Books and Brews Episode #60: JS Absher

J.S. Absher is a poet, memoirist, and independent scholar. As a teetotaler—he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—he can’t add much insight into brews, but he can hold his own when it comes to books.

Stan’s first full-length book of poetry, Mouth Work (St. Andrews University Press) won the 2015 Lena Shull Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. Stan’s second full-length book of poetry, Skating Rough Ground, was published in 2022 by Kelsay Press.

Poems have recently been published or accepted by The McNeese Review, Mormon Lit Blitz, Triggerfish Critical Review, Irreantum, and Tar River Review and have won awards from BYU Studies Quarterly and the journal Dialogue. His poems have been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize and twice for Best of the Net. He has also published an annotated editions of two memoirs written in the late 19^th century by Ida Crumpler Beard.

Stan has two prose projects under way.

His father killed himself in December 1977. Earlier that year he was a whistleblower in a government investigation of the bank where he worked. The confidential information he handed on widened the scope of the investigation and led to the arrest and conviction of the bank’s CEO and two other executives and the firing of several other employees. This turmoil, on top of his already unstable mental state, contributed to his death. Stan’s account of these events is based on his father’s memoirs and letters, more than a hundred newspaper articles, his own journal, and the memoirs of another participant. Outside those directly concerned, it is now a minor story, but it connects in interesting ways with the Watergate scandal and other major events. Stan’s memoir of these events will include poems he’s written and published over many years.

Stan is also currently researching and writing about the history of North Carolina immediately before the imposition of Jim Crow, focusing on fifty African American men who were arrested in 1895 for their efforts to stop a lynching in Winston-Salem, a lynching that thankfully did not occur. Stan is trying to understand who they were—their jobs and professions, their backgrounds, their kinship and social networks (to the extent they can be determined), and what happened to them afterwards. Stan’s interest in this event was sparked by the one-sided account in Ida Beard’s memoir mentioned above.  

Absher lives in Raleigh, NC, with his wife Patti. His work in poetry and prose can be followed on www.jsabsherpoetry.com.

 

Stan's Readings:

00:00 Start

08:12 The Pear Tree and Remembering Clara

23:06 What I Knew and When

43:09 Building a Wall

 

Chris's Cocktail Pairings: 

04:21 Brazilian Lime Aid

20:53 The Marigold

40:40 White Peach

Interview Highlights: 

16:35 The business of being a poet

19:07 Travels to France, Belize, and Taiwan

30:36 Blowing the Whistle: family issues and corporate greed

35:11 Links to the Nixon scandal