Novelist David Joy is one of our favorite Appalachian writers, for his flinty, soulful characters and his deep reverence for the land they live in.
This past fall, we got a glimpse of what these characters might look like on a big screen as filming commenced for Where All Light Tends to Go, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Robin Wright. No matter where you stand on the book-to-movie analogy, it’s exciting to think about stories you love taking on another life.
We checked in with David about what he’s been reading lately.
Fugitives of the Heart by William Gay
“The first book I ever fell in love with was a book by William Gay, a story collection titled I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down.
Few writers have had a greater impact on me. With that said, much of the work that has been published posthumously felt unfinished.
That was not the case with this novel. I absolutely devoured Fugitives of the Heart. The language, the characters, the darkness, this book was a stark reminder of how masterful he was on the page.”
The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You by Maurice Ruffin
“There are few contemporary writers I consider as important as Maurice Ruffin. I think he’s doing some of the most interesting things with fiction at this moment in American literature. With The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You we get a gorgeous collection of stories deeply rooted to place. This is a love song from someone who intimately knows New Orleans. This is the heart of that city exposed.”
We Are Each Other’s Harvest edited by Natalie Baszile
“Quite simply the most beautiful book I picked up in 2021. From the photographs to the people, the essays, the poetry, the introduction to writers I hadn’t known until now, this book felt essential. What Natalie has pulled together is an American treasure that illuminates the Black rural experience, a reality often overlooked and dismissed.”
Sidecountry by John Branch
“I think John Branch is the most talented sports writer at work. Period. What we get here is a collection of some of his best pieces over the last decade or so.
I was particularly happy to see my favorite, ‘Deliverance from 27,000 Feet,’ included in the collection. I still remember the first time I ever read that essay. I still remember that opening line: ‘Five sherpas surrounded the frozen corpse.’
You read a sentence like that and put the book down, you and I aren’t cut from the same cloth.”
Perfect Black by Crystal Wilkinson
“To read a novel or a story from Crystal Wilkinson is to immediately recognize that at the heart of things she is a poet, and a damn fine one at that. This of course is not intended to downplay the fiction. Her stories and novels work exceptionally well. But here we get the ideas and images distilled. Here we get the language and gravity whittled down to its bare-bone essential. Every poem here serves the reader like a balm. This book is big medicine.”
