Books on the Bed

Henry Wise

This week we visit with Henry Wise in Staunton, Virginia.
Henry is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Mississippi MFA program. A writer across multiple genres, his poetry has been published in Shenandoah, Radar Poetry, Clackamas, Nixes Mate Review, and elsewhere. His nonfiction and photography have appeared in Southern Cultures. "Holy City" is his first novel.
For more on Henry: henrywise.com
Henry's Books on the Bed: 
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Joe by Larry Brown
Matt's Gifts for Henry:
Shutter and Exposure by Ramona Emerson
Honeybee by Naomi Shihab Nye

Glenn Taylor

This week we visit with Glenn Taylor in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Glenn Taylor’s fourth novel, "The Songs of Betty Baach" won the 2023 Juniper Prize in Fiction. His first novel, "The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart" was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award. Glenn’s work has appeared in such venues as the Oxford American, The Guardian, Gulf Coast, and Huizache. Born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia, he now resides with his family in Morgantown, where he is at work on a new novel.
For more on Glenn: glenntaylorbooks.org
Glenn's Books on the Bed:
The Milkweed Ladies by Louise McNeill
good woman: poems and a memoir by Lucille Clifton
Gringos by Charles Portis
Trampoline by Robert Gipe 
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano
Road-side Dog by Czeslaw Milosz
Matt's Gifts for Glenn:
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas
The Way the Moon by Holly Haworth

Ann Pancake

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
 

Meredith McCarroll

This week we visit with Meredith McCarroll in Portland, Maine. 
Meredith McCarroll was born and raised in Waynesville, North Carolina. She is the author of “Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film” (2018) and co-editor of “Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy” (2019). She graduated from Appalachian State University, and later earned a Masters from Simmons College and a PhD from University of Tennessee. She lives now in Portland, Maine where she writes and teaches writing.
For more on Meredith: meredithmccarroll.com
Meredith's Books on the Bed:
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Sleepovers: Stories by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
Cane by Jean Toomer
Trampoline by Robert Gipe
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project
Matt’s Gifts for Meredith:
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
Cinema Ann Arbor by Frank Uhle
Three Rivers Cornmeal Mix
 

Elizabeth Gonzalez James

This week we visit with Elizabeth Gonzalez James in Sharon, Massachusetts. 
Elizabeth Gonzalez James is a screenwriter and bestselling author of the novels, The Bullet Swallower and Mona at Sea, as well as the chapbook, Five Conversations About Peter Sellers. The Bullet Swallower was named a best book of 2024 by NPR, Esquire, and elsewhere, was a Book of the Month Club pick, and was featured on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” as one of their spring book club picks. Elizabeth was featured on the MSNBC documentary “My Generation” representing the Millennials. She has taught fiction writing at Grub Street, Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop, Story Studio, and elsewhere. Originally from South Texas, Elizabeth now lives with her family in Massachusetts.
Elizabeth’s Books on the Bed:
Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Mona by Pola Oloixarac
Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
Matt’s gifts for Elizabeth:
Blood Test by Charles Baxter 
Recollecting: Lives of Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
 

Rachel Beanland

This week we visit with Rachel Beanland in Richmond, Virginia.
Rachel is the author of two novels, The House Is On Fire (Simon & Schuster, 2023) and Florence Adler Swims Forever (Simon & Schuster, 2020).
The House Is On Fire was selected as an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, a ‘GMA Buzz Pick’ by Good Morning America, a “most anticipated” book by the Washington Post, and one of the best books of 2023 by NPR and The New Yorker.
Beanland’s debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, was selected as a book club pick by Barnes & Noble, a featured debut by Amazon, an Indie Next pick by the ABA, and one of the best books of 2020 by USA Today. It was also named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and was recognized with the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction.
Beanland attended the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has taught at the College of William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Richmond, where she was the 2023-24 Writer-in-Residence. Beanland lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family.
Rachel’s Books on the Bed:
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
Young Woman and the Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World by Glenn Stout
The Richmond Theater Fire: Early America’s First Great Disaster by Meredith Henne Baker
The Color of Water by James McBride
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Matt’s gifts for Rachel: 
The Price of a Child by Lorene Cary
The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook

Kristen Gentry

This week we visit Kristen Gentry in Louisville, Kentucky.
Kristen is the author of Mama Said, longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. She received her M.F.A. from Indiana University. Her award-winning fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Electric Literature, Crab Orchard Review, and other journals. She is a VONA and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference alumna, former Director of Creative Writing at SUNY Geneseo, and a member of the inaugural Poets & Writers publicity incubator for debut writers. She lives and writes in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.  
For more about Kristen and Mama Said: kristengentry.com
Kristen's Books on the Bed:
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson
Matt's Gifts for Kristen:
Rattlebone by Maxine Clair
Fifth Born by Zelda Lockhart
 
 

Gerry Wilson

This week we visit Gerry Wilson in Jackson, Mississippi.
A seventh generation Mississippian, Gerry Wilson grew up in the red clay hills of the north that she writes about in her debut novel, THAT PINSON GIRL, released by Regal House Publishing in February 2024. A story, “Tell Me Anything,” appeared in Persimmon Tree in June 2024. Another story, “A Language of Their Own,” was runner-up for The Porch Fiction Prize 2024. “Life Line” was a finalist in decembermagazine’s Curt Johnson Prose Award for Fiction and was published in december in the spring of 2023. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous other journals. Gerry is a 2025 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Artist Fellowship recipient.
Gerry has a new Substack publication, “Stories I’m Old Enough to Tell,” where she writes—well—basically whatever is on her mind, but mostly about her writing journey.
For more about Gerry: gerrywilson.com
Gerry's Books on the Bed:
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Can't Quit You, Baby by Ellen Douglas
Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
Light in August by William Faulkner
A Curtain of Green & Other Stories by Eudora Welty
Matt's Gifts for Gerry:
The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade
Room Swept Home by Remica Bingham-Risher

Natachee Momaday Gray

This week we visit Natachee Momaday Gray in Coyote, New Mexico. Natachee is a New Mexican poet and artist whose work focuses on the melding of art and myth, ancestry and nostalgia, food and prayer, glamour, frivolity, and time. A native of Santa Fe, she has many artistic talents as a poet, hand fashioned bookmaker, fiction writer, Chanteuse, and film maker. In her uniquely creative voice, she draws on her Kiowa and Apache heritage to create compelling stories that transcend designation.
Her debut poetry collection, Silver Box, can be found here and on my Staff Picks shelf at City Lights Bookstore (Sylva, NC). 
Natachee's Books on the Bed:
The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday
Martin & Meditations on the South Valley by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Historic Cookery: Authentic New Mexican Food by Fabiola de Baca Gilbert
Hazards of Grace by Gary Worth Moody
Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land by N. Scott Momaday
A Book of Days by Patti Smith
Matt's gifts for Natachee:
The Animals of My Earth School by Mildred Kiconco Barya
Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks
 

Mildred Barya

This week we visit Mildred Barya in Asheville, NC. Mildred is a native of Kabale, Uganda and the author of four books of poetry: The Animals of My Earth School, Men Love Chocolates But They Don't Say, The Price of Memory: After the Tsunami, and Give Me Room to Move My Feet. She is currently Associate Professor of Creative Writing & World Literature at the University of North Carolina - Asheville.  For more on Mildred's life and work: mildredbarya.com Mildred's Books on the Bed:  The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa The Tarot Companion by Liz Dean Artful by Ali Smith Drinking from the River of Light by Mark Nepo Still I Rise (Poem) by Maya Angelou Matt's Gifts for Mildred: The Earth Keeper by N. Scott Momaday We Are Each Other's Harvest by Natalie Baszile   Episode timeline: 0:00 - 5:15 — Intro 5:16 - 43:15 — Gifts for Mildred and stories of Mildred's life 43:16 - 1:32:11 — Mildred's Books on the Bed