said “They didn’t have babysitters. They took you everywhere they went – church, funerals. After I found words, I could describe those experiences.”
The book also contains its share of migration stories, chronicling Appalachia’s “long tradition of leaving for work.”
Tragedy on Greasy Ridge shows readers “what it’s like to live in Northern Appalachia in the 20th century,” Fulks said, “from how to chew tobacco to how to build a fire to how to get saved in church.”
The book is available from the Jesse Stuart Foundation store (www.jsfbooks.com), Borders, Empire Books and www.amazon.com.
“The Crimson Worm”
Rita Salyers
Many of Rita Salyers’ writing projects have been 23 years in the making.
A substitute teacher in Kentucky, Salyers started writing in part because of her daughter, Julie, now 25. “She was one of those kids who wanted you to read to her,” Salyers said.
In April 2004 Salyers published with Ashland based Avant Garde Press her book Heavenly Nursery Rhymes, which she distributes on weekly visits to children at Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital.
The idea for Salyers’ most recent children’s book, The Crimson Worm, published earlier this year, came from a sermon. The book is a parable that “teaches children the meekness of Christ,” she said. And OK, so the crimson worm is actually an insect. “We took some literary license,” Salyers said.
Praising local artist Michael Mayne, Salyers said “The illustrations are phenomenal.” Salyers is also working on a book series for more advanced readers entitled, Presley Mountain Tales. Presley, Salyer’s maiden name, is a nod to her own family history. “My grandparents raised a large family in Appalachia in the early 1900s,” she said.
Her first three titles are available through www.amazon.com and www.avantgardepublishing.com.
The Cold Dish
Craig Johnson
Sheriff Walt Longmire, of Absaroka County, Wyoming, hunts for clues in a murder case crackling with racial tension. After his wife’s death and a career slump, Longmire is also in the process of coming back to life.
A creation of Huntington native Craig Johnson, Longmire is a sharpshooter with humor. For example, Longmire reflects on death: “There’s a religion worthy of this rite of passage, of taking that final step from being a vertical creature to a horizontal one.”
Johnson, a graduate o f Marshall and Temple universities, lives on a ranch in Ucross, Wyoming. His background in education and law enforcement color his characters: “I like to think that my experiences as a police officer have given me an insight as to why people do the things they do to each other,” Johnson said. “I do know that if you’re honest with your characters, like people, they will always surprise you.”
Johnson credits his upbringing in shaping him as a writer: “I’m a product of one of those families that used to go out on the porch and talk after dinner, not watch television … just talk.”
The Cold Dish, Johnson’s first novel, is an Independent Booksellers Association Booksense pick and was much celebrated at readings Johnson gave in Huntington last May. Expect Johnson’s next book in the series in 2006. For more information, visit www.craigallenjohnson.com
The book is available at Empire Books, Borders and www.amazon.com.
Great stories await at local and online bookstores. In the upcoming issue we’ll look at more good reads from our wealth of local talent.
