Ron Rash

Harvard Book Store is delighted to welcome award-winning novelist and story writer RON RASH as he reads from his new collection of short stories, Burning Bright, just out in paperback, with an introduction from fellow Southern writer STEVE YARBROUGH.

In Burning Bright, the stories span the years from the Civil War to the present day, populated by raw characters mined from the landscape of Appalachia. In "Back of Beyond," a pawnshop owner who profits from the stolen goods of local meth addicts, including his own nephew, comes to the aid of his brother and sister-in-law when they are threatened by their son. The pregnant wife of a Lincoln sympathizer alone in Confederate territory takes revenge to protect her family in "Lincolnites." And in the title story, a woman from a small town marries an outsider; when an unknown arsonist starts fires in the Smoky Mountains, her husband becomes the key suspect.

"The stories in Burning Bright are beautiful. Each story is luminescent, deeply communicative of Appalachia and perfectly framed with sentences both lyrical and grounded.... Rash is a poet as well as novelist and short story writer. He uses his agility with sentence rhythm and word resonance to weave stories that are stark, even grim, and yet carry a lasting recognition of those moments of release that spark across even the bleakest of realities." 
—Nina Sankovitch for The Huffington Post

"For the past fifteen years, Ron Rash has been carving out a position as one of the best writers in America writing about Appalachia.... Burning Bright is raw, honest and assured, the work of a talented writer. His characters fight through their tiny lives, proud and indomitable, like the land itself." —The San Francisco Chronicle