Ron Rash

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Ron Rash
Born 1953 (age 60–61)
Chester, South Carolina, United States
Occupation Poet, Short Story Writer, Novelist
Nationality Appalachian
Notable work(s) Serena,
Burning Bright,
The Cove,
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Notable award(s) Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
2010

Ron Rash (born 1953), an American poet, short story writer and novelist, is the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University.[1]

Early life

Rash was born in Chester, South Carolina, in 1953, grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University and Clemson University In 1994 he published his first book, a collection of short stories titled The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth. Since then, Rash has published three collections of poetry, three short story collections, and four novels, all to wide critical acclaim. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the world's richest prize for a short story collection.

Career

Rash's poems and stories have appeared in more than 100 magazines and journals over the years. With each new book, Rash has confirmed his position as a central and significant Appalachian writer alongside well-established names like Fred Chappell, Lee Smith, Wiley Cash, and Robert Morgan. [2] Serena received enthusiastic reviews across and beyond the United States and was a 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist. As Rash begins focusing his career on short stories and poetry, his late work such as The Outlaws (Oxford American, Summer, 2013) evinces an uncanny knack to welcome the reader into the quotidian tragedies that characters experience in stories set in southern Appalachia.

List of works

Poetry

  • Eureka Mill (1998)[3][4]
    • interweaves his family's personal migration from Buncombe County, NC farms with the broader portrait of mill life outside Chester, South Carolina
  • Among the Believers (2000)[5]
  • Raising the Dead (2002)[6]
    • Deals with loss and displacement as a result of the flooding of Jocassee Valley, S.C.
  • Waking (2011)[7]

Short story collections

  • The Night The New Jesus Fell to Earth and Other Stories from Cliffside, North Carolina (1994)[8]
  • Casualties (2000)[9]
  • Chemistry and Other Stories (2007)[10]
    • Thirteen short stories, eight of which were previously published in Casualties ("Chemistry," "Last Rite," "Not Waving But Drowning," "Overtime," "Cold Harbor", "Honesty", "Dangerous Love," "The Projectionist's Wife,"). Also includes the O. Henry Prize Winner "Speckled Trout" as well as "Pemberton's Bride," a story that gives a taste of Rash's forthcoming novel.
  • Burning Bright (2010)
  • Nothing Gold Can Stay (2013)

Novels

  • One Foot in Eden (2002)[11][12]
    • Fleshes out the characters and themes of Raising the Dead. It tells the story of a community displaced disguised as a murder mystery and imbued with Rash's poetic language.
  • Saints at the River (2004)[13][14]
    • About a South Carolina community torn over the issue of environmentalism.
  • The World Made Straight (2006)[15]
    • Both a coming-of-age story set in the 1970s Appalachia and a meditation on the role of the past in the present, in this case a Civil War massacre that has divided Madison County, N.C. ever since.
  • Serena (2008)[16]
    • The ambitious wife of a North Carolina timber baron, Serena brings the spirit of Lady MacBeth to depression-era North Carolina.
  • The Cove (2012)
    • A family is afflicted with a series of grave misfortunes. Their lives, particularly Laurel’s, are interrupted at the arrival of a mute stranger who has been found after suffering a deadly number of wasp stings.

Children's book

  • The Shark's Tooth (2001)

Magazine publications

Awards

  • 1987: General Electric Younger Writers Award
  • 1996: The Sherwood Anderson Prize
  • 2002: Novello Literary Award (One Foot in Eden)
  • 2002: ForeWord Magazine's Gold Medal in Literary Fiction (One Foot in Eden)
  • 2002: Appalachian Book of the Year (One Foot in Eden)
  • 2004: Fiction Book of the Year by the Southern Book Critics Circle (Saints at the River)
  • 2004: Fiction Book of the Year by the Southeastern Booksellers Association (Saints at the River)
  • 2004: Weatherford Award for Best Novel of 2004 (Saints at the River)
  • 2005: James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers
  • The Short story "Speckled Trout" was included in the 2005 O. Henry Prize Stories.[17] This story formed the basis for the first chapter of The World Made Straight.[18]
  • 2008: Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (Chemistry and Other Stories)
  • 2009: Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (Serena)
  • 2010: Heasley Prize at Lyon College
  • 2010: Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (Burning Bright)
  • 2010: Inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors
  • 2011: SIBA Book Award (Fiction) for Burning Bright
  • 2012: David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction for The Cove

References

  1. ↑ "SERENA by Ron Rash" (Press release). Literary Agency Marly Rusoff & Associates, Inc. March 11, 2008. 
  2. ↑ "Critically Acclaimed writer Ron Rash Named WCU's Parris Professor" (Press release). Western Carolina University. September 11, 2003. 
  3. ↑ Rash, Ron (1998). Eureka Mill. Columbia, SC: Bench Press. ISBN 0-930769-14-7. 
  4. ↑ Rash, Ron (September 2001). Eureka Mill (Paperback). Spartanburg, SC: Hub City Writers Project. p. 64 pp. ISBN 1-891885-20-0. 
  5. ↑ Rash, Ron (2000). Among the Believers (Paperback). Oak Ridge, TN: Iris Press. ISBN 0-916078-50-7. 
  6. ↑ Rash, Ron (2002). Raising the Dead (Paperback). Oak Ridge, TN: Iris Press. ISBN 0-916078-54-X. 
  7. ↑ Rash, Ron (2011). Waking (Hardback). Spartanburg, SC: Hub City Press. ISBN 978-1-891885-82-2. 
  8. ↑ Rash, Ron (1994). The Night The New Jesus Fell to Earth and Other Stories from Cliffside, North Carolina. Columbia, SC: Bench Press. ISBN 0-930769-11-2. 
  9. ↑ Rash, Ron (2000). Casualties. Beaufort, SC: Bench Press. ISBN 0-930769-14-7. 
  10. ↑ Rash, Ron (2007). Chemistry and Other Stories. New York, NY: Picador. ISBN 0-312-42508-2. 
  11. ↑ Rash, Ron (2002). One Foot in Eden (Hardcover). Charlotte, NC: Novello Festival Press. pp. 240 pp. ISBN 0-9708972-5-1. 
  12. ↑ Rash, Ron (2004). One Foot in Eden (Trade paperback). New York: Picador. pp. 240 pp. ISBN 0-312-42305-5. 
  13. ↑ Rash, Ron (2004). Saints at the River (Hardcover) (1st ed.). New York: Henry Holt. pp. 288 pp. ISBN 0-8050-7487-2. 
  14. ↑ Rash, Ron (2005). Saints at the River (Trade paperback). New York: Picador. pp. 256 pp. ISBN 0-312-42491-4. 
  15. ↑ Rash, Ron (April 2006). The World Made Straight (Hardcover) (1st ed.). New York: Henry Holt. pp. 304 pp. ISBN 0-8050-7866-5. 
  16. ↑ Rash, Ron (October 2008). Serena (Hardcover) (1st ed.). New York: Ecco Press. pp. 371 pp. ISBN 978-0-06-147085-1. 
  17. ↑ "Past Winners List". The O. Henry Prize Stories. Retrieved 2006-05-02. 
  18. ↑ "Author Spotlight: Ron Rash". The O. Henry Prize Stories. Retrieved 2006-05-02. 

External links

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