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March 27, 2025 87 mins

This week we visit with Ann Pancake in Reedsville, West Virginia. 

Ann Pancake grew up in Summersville and Romney, West Virginia and graduated from WVU with a Bachelor of Arts in English. After teaching English in Japan, American Samoa and Thailand, she earned a Masters degree in English from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Washington.

Pancake is—publicly and fervently—a West Virginia writer. She is the author of two story collections set in West Virginia: “Given Ground,” winner of the Bakeless Prize, and “Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley,” a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her novel “Strange as This Weather Has Been” features a southern West Virginia family struggling with a mountaintop removal mine. It was named one of Kirkus Review’s Top Ten Fiction Books of the year, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, won the 2007 Weatherford Prize and was a finalist for the 2008 Orion Book Award. “Strange as This Weather Has Been” is now cited and taught as a key piece of literature about Appalachian coal country.

Ann's Books on the Bed:

Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Deer Man: Seven Years of Living in the Wild by Geoffroy Delorme

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Mind and Our World by Max Fisher

Country Queers: A Love Letter by Rae Garringer

The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley

Bloodroot by Bill King

Matt's Gifts for Ann:

Groundglass by Kathryn Savage

Trinity by Zelda Lockhart

 

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