Book Signing And Reading, Kirk Judd & Edwina Pendarvis, Huntington, WV, July 28, 2023

 

On July 28, 2023, my wife Candice & I spent a long, rewarding day in Huntington, West Virginia, part of which I wrote about in this earlier blog post regarding our visit to the Huntington Museum of Art.  But our primary reason for visiting Huntington was to attend a joint book signing and reading by two of our friends at Cicada Books on 14th Street West.  The two friends are Edwina "Eddy" Pendarvis and Kirk Judd who have both been very active in the West Virginia literary scene for many years.  Both are excellent poets and Eddy has also produced several excellent works of nonfiction both in the field of Appalachian Studies and in her professional academic career in the field of education.  I have known Eddy for about 6 years and known about Kirk and his work for probably forty years although we had never met face to face before this reading.  Kirk and I had both participated in an online reading to promote the posthumous book "Milky Way Accent" by Bob Snyder, one of my early mentors and one of the best poets West Virginia has ever produced.  We have maintained an intermittent Facebook communication pattern ever since but this was our first meeting. 

Kirk and his wife, Eddy, Candice and I all arrived at the book store about an hour early for the reading and were able to converse awhile before others arrived for the event.  We talked about a wide ranging series of topics as most people do in such settings and at least hit the high spots concerning Appalachian Literature, poetry in general, the art museum, and God only knows what else which is the very kind of conversation which I enjoy.  The reading had a very sizeable attendance by the standards of such events in small venues and the room was soon filled with a wide variety of aficionados of literature.  We were able to meet and talk briefly with several others whom we had never known, most of whom were friends of either Eddy or Kirk and his wife.  

The reading began with Eddy reading some from both her historical body of poetic works and some short selections from her new nonfiction book "Another World: Ballet Lessons from Appalachia" which is available from the Jesse Stuart Foundation in Ashland, Kentucky. Although I can't say that I knew this book in its embryonic stage, I had been aware of it in a limited way as Eddy had worked on the manuscript and had eagerly anticipated its arrival in the world since I have enjoyed literally every word of Eddy's work I have ever read.  "Another World..." is based on interviews which Eddy completed with 24 women who took childhood ballet lessons in Appalachia and discusses various aspects of ballet and how it affected the lives of these women.  I am certain that the book is and will forever be a thorn in the sides of those perpetual detractors of Appalachia who live under the misconception that this is a region without both culture and cultured people.  It is an unusual topic for an Appalachian book and I admit that I have never seen another book about ballet in Appalachia.  Like myself, you may find this to be your introduction to the topic within the region.  I must say that this makes me justifiably proud as does any other occasion when I see those detractors set back on their heels.  But I must also say that for several years I had been aware that the father of the actor Richard Thomas, of "The Waltons" television fame, grew up to become a New York ballet dancer during his childhood in nearby Paintsville, Kentucky.  I will report more fully on the book after I have completed reading it.  

Eddy's poetry reading was and always has been a fulfilling experience.  Her imagery is crisp, both human and humane, and always reflective of her highly productive life as a successful Appalachian woman, professor, poet, and educator.  She read a limited number of her fine poems and both Candice and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her once again.  

 

Kirk Judd's reading was somewhat longer than Eddy and came, in part, from a new book of poetry which he coauthored with three of his long term female poet friends, Susanna Connelly Holstein, Cheryl Denise, and Sherrell Runnion Wigal.  He says that the four of them frequently take a shared writing period together at a cabin retreat in West Virginia.  The book, "Porch Poems" and its title reflect their long lived practice of sitting, talking, and writing poetry on the very porch which is pictured on the cover of the book which is available from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions.  Kirk has a wonderful reading style which is as much performance as it is some more tame form of "reading poetry".  Both his vocal style and poetic rhythms are geared and polished over years of writing and reading in public to function best in this environment.  His work is the product of a lifetime of honing, fine tuning, and perfecting a style and a body of work which is best suited to such a delivery technique.  I have seen other lesser poets attempt to utilize such a delivery and rarely seen it succeed.  With Kirk Judd, the writer, the poetry, the delivery, and the pleasure therefrom are melded into exactly what such a style should be.  Kirk often performs his reading with the accompaniment of an old time fiddler and his earlier book, "My People Was Music", was published in its original edition with an accompanying CD of such an accompanied reading of some of the poetry.  The current second edition of that book is published with a computer code on the cover so the purchaser can access the recorded versions online.  

 The reading was a success both in terms of the pleasure the audience obviously received from both poets and based on the sizeable attendance in a small bookstore located in a somewhat seedy section of West Huntington,West Virginia.  All the books mentioned in this blog post from both authors are well worth purchasing by the student of Appalachian Literature.  I recommend the work of both authors without reservations not because they are my friends but because I respect both them and their work. 

"Duets" by Edwina Pendarvis & Harry Geig--Poetry

 

This is a little, self-published, 24 page book of poetry by the Huntington, West Virginia poets Edwina "Eddy" Pendarvis and Harry Geig.  Eddy is a professor emeritus from Marshall University and her partner, the late Harry Geig, retired from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Eddy and I have been friends for several  years and, sadly, I never knew Harry.  Both were widely known, at least in Appalachian and West Virginia poetry circles for the quality of their writing.  While I would not clearly classify everything in this little book as love poems it is constructed and published with love and strong emotions based in a relationship which lasted literally to the day of Harry's death.  My one objection to the book, and one  I  have had with other multi-authored books of poetry is that the individual poems are not labeled as to specific author.  But this is a really nice little book of which I had known for several years but had never been able to locate a copy until recently.  The book was published under the company name Shoestring Publications, Lavalette, West Virginia, and was no doubt done in a very small press run of no more than a thousand copies based on how rarely it ever appears for sale on used book websites.  Since the only Shoestring Publications I can locate on the internet has a Maine land line number, I suspect this book was not done by that company and was, instead, a single effort with a private printer and the authors.  

As I said in my first few sentences, both Edwina Pendarvis and Harry Geig have been recognized as serious and high quality poets in Appalachia and West Virginia for quite a few years.  The book is filled to overflowing with high quality poetry and is remarkably consistent in tone and flow for a book with multiple authors. I have previously read works by both authors and each has always had a unique style in my opinion.  I believe I can sometimes discern which of the two wrote a particular poem but not always.  Harry's poetry tends to flow like scat music, street talk, and is usually about human interactions in an urban environment.  Eddy Pendarvis' poetry often has a more rural, less edgy quality to it.  But I won't bother you my guesses as to which author wrote which poems in the book.  Instead, let's talk about some of my favorite poems and lines in this little jewel.  

The poem "Come and See" opens and closes with some finely chosen words which clearly show the love with which they were written: 

When a long-dead comet    un-named

showered us with an after-image    of meteors 

I went with you   to a hilltop

to watch   you

.....

Whenever   wherever

eye-bright fireworks rise   and die

in a black

                      and purple night    it's you

it's you I want to see  

That opening and closing pair of stanzas is what a well-written love poem is all about.  

The poem "Soldier" is longer than most in the book and chronicles a sad, end of life story about a strong, effective soldier in his "shiny black Pony-ac Ventura...during the strike (but the assailants are still unidentified)".  These couple of lines paint a picture of a strong, effective man in a bad situation who is able to hold his own.  But because the poem is an end of life story, we come to the closing lines and find a seventy-two year old man who speaks out about about being robbed "...three kids callin' me pops..."  and he "...couldn't do nothin' about it...not a fuckin' thing."  That is a strong story about an old man, near death, complaining about his weakness and inability to defend himself.  

The next to last poem in the book, "Christmas or Anytime, Honey" is one of the real, heart string tugging love poems which make the book the little jewel it is: 

"But listen, If you were dying, I'd save you.  I'd stand

at the foot of the bed, challenge Death to his old game, and, 

lousy player that I am, 

I'd win anyway."  

That is just about as strongly poetic a statement of love as I have ever read.  

If you can locate a copy of this little jewel somewhere in a used book store, yard sale, online book seller, grab it up, read it, and enjoy it to your heart's content just as I have. 

New Book, "True Christmas Stories From The Heart Of Appalachia", From The Jesse Stuart Foundation

The Jesse Stuart Foundation has just released a new book entitled "True Christmas Stories From the Heart of Appalachia".  The book has 43 Christmas stories from 39 authors. It has stories from my friends, Edwina Pendarvis and Emily Steiner, as well as the well known authors Jesse Stuart, Thomas D. Clark, Cratis Williams, Bill Best, and Billy C. Clark. Including my story, "Christmas On Beaver Creek", there are three stories which are set in Knott County.  Two of those stories are set at Pippa Passes and the Caney Creek Community Center. This book is a wonderful addition to your collections of Christmas books or Appalachian books. It is also a wonderful Christmas gift for those who love to remember and work to preserve the Appalachia of their childhood.  It is well worth reading and will take nearly every reader back to some wonderful memory from your growing up years. I have a limited number of copies available with my autograph at the price of $25.00 plus $3.00 shipping (28.00 total) which is the price set by the publisher. The book will cost you the same amount of money without any autographs from the Jesse Stuart Foundation.   I will accept PayPal at rchicks@mrtc.com. I will also accept orders with a check or US Postal Money Order at:

Roger D. Hicks

65 Highway 1081

West Liberty, KY 41472

Send me an e-mail there with your name, address, and the name of the person to which you want each copy dedicated.

Here is an excerpt from my story: "Late in the evenings when the fire was warm and business slow, the older men would stop by the store to tell stories about old Christmas with the cattle kneeling in the fields...and how some old preacher talked about three men who rode on camels across a big desert following a star to take some fancy presents to a baby who was just like us, too poor to be born in a hospital." 

"The Sleep Of Reason" by Edwina Pendarvis, P. J. Laska, & Peter Kidd

This little book of poetry has been in the making for a short while and, since I know two of the authors, I had been eagerly anticipating its arrival in my mail box for a while.  It appeared yesterday and I quickly slammed through it which I don't usually do with poetry.  I like to read poetry slowly, a poem or two at a time, and then return at least once or twice to reread it for better comprehension, appreciation, and respect for the poets involved.  I assure you I will do that with this little epistle at least once or twice more.  But, also out of respect for the authors, this work deserves your attention and awareness of its existence as soon as possible.  "The Sleep Of Reason" by Edwina Pendarvis, P. J. Laska, & Peter Kidd is available from Igneus Press, a small press which was founded by one of the authors, Peter Kidd, whom I do not know.  But P. J. Laska and I have been friends since the early 1970's when we first met and he was a finalist for a National Book Award in Poetry for his collection, "D. C. Images And Other Poems".  Laska introduced me to Edwina Pendarvis and she and I have been friends about two years although we grew up in different forks of Beaver Creek at slightly different times only a few miles apart.  

"The Sleep Of Reason" Front Cover

The book is entitled for an etching by Francisco Goya, the great Spanish artist which is more fully entitled "The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters" and is in the permanent collection of the Prado.  The etching is a metaphor for the many prices of ignorance, especially self-imposed ignorance.  It one of a series of about eighty prints which Goya produced about the "caprices" of Spanish society in his time from about 1746 to 1828.  According to Art Gallery NSW, Goya was making statements about many of the weaknesses of unthinking, uneducated, and willfully ignorant people.   Art Gallery NSW's analysis of the piece states that Goya's intent was to confront "...superstition, vanity and folly, as well as hypocrisy, cruelty, greed and injustice."  I cannot think of a better analogy for discussing the lives and works of both Laska and Pendarvis.  I do not know Peter Kidd or his work well enough, at this time, to make the same statement about his life and work.  Both Laska and Pendarvis are doctoral level retired professors, native Appalachians, and have spent their lives in the effort to confront and eliminate all those same weaknesses which Francisco Goya was addressing in his etching.  When I think of the two of them, I am also reminded of a quote from Clarence Darrow which I have used on my e-mail since shortly after November 8, 2016: “I have lived my life and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and poor—but against power, injustice, and oppression.”  When Laska and I met for the first time, we were both connected to Antioch Appalachia, a branch campus of Antioch University which was located in Beckley, WV, which has come to be recognized over the last forty years as having produced some of the finest, and most politically and socially active, writers in America and Appalachia.   When Pendarvis and I  physically met for the first time, we were on our way to a political protest in Huntington, WV.  This little book by Laska, Kidd, and Pendarvis continues that tradition of activism for all three of the authors.  Goya would have been proud to be associated with such work.  

"The Sleep Of Reason" rear cover

The book is small, only about 28 pages, but it is well worth the price of admission.  It contains eight poems by Pendarvis, seven by Laska, and eight by Kidd.  All are examples of outspoken beliefs about some or all of the character flaws which Francisco Goya was confronting in the work for which the book is named.  Pendarvis addresses the hanging of John Brown in 1859 in the poem "Farmer Brown Ascends The Gallows" and ends the poem with these powerful words: 

"He'd kept his eyes on heaven

and the hell of this world and the next.

He loved the beauty of action.

The crops he raised blossomed fire." (Edwina Pendarvis)

Those words epitomize several of the goals of a social activist, to always keep your eyes on the prize, to always know that we must confront injustice and ignorance wherever we find it, to take actions to bring about change, and to hope in our hearts every day that our actions will "blossom fire".

In his poem "Almost Dead Matter Walking Bags", Peter Kidd delivers some of his own political statements with the opening and closing words:

"a nation of self interested material/machine worshipers
forever waiting...

the Atom Bomb finger tips away
from the most sociopathic
narcissists in the world."  (Peter Kidd)

That, my friends is a strong political statement in today's America.  It is also a strong poetic statement in just about any other time or place.  If reading lines like those does not raise your political hackles, then you have none.

But this little book is also loaded with what is simply just good, solid poetry intended to expand both the mind and soul of the astute reader.  In her poem "Making Salt", Pendarvis uses Daniel Boone to make both poetic and powerful points.

"Boone, skulking his lonely way
through iron age Kentucke
found mastodon bones lying around a salt lick...

Squatting by his fire, beside
a behemoth, he poured cold
salty water into a flat pot." (Edwina Pendarvis) 

While some readers might wish to quibble about the use of the words "by" and "beside" in the same line, very few would argue with the deft phrasing and opulent word pictures the poem conveys.

Over the last forty plus years, I have been blessed to read most of the literature which P. J. Laska has produced, much of it in the manuscript stage, and I must insist that this little book contains some of his best work over the last decade or more.  You will find this book to be pleasure and a motivator for some social action on your own part.  You can buy the book from Igneus Press or from Ecces Books, 392 Rio Altar, Green Valley, AZ 85614. 

"Crum" by Lee Maynard--Book Review

Maynard, Lee: Crum( Morgantown, WV Vandalia Press 2001)

As I said in my recent review of Lee Maynard's book "The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots And Hallucinations In An Imagined Life", I had never read his work, by my deliberate choice, until after his recent death.  Quoted below is my introduction to that first review of a Lee Maynard work:

"Until Lee Maynard's recent death on June 16, 2017, I had never read any of his work.  Maynard was, and will always be, a controversial figure in the world of literature in West Virginia and Appalachia.  His first published work, "Crum", was actually banned from sale at the Tamarack Center in Beckley, WV, due to its perceived extreme negativity to Crum, WV, Maynard's hometown, and to West Virginia and Appalachia in general. Most of the West Virginia and Appalachian writers who have been my mentors and friends also held Maynard in contempt for the same reason.  We rarely, if ever, discussed him or his work.  And generally, to a person, we never bothered to read his work.  I chose to read this book  [The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots And Hallucinations In An Imagined Life] after having read some comments, in a newspaper obituary, from Cat Pleska about Lee Maynard, his death, and his writing.  Cat Pleska and I have never met but are now Internet and E-mail friends and I trust her judgment. I am glad I read the book." My Appalachian Life July 30, 2017

Since reading that first Lee Maynard book, I have become a dedicated reader of his work, while continuing to hold some serious misgivings about some of his actions as a writer, a West Virginian, and an Appalachian.  At his best, Lee Maynard was a powerful and talented writer.  At his worst, from my viewpoint as a native Appalachian writer and protagonist for the Appalachian Culture, Lee Maynard was an inflammatory, abrasive, and insulting writer who sometimes used the bully pulpit which his popularity provided to defame, denigrate, and abuse his native state and Appalachia as whole.  But I was sufficiently impressed by the quality of much of the writing in "The Pale Light of Sunset..." to delve deeper into Maynard's work.  I have now nearly completed reading every book which the man published.  "Crum" was the next book I chose to read after completing "The Pale Light of Sunset...".  Although I have continued to read the body of the man's work after reading "Crum", I must say that if it had been the first of his books I read, I would not have continued in the effort and I might well have not even finished the book.  The opening page describes Crum, the town of Maynard's nativity as a "...sad little town...awaiting each stagnant winter with all the patience, good looks, and energy of a sloth."  The third page describes Kentucky, the land of my nativity, as a "...mysterious land of pig fuckers".  Most native Appalachians who have read such comments about our homeland have a natural and well justified tendency to throw such comments into the burn barrel, whether they came from a recognized writer of  Lee Maynard's stature or from a cousin who was writing back home after making a foothold in the industrial north after fleeing Appalachia. 

Lee Maynard Photo by WVU Press

In her introduction to "Crum", Meredith Sue Willis states that "The novel, then, makes a remarkable journey from the opening descriptions of barren shacks to a rich human and natural landscape."  She goes on to conclude that "this is a novel about love of place".  I will not concur with Ms. Willis completely in that assessment.  But I have stated elsewhere that I believe in some of the writings which appear in "The Pale Light of Sunset..." that Maynard did love West Virginia and Appalachia.  It is much more difficult to reach that conclusion about him if "Crum" is the first of his writings which the reader encounters. 

Lee Maynard Photo by Herald Dispatch

My friend and mentor of forty years, P. J. Laska, and I discussed Lee Maynard and his work during my recent visit with Laska at his home in Arizona.  He reminded me of an essay he had written about Lee Maynard and Denise Giardina in 1990 entitled "Saints And Sinners The Either Or Syndrome In Appalachian Fiction" and provided me with a copy of the essay.  In the essay, Laska states: "Crum" has realistic details but they are cut off from any meaningful context."  Laska goes on to say that "Crum" is a one-sided picture of life in Appalachia.  It isolates the comic, the crude, the trashy, the disgusting."  But he goes on to say in that same paragraph that "Crum's details are not false.  The deprivations, the narrowness of experience, the boredom, the crude pleasures that relieve it--these ring true."  And therein lies the conundrum that Lee Maynard presented to the world in general and to native Appalachians in particular. 

Lee Maynard Photo by Herald Dispatch

The conundrum of Lee Maynard leaves the reader, especially the native Appalachian reader, with some serious questions.  Did Lee Maynard love or hate West Virginia and Appalachia?  Did Lee Maynard intentionally denigrate and defame the town of Crum, the state of West Virginia, and Appalachia as whole?  And, for me most importantly, after he achieved fame did Lee Maynard perhaps regret the damage he had done to his homeland?  These are not simple questions to answer.  They do not lend themselves to a quick, brief discussion and an easy fix.  Lee Maynard understood Crum and the area in Wayne and Mingo counties which he chose to place the novel in.  He chose to leave them behind and to write a great deal of highly inflammatory material about them.  But he also chose to return to West Virginia every year for the annual conference of West Virginia writers as my friend Edwina Pendarvis, an equally broadly published Appalachian writer,  has reminded me.  In a recent e-mail she said this about Maynard: "I knew him just a little bit because almost every summer for several years he came to the WV Writers conference.  I think he liked WV but wouldn't want to live there!"  He also returned, as he wrote so eloquently about in "The Pale Light Of Sunset...", to the farm of a long time friend to deer hunt and rode his motorcycle on most of those trips.  I will never believe that anyone rode a motorcycle from Santa Fe to West Virginia just to see place they hated.  

But to get back to the real subject of this review, the novel "Crum", let's consider that book alone, on its own merits, strengths, and weaknesses.  It is a novel which has caused the blood of many a native Appalachian to boil.  I am sure that many copies of it have been thrown into either the Tug River or a good, hot fire.  It is also a novel which is frequently listed on long lists of works by Appalachians.  It is now sold in Tamarack, the West Virginia cultural and tourist attraction near Beckley, where it was banned for many years.  That is actually where I bought my copy.  

I was born in Lackey, Knott County Kentucky, about fifteen years after Lee Maynard was born in Crum, Wayne  County, West Virginia.  Our birthplaces are only about sixty miles apart.  We grew up in very similar communities and attended very similar high schools.  Based on our personal experiences and educations, we seem to have to reached different conclusions about our homeland.  I might also add that I lived in Logan and Mingo Counties in West Virginia for about five years and worked as a door to door salesman in nearly every inch of Lee Maynard's home environs.  I knowWayne and Mingo counties nearly as well as I know Knott County.  I consider myself to be just as much a West Virginian as I do an Eastern Kentuckian.  They are both soaked deep into my blood, bones, psyche, and soul.  

In the novel "Crum", Lee Maynard insulted both West Virginia and Kentucky in ways that were hurtful, deliberate, and likely not fully founded in facts.  But the novel is still worth reading.  It tells a story that resonates with a significant portion of the populace both in Appalachia and out.  It is a tale of alienation, deprivation, and determination.  Lee Maynard's narrator uses his God given talents to leave Appalachia and seek his healing elsewhere.  Most characters created by native Appalachian writers choose to grit their teeth and either stay at home or return after a brief hiatus elsewhere.  In my opinion, the novel has enough redeeming virtues in its writing to make it worthwhile to read.  But, if you are a native Appalachian, be prepared to see words in print that leave you wishing you had your hands on that rascal.