A 
SOUTHERN WRITERS
ISSUE 1
Table of Contents
By KIM HOLLOWAY
Dear Readers,
I will never forget the first time that I heard Lee Smith read her work; there is simply nothing like it. This particular reading occurred at an Appalachian Studies Association conference in Boone, North Carolina, in 1998. I had already read most of Smith's novels and short stories by the time I attended the conference and admired her storytelling and her unique narrative voice. But when she started reading aloud from Saving Grace, I felt as if I were encountering her work for the first time. I was immediately transported to Gracie's world. When she finished, I stood in line and bought a copy of Saving Grace, waiting somewhat impatiently to speak with the author of this book, a book that I soon learned was both wonderfully written and a challenge to examine myself and my beliefs. Today, when I read Saving Grace, I can still hear Smith's voice, new layers of meaning being added with each reading
Introduction to "Breaking Up Christmas"
By SHARYN MCCRUMB
"Breaking Up Christmas" is a term used in the Southern Appalachians for a musical get-together held around January 6th, marking the end of the holiday season. The gathering is a centuries-old tradition, dating back to the time when a calendar adjustment was made inserting leap year into our system of measurement, and causing the old dates suddenly to be adjusted by several weeks. Many people mistrusted the new system of date-keeping, and insisted on celebrating Christmas when they thought it should be observed-- thus about twelve days later than the rest of the world's reckoning.
In this novel, Professor Marian McLeod returns to her family home during the college Christmas break...
By SHARYN MCCRUMB
Sooner or later class reunions are held in cemeteries.
Strange that she should have come here directly, instead of going to the house first, but on mid December afternoons, one is always conscious of the diminishing light, and the shadows were already long and the sun low over the treetops by the time she reached Elmoor that afternoon. The day had been warm for December, but the wind was sharper now. It blew the dead leaves across the bronze markers in the new part of the cemetery, and it had toppled some of the plastic Christmas wreaths and the poinsettia plants that had been set beside the older granite headstones.
Marian wondered why people would set up Christmas wreaths on loved ones'graves. Was it a wistful urge not to leave them out of the holiday altogether, or simply that they felt the need to coordinate their grief with the passing seasons-- pink and white for spring, orange and gold for autumn, and so on? She had no desire to do so herself, but that was because she thought of grief as a private matter, which it didn't seem to be for most of the people in Elmoor. After all these years she still marveled that the obituary page of the local paper carried photos of long dead people and little messages from those they left behind. "We miss you, Kevin." or "Jennifer, Happy Fifth Birthday in Heaven from Mom and Dad and Jimmy." Marian subscribed to the local paper by mail, so that the latest issue arrived every Friday neatly folded in her campus mailbox. Perhaps the paper also sent a copy to some celestial archive. Flowers on holidays.paid notices on anniversaries of birth and death. Do the dead keep score?
Sharyn McCrumb, Keeper of the Legends (Biography)
By KIM HOLLOWAY
Appalachian author Sharyn McCrumb comes from a family of storytellers. Storytelling is in her genes-her grandfathers were circuit-riding preachers over a century ago, and her father's bedtime stories consisted of classics, such as The Iliad and The Odyssey, recast for a child. This tradition of storytelling prepared her to become a storyteller herself.
Born in North Carolina, McCrumb is the product of a "mixed" marriage-of the mountain south on her father's side and the flatland south on her mother's side. This dual heritage has provided her with an "outsider's" perspective that she brings to all her works - a sense of not quite belonging completely in either culture but residing somewhere in between. The idea of liminality - being betwixt and between-plays an important role in McCrumb's fiction, and it is this dual heritage that gives her a voice of authority and authenticity that claims her readers' attention from the first word.
McCrumb is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech, where she earned a Master of Arts in English. Before turning her attention to full-time writing, she taught journalism and Appalachian studies and worked as reporter.
A Bibliography of Sharyn McCrumb's Works
Novels by Sharyn McCrumb
The Ballad of Frankie Silver. Dutton, 1998. Signet, 1999. Hodder, 1998. (Ballad Novel)
Bimbos of the Death Sun. TSR, 1987, Penguin 1989, Ballantine, 1997. (Satirical Novel)
Ghost Riders. Dutton, July 2003. Signet 2004. (Ballad Novel)
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. Scribner's,1992; Onyx, 1993. Hodder, 1996. (Ballad Novel)
Highland Laddie Gone. Avon, 1986; Ballantine 1991; Severn House, 1993. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O. Scribner's, 1990; Hodder, 1995. Ballantine, 1991. (Ballad Novel)
If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him. Ballantine, 1995; soft cover 1996. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
Lovely in Her Bones. Avon, 1985; Ballantine 1990; Severn House, 1993. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
Missing Susan. Ballantine, September 1990; soft-cover 1992. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
MacPherson's Lament. Ballantine 1992; soft-cover 1993. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
Once Around the Track. Kensington 2007. (In press.)
Paying the Piper. Ballantine, 1988; hardcover Severn House,1991. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
PMS Outlaws. Ballantine, September 2000. Softcover Ballantine 2001. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
The Rosewood Casket. Dutton,1996. Hodder & Stoughton, 1996. Signet, 1997. (Ballad Novel)
She Walks These Hills. Scribner's, 1994; Signet, 1995.; Hodder,1996. (Ballad Novel)
Sick of Shadows. Avon, 1984; Ballantine, 1989; Severn House 1992. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
The Songcatcher. Dutton, 2001. Hodder 2001. Signet, 2002. (Ballad Novel)
St. Dale. Kensington, 2005. (Ballad Novel)
The Windsor Knot. Ballantine, 1990; soft-cover 1992. (Elizabeth MacPherson Novel)
Zombies of the Gene Pool. Simon & Schuster,1992, soft-cover Ballantine,1993.(Satirical Novel)
With St. Dale, Author Sharyn McCrumb Can Add NASCAR Fans to Her Admirers
By JEFF BYRD
There can be no debate that Dale Earnhardt was the biggest star in the NASCAR universe up until his untimely death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Even in death, his souvenirs continue to outsell all other drivers except Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt's son, Dale Jr. That is a true testament to Earnhardt Sr.'s staying power among the race track faithful.
But in the grand scheme of things, his death opened the door for NASCAR to ascend to a level of awareness that its founding fathers never envisioned. While Earnhardt simply won races that resulted in seven NASCAR championships, the intensity of his followers' devotion was well known inside the sport. To the mainstream media, he was just another crazy race car driver from the South.
Upon his death, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and the network evening news shows suddenly paid attention to Earnhardt and the sport in which he competed. That fateful crash on the banks of Daytona opened the eyes of everyday Americans and NASCAR never would be the same.
An Interview with Robert Olen Butler and Elizabeth Dewberry
By DALE BROWN
The 1995 marriage of novelists Elizabeth Dewberry and Robert Olen Butler brought together two remarkable writers. I spoke with them in 1996 during their visit to Louisville, Kentucky where Dewberry's play, "Flesh and Blood," was running at the Humana Festival of the Arts. They spoke of what their marriage would mean to their respective careers, the instincts they bring to their stories, the responses of critics, and the business of fiction. Elizabeth Dewberry wrote her first novel as a private exercise while finishing her doctoral dissertation at Emory University in 1989. Many Things Have Happened since He Died, not at first intended for publication, is the personal journal of a young woman working her way through the consequences of a fundamentalist background and an abusive marriage. Surprised by the success, Dewberry went on to write Break the Heart of Me, a 1994 novel that also explores issues of abuse, religion, and finding one's way in a culture of talk shows and plastic. Since our original interview in 1996, she has added two more novels: Sacrament of Lies in 2002 and the just released His Lovely Wife. She has also published several plays. Robert Olen Butler has won considerable acclaim for his 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning short story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. His career, however, reaches back to his 1980 Alleys of Eden, a novel growing out of his service with the intelligence corps in Vietnam. Nine other novels draw on the Vietnam material as well as his fascination with the human longing for connection expressed in sexuality and spirituality. His 1996 novel, They Whisper, is a dark and dramatic treatment of obsessive faith in the context of a marriage going bad. Since our original interview, he has added three novels to his list alongside two short story collections and a recent primer on writing, From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction. Both writers have had careers that include the teaching of writing to college students, Dewberry at Ohio State University and Butler at McNeese State University. Both have turned their creative gifts to other genres: Dewberry to playwrighting and Butler to screenwriting, and they continue to be popular presenters at conferences and festivals around the country. Their conspicuous place in contemporary American literature and the occasion of Dewberry's new novel provides the moment for visiting their thoughts at the beginning of their remarkable partnership.
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