With a Foreword by Wade Hall

Photographs by Susan Lippman

Whether they left Kentucky and returned, as Wendell Berry did, or adopted the Commonwealth as home, like James Still, or grew up and left for good, like Barbara Kingsolver, these writers share a common experience: they have all felt Kentucky's influence. L. Elisabeth Beattie explores this connection in twenty intimate interviews, presenting some of the state's -and the nation's- best-loved writers at their most insightful and revealing.

Included: Wendell Berry, Billy C. Clark, Michael Dorris, Leon Driskell, Sue Grafton, James Baker Hall, Wade Hall, Fenton Johnson, Barbara Kingsolver, George Ella Lyon, Bobbie Ann Mason, Taylor McCafferty, Ed McClanahan, Jim Wayne Miller, Sena Jeter Naslund, Marhsa Norman, Chris Offutt, Lee Pennington, Betty Layman Receveur, and James Still.

L. Elisabeth Beattie, writer-in-residence and associate professor of English at Midway College, is editor of Conversations with Kentucky Writers II and Savory Memories, and co-author of Sisters in Pain: Battered Women Fight Back.

Reviews:

"Lively and enlightening, intimate and insightful, Beattie's interviews with Kentucky writers truly live up to their billing. Like the best of conversations between old friends, each of these inspired encounters is packed with pleasure and ripe with revelation. The collection, a keeper for all serious readers and writers, is sure to become a Commonwealth classic."-Dianne Aprile

"Delicious to dip in and out of and easy to browse . . . and just to enjoy the rustling of good sharp minds under the eaves of this house of writing."-Appalachian Journal

"The writers discuss their regional connections, while noting the ways regional writing can be universal. This collection of interviews offers -with conversational immediacy- practical advice, poignant recollections, funny stories, and profound insights to stimulate readers and writers of any region."-Bookwoman

"Twenty authors in all are interviewed by L. Elisabeth Beattie . . . the insight allowed by these conversations make them more familiar - and appreciated - still."-Chevy Chaser

"Valuable because it deepens our understanding of writers we wish to know better."-Bowling Green Daily News

"The perfect book for readers interested in Kentucky writers and how they, in their own words, became writers."-The News-Democrat

"Kentucky has produced an impressive literary genus, from the social and agrarian criticism of Wendell Berry to the bestselling 'alphabet murder' mysteries of Sue Grafton."-Cincinnati Enquirer