All the Living
In her first novel, Kentucky author C. E. Morgan introduces us to Aloma, a young woman whose past has provided her neither lasting family nor love. As an orphan, she is shuffled off to be raised by an aunt and uncle, and though they do not mistreat her, their meager means and affections are directed toward their own children. At age 12 she is sent off to a mission school in a holler of the Kentucky mountains. Writes Morgan: "Aloma lived in this dark place, a dark county in a dark state, and it pressed on her ceaselessly as a girl until she finally realized in a moment of prescience that someday adulthood would come with its great shuddering release and she would be free. Then she would leave and find a riseless place where nothing impeded the progress of the sun from the moment it rose to in the east until it died out easily, dismissed into the west. That was what she wanted."
With nowhere to go after graduation, Aloma stays on at the school as a piano instructor -
a passion and talent that has brought her what little hope for the future she has. She meets Orren Fenton one afternoon as he is making a delivery to the school. Their bond is immediate, their courtship simple and Aloma agrees, after only a few weeks, to move to the rugged and secluded farm left to him after his family is killed in an accident. But the farm is all-consuming for Orren, and the poverty it brings and the energy it requires leaves him little to offer Aloma. Lonely, she struggles to find happiness and offers her musical talent to a small local church to keep occupied.
With the strict mores of small town life, she encounters the prejudices that further isolate her. Her struggle soon becomes the decision to flee her life as it is or accept the harsh realities of her life with Orren.
With writing as stark and poignant as the land in her story, C. E. Morgan offers "All the Living" as an impressive first work. Named one of the five best writers under 35 by the National Book Foundation, Morgan is a tribute to her studies at Berea College and Harvard Divinity School where she received a master's in theological studies.
C.E. Morgan will be reading new work from her forthcoming second novel, "Stars with Accents," at a joint production of the Kentucky Women Writer's Conference and Boomslang: A Celebration of Sound & Art. The reading will take place at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, Sunday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m.
Days of Darkness
"Days of Darkness" is a study of the feuds of Eastern Kentucky -
six in all -
and how the violence and brutality they were known for influenced the perception of the Appalachian region of Kentucky. Author John Ed Pearce uses courthouse records and old newspaper stories as a basis for his book and relies in large part on his interviews with first-hand sources and the descendants of the warring families. Maps and photos bring definition to his research.
A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Pearce's writing is solidified by his years as a reporter on Kentucky politics, and he strives to dispel the belief that these feuds were all the result of "Hillbilly" antics -
citing the educated and prominent participants in many of the squabbles. But all the feuds have one thing in common -
they use violence, death and gore instead of the law to settle whatever disagreement. Bringing light to many of the feuds, Pearce provides an interesting history of an era and a culture that still haunts the image of Eastern Kentucky.