This is my personal website with links to other Southern and Appalachian writers. Please come back often as the content is regularly updated.
NEW: Listen to my story "Carrion" being read on Lexington, Kentucky's Literary show ACCENTS.
Note: The story is read at the opening, shortly after the introduction, approximately two minutes in.
katerinaklemer.com/audio/accents_120409.mp3.
My novel Lambs of Men will be published by Casperian Books in Fall 2010. Lambs is the story of Hiram Tobit, a Marine returning from the horror of the First World War to seek a new life in his childhood mountain home. The country he discovers, however, is a harbinger of old family resentment and a shocking act of violence as terrible as anything he witnessed on the battlefields of France. Check back for details and a chapter sample.
Appalachian Writing Today
I believe that Appalachian writing is about to come into its maturity. Visit my blog to see my more general thoughts about regionalism and how it has negatively affected writing today, and how we can change it.
Like many other marginalized parts of the world, Appalachia has struggled to define what it is. These mountains are perpetually tugged between two old giants — Place and Culture. As a result, most Literature of Appalachia is concerned with delimiting the context in which it occurs. This anthropological concern makes sense in terms of self-preservation. However, we as Appalachian writers need to consciously move beyond mere regionalism in our work. The touching stories of grandaddy's favorite rocking chair will not earn us recognition as a force to be reckoned with in modern American Letters.
Making the Next Step
We are on the edge of a renaissance of literature. That might sound credulous given the increasing dominance of other forms of media. However, we are trying to sort out who we are as a people and in the process are discovering what a surprisingly diverse and powerful demographic we are. The nature of being Appalachian has undergone a great change within this generation. The world is more permeable, and dated ideas of mountain reclusion are little more than well worn punch lines. The city of Asheville here in Western North Carolina is a perfect example. It hosts a new kind of Appalachian that bears as much authenticity as the iconic mountain men described in Horace Kephart's famous study of the region, Our Southern Highlanders.