In Book Riot, Kendra Winchester holds up West Virginia University Press as one of the “wonderful university and indie presses” that “provide a place for a lot of books big publishing doesn’t want to take a risk on.” Her piece (subtitled “supporting small presses supports communities”) quotes WVU Press staff alongside publishing professionals from Feminist Press and Hub City Press. Thanks, Kendra!
Neema Avashia’s Another Appalachia is named a finalist for the Lambda Literary “Lammies” Award, with winners to be announced June 9 in New York. Avashia’s book is judged “astute and beautifully crafted” in the Southern Literary Review. She talks with the Read Appalachia podcast.
In Other Lifetimes All I’ve Lost Comes Back to Me is praised as “a deep and howling portrait of longing and loneliness” in the Boston Globe and “brilliantly aching and haunting” in Lilith. Author Courtney Sender appears in Slate with an essay on family, citizenship, and the difficult history of Jews in Europe.
At the website for the Today Show, Jessica George, author of the latest “Read with Jenna” pick, recommends Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. “I think short stories are notoriously difficult to write because you have so much to pack into such a small word count, but I think Deesha did this effortlessly.” Philyaw also makes another (!) appearance in the New York Times, where she talks with Gina Cherelus for the “Third Wheel” column.
Davon Loeb’s The In-Betweens is positively reviewed in Library Journal, which finds it “ideal for those interested in descriptive, insightful stories about what it is like to not quite fit in anywhere.” The book also earns a mention in Vol. 1 Brooklyn.
Rachel King talks with radio station KGNU about her book Bratwurst Haven, which is named a selection of the Boulder Book Club.
The literary review TriQuarterly interviews Kristine Langley Mahler about her “classic coming-of-age memoir,” Curing Season.
American Literary History finds that Cannel Coal Oil Days “offers an alternative history of a region, a progressive vision that opposes the historical exploitation of local labor and resource extraction.”
And H-Civil War talks with Scott MacKenzie about The Fifth Border State, his new history of West Virginia in the Civil War Era.
Upcoming author events include Courtney Sender in New Hampshire, Deesha Philyaw in Mississippi, and Neema Avashia in West Virginia. Keep on top of the latest with our calendar. And don’t forget our AWP and Appalachian studies sales, which run through the end of April!