My Year in Writing
Here is everything I published in 2022.
I am thankful to have had a very productive year in writing and being published. Here are links and brief details about everything I published this year, in present-to-past order of publication. Please consider subscribing to my to stay updated on all of my publications. Substack
“Of Grief and Book Tours”, essay, Literary Hub, December. An essay about how grief led to the creation of my most recent novel, Lark Ascending, and how book tour led me to surprising conversations about the ways we mourn nowadays.
“The Christian Nationalist Forces That Terrorized Me as a Child Have Grown Only More Powerful”, essay, Time, November. I recount my childhood growing up in a fundamentalist sect and the way I now see that rhetoric being spouted by members of Congress and others in power. Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds-AFP.
Lark Ascending, a novel, Algonquin Books, September 27. An adventure story about grief and hope, set after a cataclysmic climate disaster that sends a family seeking refuge in Ireland. Only their son, Lark, makes it to the country, and there he tries to create a new family out of a dog and an older woman—both suffering intense grief—as they seek sanctuary in a thin place. I like to think this novel is also a love story that transcends death, an ode to the relationships between animals and people, and a testament to created family. Thanks to you all, it became an indie bestseller, was chosen as a top ten recommendation by indie booksellers across the nation, and was chosen as a best book of the year by publications such as Booklist, Salon, Garden & Gun, and others. Booksellers chose it as one of five finalist for the novel selection of the Southern Book Prize, and readers can vote for it right here in about half a minute.
“Climate change makes Appalachian life even harder,” essay, The Washington Post, August. After the devastating flooding that hit the region in the late summer, I wrote about my fears that it’s going to get even worse and how working class and poor people will suffer the most from it. Photo by Ryan C. Hermens/AP.
“Pulled from the Flood”, essay, Garden and Gun, August. An intimate look at working in the flood relief effort to save photographs and other archives at the Hindman Settlement School, one of the hardest hit centers during the historic flooding. Photo by Will Anderson.
“Dreamchaser: Why I Love Naomi Judd”, essay, Garden and Gun, May. A meditation on my personal history with Naomi Judd, and why her music and legacy matter so much to so many of us. Photo by Jason Howard, 2015.
“S.G. Goodman: The Articulation of Longing”, feature, The Bitter Southerner, April. This long, detailed feature takes the reader into spending time with Goodman, one of the leading new voices in music from the New South. Photo by Ryan Hartley.
“Neon Moon”, a short story, Tri-Quarterly, Issue 161, January. This short story centers on an old man who learns how to live again after the death of his husband and the arrival of an optimistic nephew.
Although first published in 2008 in Appalachian Review, my poem about Loretta Lynn was widely shared on social media when she passed away in October.
This was the last year of my podcast, On the Porch. You can listen to episodes here.
Thank you to everyone who read ANYTHING of mine this year. I appreciate it more than I can say. I just sold a story to Arkansas International called “Foxgloves”, so that’ll be my next published piece. I hope you’ll watch for it here.
Happy New Year.