Scribblers: Stalking The Authors Of Appalachia

By Stephen Kirk and Dashka Slater

Part memoir, part literary history, Scribblers provides a humorous look at the world of wannabe authors while documenting the surprisingly rich literary tradition of the area around Asheville, North... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895873079
• ISBN13: 9780895873071
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: John F Blair Pub
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.3" x 1.0" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Required Reading for All Aspiring Writers

This book is a wonderful romp between insight into the lives of famous Appalachian authors, the angst of a writer trying to get published, and a glimpse into the complex world of publishing from the viewpoint of a seasoned insider. It should be required reading for all aspiring writers. I once read (I don't recall where) that if you can convince yourself not to write, do so, because becoming a writer is tough; however, if you can't stop writing, then write because that's proof that you are a writer. It is a tough business, and this insider's look was very informative. Stephen Kirk's book made me laugh and broke my heart, sometimes on the same page. Now, that's what I call a good book.

An intriguing collection of Appalachian lives

"When I go to the barbershop and the barber says, 'What do you do for a living?' it's like I can't think of a thing to tell him. And the only answer I've come up with, which I have not had the courage yet to speak to a stranger, is to say, 'I collect people's lives.'" In Scribblers, Stephen Kirk, who for 16 years has been editor-in-chief at John F. Blair, Publisher. For Scribblers, he visited Asheville, North Carolina, and its environs, including the Black Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains, to collect people's lives, or, as Kirk elsewhere puts it, "stalking the authors of Appalachia." A better title for Kirk's book would be Scriveners and Scribblers, for he writes about both professionals and amateurs, veterans and wannabes, the masters of prose and those posing as masters. Asheville's greatest literary son is Thomas Wolfe, author of manuscripts famously carved by editor Maxwell Perkins into four novels--Look Homeward, Angel; Of Time and the River; The Web and the Rock; and You Can't Go Home Again. Wolfe was also the writer of numerous high-quality short stories. But there are many other striking literary connections in the greater Asheville area. At nearby Hendersonville, North Carolina, Carl Sandburg had a summer home. O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was buried at Asheville's Riverside Cemetery, where Wolfe's remains also are interred. F. Scott Fitzgerald lived and wrote in the area, and on March 10, 1948, Scott's wife Zelda died in a fire at Asheville's Highland Mental Hospital. Scribblers is a combination of literary history and personal memoir. Kirk interviews many contemporary writers of Appalachia--such as Sharyn McCrumb, Fred Chappell, Charles Price, Gail Godwin, Robert Morgan, Jill Jones, Randy Russell, Bill Brooks, Jan Karon, Joan Medlicott, Ann B. Ross, and Charles (Cold MOuntain) Frazier--sharing fascinating anecdotes about their lives and work. Kirk peppers Scribblers with a self-deprecation that will make you laugh out loud. Moreover, he includes informative details about the creative process, the craft of writing, the publishing industry, the book trade, and print-on-demand technology. An attempt to position this book in a specific genre is doomed to failure. Let's just say that it features many items of interest for inveterate readers. For instance, a woman whom Kirk met at a writers' workshop "began taking trips to Ireland, the land of her ancestry. Struck by the many parallels in folklore, dance, music, and crafts between Ireland and the southern Appalachians--attributed to the Scots-Irish migration of the nineteenth century--she resolved to write a book on the subject." Kirk voice is unpretentious; he pulls no punches; he lets the chips fall where they may; he can laugh at himself as well as at others. And, although one should think twice about riding with the author in his decrepit Oldsmobile, accompanying him through the pages of Scribblers is a delightful trip. I must take issue, however, with Ki

What a great read!

Scribblers is a fun book to read. The author intersperses thoughts on his own life and attempts to publish with interviews with Appalachians writers (well, with the live ones, anyway). The best part for me was his description of the people in his writers' group in Asheville. Why did these people, mostly older and retired from their day jobs, keep trying to publish when they could have been playing golf? What is their drive? Kirk is very honest about the difficulty of getting a book published. But he does meet some older writers, like Joan Medlicott, who did make it and are quite successful. A great book written in an appealing style, whether you are interested in writers or trying to become one yourself.