Conversations With Kentucky Writers

Whether they left and returned, as Wendell Berry and Bobbie Ann Mason did, or adopted the Commonwealth as home, like James Still, or grew up and left for good, like Michael Dorris, Sue Grafton, and Barbara Kingsolver, these writers have one connection: they share a Kentucky influence on their writing and their lives, an influence that Elisabeth Beattie explores in twenty intimate interviews. Conversations with Kentucky Writers was more than three years in the making as Beattie traveled across Kentucky and beyond to capture oral histories on tape. Her exhaustive knowledge of these authors' work helped her to draw our personal revelations about their books, their lives, and the nature of writing. When Still concludes his interview with "I believe I've told you more than anybody", he could be speaking for any of Beattie's subjects. All twenty writers recognize that their works have been significantly influenced by Kentucky, and their experiences offer insights into its rich and now flowering literary heritage. In the words of Billy C. Clark, "Kentucky is a land of storytellers".