"Now, Appalachia"

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Wiley Cash about his latest novel WHEN GHOSTS COME HOME. Wiley Cash is the New York Times best selling author of When Ghosts Come Home, The Last Ballad, A Land More Kind than Home, and This Dark Road to Mercy. He currently serves as Alumni Author-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. He lives with his wife and two young daughters on the coast of North Carolina.

Gervais Hagerty grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. After reporting and producing the news for both radio and television, she taught communications at The Citadel. When not writing, she works on local environmental and transportation issues. She lives in Charleston with her husband and two daughters. In Polite Company is her first novel.

On this episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author James Tate Hill about his new memoir BLIND MAN'S BLUFF. James Tate Hill is the author of Academy Gothic, winner of the 2014 Nilsen Prize for a First Novel, coming in fall 2015 from SMSU Press. He serves as Fiction and Reviews Editor for the literary journal Monkeybicycle, an imprint of Dzanc Books. His short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Story Quarterly, Sonora Review, The South Carolina Review, The Laurel Review, The Texas Review, and elsewhere. He holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University and an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he served as Fiction Editor of The Greensboro Review. Currently he lives in Greensboro with his wife, Lori.

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews scholar and editor Sylvia Shurbutt about a new collection of essays titled SILAS HOUSE: EXPLORING AN APPALACHIAN WRITERS WORK. Sylvia is the director of the Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities. She currently serves as the Appalachian Heritage WIR Project Director at Shepherd University and as the editor of the Anthology of Appalachian Writers.

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot welcomes back author Karen Salyer McElmurrary to talk about her new book: VOICE LESSONS: ESSAYS. Karen Salyer McElmurray’s Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey, was an AWP Award Winner for Creative Nonfiction. Her novels are The Motel of the Stars, Editor’s Pick by Oxford American, and Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven, winner of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing. Her nonfiction work has been three times Notable in Best American Essays, several times a Pushcart nominee, and a recipient of the Annie Dillard Award for the Essay, the New Southerner Award and the Orison Anthology Award for Creative Nonfiction. She has co-edited, with poet Adrian Blevins, an essay collection called Walk till the Dogs Get Mean. Wanting Radiance, her newest novel, was released in April 2020 from University Press of Kentucky. An essay collection called Voice Lessons is currently under contract with Iris Press. McElmurray teaches in the Low Residency Program at West Virginia Wesleyan College and as part-time Associate Professor at Gettysburg College.

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot speaks to thriller novelist David Bell about his latest novel KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS. David Bell is the USA Today-bestselling author of eleven novels from Berkley/Penguin, including KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS, THE REQUEST, LAYOVER, SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER, BRING HER HOME, SINCE SHE WENT AWAY, SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW, THE FORGOTTEN GIRL, NEVER COME BACK, THE HIDING PLACE, and CEMETERY GIRL.

His work has been translated into numerous foreign languages, included on several bestseller lists, nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times, and, in 2013, won the prestigious Prix Polar International de Cognac for best crime novel by an international author.

He is a professor of English at Western Kentucky University where he co-founded and directs the MFA program in creative writing. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he spends his free time rooting for the Reds and Bengals, watching movies, and walking in the cemetery near his house. He lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Blake Scott Ball about his latest book CHARLIE BROWN'S AMERICA: THE POPULAR POLITICS OF PEANUTS. Blake is an Assistant Professor of History at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama and is a writer and historian of 20th century culture.

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author Jim Hamilton about his new novel THE LAST ENTRY. Jim Hamilton is a County Extension Director for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. While originally from a small town in east central Alabama, he's been huntin', plantin', transplanting, consuming, and teaching about ginseng in western North Carolina for the last 10 years. He holds a PhD in Forestry from NC State and is an adjunct professor at Appalachian State University in Boone. Before settling in the mountains in his current position, Jim was a Peace Corps Volunteer, an environmental consultant, an A.M. country music DJ, and a volunteer fireman.

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, Eliot interviews author and podcaster Anna Sale about her new book LETS TALK ABOUT HARD THINGS. Anna is the creator and host of Death, Sex & Money, the award-winning podcast from WNYC Studios, where she’s been doing interviews about “the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more” since 2014. Before that, she covered politics for public radio for years. She grew up in West Virginia and lives in the East Bay in California with her husband and two daughters.

On the latest episode of Now, Appalachia, the special series on the business side of publishing concludes with a conversation with literary agent Alice Speilburg. Alice is the founding agent of Speilburg Literary and has worked in book publishing for more than a decade. She is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (formerly the AAR) and represents narrative nonfiction an d commercial fiction for adults and YA readers. Alice previously worked at John Wiley & Sons, and Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. She has worked with bestselling and award-winning authors, literary and professional societies, and branded content.