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| Biography of Sharyn
McCrumb “I find that the more I write, the more fascinated I become with the idea of the land as an intricate element in the lives of the mountain people, and of the past as prologue for any contemporary narrative. This connection to the land is personal as well as thematic.” —Sharyn McCrumb
 Sharyn McCrumb, is an award-winning Southern writer, whose novel St. Dale, is the story of a group of ordinary people who go on a pilgrimage in honor of racing legend Dale Earnhardt, and find a miracle. This Canterbury Tales in a NASCAR setting, won a 2006 Library of Virginia Award as well as the AWA Book of the Year Award. Her newest novel Once Around the Track, again set in NASCAR, is a nominee for the 2007 Weatherford Award.McCrumb has been named a “Virginia Woman of History” for 2008, an annual designation honoring eight women - past and present - who have made important contributions to Virginia and to America in the arts, law, education, politics, etc. McCrumb is best known for her Appalachian “Ballad” novels, set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains. Her novels include New York Times Best Sellers She Walks These Hills and The Rosewood Casket, which deal with the issue of the vanishing wilderness, and The Ballad of Frankie Silver, the story of the first woman hanged for murder in the state of North Carolina; The Songcatcher, a genealogy in music; and Ghost Riders, an account of the Civil War in the Appalachians. A film of her novel The Rosewood Casket is currently in production, directed by British Academy Award nominee Roberto Schaefer. McCrumb’s honors include: the Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature given by the East Tennessee Historical Society; AWA Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award; the Chaffin Award for Achievement in Southern Literature; the Plattner Award for Short Story; and AWA’s Best Appalachian Novel. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and received her M.A. in English from Virginia Tech. McCrumb, whose books have been translated into more than ten languages, was the first writer-in-residence at King College in Tennessee. In 2001 she served as fiction writer-in-residence at the WICE Conference in Paris, and in 2005 she was honored as the writer of the year at the annual literary celebration at Emory and Henry College. Sharyn McCrumb has lectured on her work at Oxford University, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Bonn, Germany, and at universities and libraries throughout the country. McCrumb's great-grandfathers were circuit preachers in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains a hundred years ago, riding horseback over the ridges to preach in a different community each week. It is from them, she says, that she gets her regard for books, her gift of storytelling and public speaking, and her love of the Appalachian Mountains. “My books are like Appalachian quilts,” says Sharyn McCrumb. “I take brightly colored scraps of legends, ballads, fragments of rural life, and local tragedy, and I piece them together into a complex whole that tells not only a story, but also a deeper truth about the culture of the mountain South.”
“I always was interested in the songs and the legends. Those from my father's side of the family always seemed to have so much substance. Mother was from the flatlands of North Carolina around New Bern; that was, I suppose, the Plantation South. Her stories didn't resonate with me. I guess I wasn't meant to be a Southern writer in the Pat Conroy sense of the word.” “Hollywood doesn't seem to pick up on this, but it's pretty obvious to everyone else that the South has more than one culture. The Flatland South is very different from the Mountain South. The Flatland South was settled primarily by the English, by people who didn't mind neighbors, who liked living in community. I've always joked that the mountain people don't work and play very well with others.”
“On the other side the Arrowoods [pronounced “Arwood”] and the Honeycutts came about the same time, around 1790, to what is now Mitchell County. Today we think of the West as Matt and Miss Kitty and Dodge City, Kansas, but that was the 1880s. In the 1780s the West was the Pennsylvania border around Fort Duquesne and western Carolina and east Tennessee and southwest Virginia. I grew up with all these wonderful stories of relatives finding lost silver mines and running away from armies during the Civil War. ” McCrumb, Sharyn 1948 - Full-time novelist and lecturer, 1988. Virginia Tech, university film librarian 1982-88. Instructor of Communications and Appalachian Studies 1986-88. First writer-in-residence at King College, Bristol, TN 2000; writer-in-residence Shepherd College 1999; Author in Residence- WICE Writers Workshop, Paris, 2001. Creative writing instructor at Hindman KY Settlement School Writers Workshop, 1990-present. Speaker at institutions, including featured author at National Festival of the Book, Washington D.C. 2006; University of Bonn; the American Library (Berlin, Germany); St. Oxford University; the Smithsonian Institution; Miami Book Fair; Virginia Festival of the Book; National Library Association; New Orleans Writers Conference; Georgia Library Association; Detroit Women Writers Conference; North Carolina Library Association; Northwest Festival of Authors, Portland, Oregon. 2008- Virginia Woman of History - On February 28, 2008 the Library of Virginia announced that Sharyn McCrumb has been named one of Virginia's eight Women of History for 2008. This honor, designed to recognize and honor the achievements of women who have made important contributions to Virginia and America, both past and present. Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award - St. Dale - 2006; Book of the Year Award - Appalachian Writers Association - St. Dale- 2006; Audie Award for Best Recorded Book - Ghost Riders- 2004; Wilma Dykeman Award for Regional Historical Literature - East Tennessee Historical Society - 2003; Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award - Appalachian Writers Association, 1997; The Chaffin Award for Achievement in Southern Literature - Morehead (KY) State University,1998; Plattner Award for Best Appalachian Short Story - Berea College, KY,1998; Appalachian Writer of the Year Award 1999 - Shepherd College, WV; Virginia Library of Virginia Book of the Year Nomination - The Ballad of Frankie Silver, 1999 ; SEBA Best Novel nomination- The Ballad of Frankie Silver, 1999; The Flora MacDonald Award for Achievement in the Arts by a Woman of Scots Heritage,1999; Kentucky Colonel of the State of Kentucky - 1999; Los Angeles Times Notable Book Citation - She Walks These Hills (1994); The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter (1992); New York Times Notable Book - If Ever I Return Pretty Peggy-O (1990); The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter (1992); The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1998); The Songcatcher (2001); Sherwood Anderson Short Story Award - 1984 "Precious Jewel"; AWA Best Appalachian Novel Award, Lovely in Her Bones, 1984; AWA Best Appalachian Novel Award - The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter - 1992. : The Ballad Novels: The Ballad novels are a series of books set in the mountains, weaving together the legends, natural wonders and contemporary issues of Appalachia. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, Scribner (New York, NY) 1990 The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, Scribner (New York, NY) 1992 She Walks These Hills, Scribner (New York, NY) 1994 The Rosewood Casket, Dutton (New York, NY) 1996 The Ballad of Frankie Silver, Dutton (New York, NY) 1998 The Songcatcher, Dutton (New York, NY) 2001 Ghost Riders, Dutton (New York, NY) 2003 The NASCAR Novels St. Dale Kensington (New York, NY) 2005 Once Around the Track Kensington (New York, NY) 2007 Early Works Elizabeth MacPherson Novels Sick of Shadows, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1984 Lovely in Her Bones, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1985 Highland Laddie Gone, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1986 Paying the Piper, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1988 The Windsor Knot, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1989 Missing Susan, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1990 MacPherson’s Lament, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1992 If I’d Killed Him When I Met, Him Ballantine (New York, NY) 1994 The PMS Outlaws, Ballantine (New York, NY) 2000 The Jay Omega Novels Bimbos of the Death Sun, TSR Books 1986 Zombies of the Gene Pool, Simon & Schuster 1992 Short Story Collection Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Ballantine (New York, NY) 1997 Contributions of Short Story to Anthologies or Literary Magazines: "Hands Across the Ridge" Appalachian Heritage. Ed. George Brosi. Berea KY: Spring, 2008 "The Mountain House" Inspired By Poe, Ed. Ellen Datlow - Solaris Press, 2008 "Dead Hand" - Blood Lite, -Ed. Kevin J. Anderson - Pocket Books, 2008 "Parting Shot," Iron Mountain Review, Emory & Henry College, Spring 2006 "Abide With Me." Appalachian Heritage. Ed. George Brosi. Berea KY: Fall, 2004 "The Resurrection Man," (novella). Transgressions. Ed. Evan Hunter. New York, Forge: 2005 "The Wish Hounds." Hellboy: Odder Jobs. Ed. Christopher Golden. Dark Horse, 2005 "Thomas the Rhymer." The Book of Ballads. Ed. Charles Vess. New York: Tor, 2004 "Music When Soft Voices Die," The Rose & The Briar, American Ballads. Ed. Greil Marcus and Sean Willenz. Norton: 2004 "The Gallows Necklace," The Dark, ed. Ellen Datlow. New York: Tor, 2002 Non Fiction Publications Excerpt from The Songcatcher. Ed. Sandra L. Ballard and Patricia L. Hudson. Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia. Lexington KY: U.K. Press, 2003 "Foreword. Virginia Tech: Cut in Stone: A University of Timeless Beauty. Allen TX: DSA Publishing, 2007 "My Driver". Ed. Norma R. Wilson. Now & Then. Johnson City TN: East Tennessee State Univ. Volume 21, Number 2, Fall 2005 "The Cosmic Possum." Ed. Cara Modisett. Blue Ridge Country. Roanoke VA: April 2005 "Born to Die: Tom Dooley. Ed. Cara Modisett. Blue Ridge Country. Roanoke VA: January 2007 "The First Appalachian Journey: The Serpentine Chain." Ed. Matthew Wasson. Appalachian Voice. Winter 2005. Boone NC. "The Liminal State of Franklin: Magic Realism in Appalachia. Voices of the Mountains. Ed. Rob Neufeld. Asheville, NC: March/April 2001 "A Cave on Mull -From Here to There: Stories From a Mobile Virginia. Ed. Dan Smith. Roanoke VA: VA Museum of Transportation,1998 "The Celts and the Appalachians. Ed. Barbara Peters. Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen A film of The Rosewood Casket, directed by Roberto Schaefer is in production by LizCat Films of Hollywood. St. Dale - Unabridged Read by Anna Fields; BBC Audiobooks America, PO Box 450, Hampton NH 03843 Ghost Riders - Unabridged. Brilliance Audio Books, P.O. Box 887, Grand Haven, Michigan 49417. 2003. Winner: 2004 Audie Award Ghost Riders - Abridged. Brilliance Audio Books. 2003. Ghost Riders/Rank Strangers - Companion CD to Ghost Riders, Sharyn McCrumb and Jack Hinshelwood, P.O. Box 495, Shawsville, VA 24162. 2002. The Songcatcher - Unabridged. Read by James Daniels and Aasne Vigesaa. Brilliance Audio Books, 2001. The Songcatcher - Abridged. Read by James Daniels and Aasne Vigesaa. Brilliance Audio Books, 2001. The Rowan Stave - Companion CD to The Songcatcher, Sharyn McCrumb and Sweetwater, Sweetwater Productions, 643 E. Euclid Ave., Springfield, OH 45505, 2001. The Ballad of Frankie Silver - Unabridged. Read by C.M.Herbert. Blackstone Audio Books, P.O. Box 969, Ashland, Oregon 97520. 1998 The Ballad of Frankie Silver - Unabridged. Read by Jeff Woodman & Barbara Rosenblatt. Recorded Books, 270 Skipjack Road, Prince Frederick, MD 20678. 1998. The Ballad of Frankie Silver - Abridged. Read by Sharyn McCrumb. Dove Audio, 8955 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90048. The Rosewood Casket - Unabridged. Read by Sally Darling- Recorded Books 1996 The Rosewood Casket - Unabridged. Read by C.M. Herbert- Blackstone Audio Books, 1996. The Rosewood Casket - Abridged. Read by Sharyn McCrumb- Penguin Audio Books, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY. 1996. She Walks These Hills - Unabridged. Read by Sally Darling- Recorded Books 1994 She Walks These Hills - Unabridged. Read by Buck Schirner. Brilliance Corporation. 1994 She Walks These Hills - Abridged. Read by Buck Schirner. Brilliance Corporation. 1994 She Walks These Hills - Unabridged. Read by C.M. Herbert. Blackstone Audio Books. 1996 The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. Unabridged. Read by Sally Darling- Recorded Books. 1993 If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O. Unabridged. Read by Sally Darling- Recorded Books, 1993 Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Abridged. Read by Sharon Gless. Durkin Hayes Audio, 3375 North Service Rd. Burlington, ONT L7N 3G2 Canada. 1997 Also Recorded Unabridged by Recorded Books: If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him The Windsor Knot Paying the Piper Highland Laddie Gone Lovely in Her Bones Sick of Shadows MacPherson’s Lament Missing Susan PMS Outlaws Bimbos of the Death Sun Zombies of the Gene Pool Sharyn McCrumb is an award-winning Appalachian writer, best known for her Appalachian "Ballad" novels, which weave together the legends, natural wonders and contemporary issues of Appalachia. Her novels include New York Times Best Sellers She Walks These Hills and The Rosewood Casket, which deal with the issue of the vanishing wilderness, and The Ballad of Frankie Silver, the story of the first woman hanged for murder in the state of North Carolina; The Songcatcher, a genealogy in music; and Ghost Riders, an account of the Civil War in the Appalachians. A film of her novel The Rosewood Casket is currently in production by Lizcat Films, directed by British Academy Award nominee Roberto Schaefer. Her most recent works, parables set in NASCAR, are: St. Dale and Once Around the Track. St. Dale, the story of a group of ordinary people who go on a pilgrimage in honor of racing legend Dale Earnhardt, and find a miracle. This Canterbury Tales in a NASCAR setting, won a 2006 Library of Virginia Award and the AWA Book of the Year Award. Once Around the Track is a nominee for the 2007 Weatherford Award for an Outstanding work of Appalachian Fiction. McCrumb’s great-grandfathers were circuit preachers in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains a hundred years ago, riding horseback over the ridges to preach in a different community each week. It is from them, she says, that she gets her regard for books, her gift of storytelling and public speaking, and her love of the Appalachian Mountains. "My books are like Appalachian quilts," says Sharyn McCrumb. "I take brightly colored scraps of legends, ballads, fragments of rural life, and local tragedy, and I piece them together into a complex whole that tells not only a story, but also a deeper truth about the culture of the mountain South." McCrumb’s mother came from a plantation in Carteret County, North Carolina, on the Atlantic coast, but her father's people included ancestors who fought during the Revolutionary War at King's Mountain with John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee. Sharyn McCrumb lives with her husband David on an estate on the Appalachian Trail in the Virginia Blue Ridge. The first Ballad novel, If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (1990) centers around a reunion of the Class of 1966 of a small East Tennessee high school. The themes of this novel center on the relationship between past, present, and future. The central characters include a once-famous folk-singer and a Sheriff who can’t get over the Vietnam War. Strange days track everyone down in a small mountain town. The 20th class reunion reminds them of the contrast between who they thought they would grow up to be and who they are. For the men of the class the war was their crucible and they judge themselves on whether or not they went. For women life was a choice between two wrong answers, with the career women envying the homemakers and vice versa. When a 60s folk singer is menaced by a soldier long thought to be dead it seems that the past is inescapable. The novel looks at a generation who had to make it up as they went along. In a starred review ALA Booklist said, "… her powerful narrative mixes angst-ridden notes from the front, quiet fears over yellowed photographs, and sad songs from the past playing silently in troubled minds." The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter (1992) explores the threshold between life and death, both in nature and in humanity. McCrumb consciously sought to create a novel which was the ecological opposite of Deliverance which she sees as portraying civilized men being corrupted by wilderness. In her book, wilderness is despoiled by civilization. McCrumb writes, "Finally I realized that Appalachia itself is a liminal state: it is a border land, [with] all the magic that has been civilized away from most of the world. I wanted to capture that spirit of mists and memory. I also wanted to issue a warning: That no place is really very far from civilization anymore. The river that flows into the mountains from the east brings death with it...and [approximately] fifty years ago [almost] every chestnut tree in America died because someone left a door open in New York City." -- "McCrumb writes with a quiet fire and maybe a little mountain magic … Like every true storyteller, she has the Sight." — The New York Times Book Review. She Walks These Hills (1994) has a journey motif. Here the ancient geological connection between America's Appalachians and the hills of Britain lays the groundwork, so to speak, for the migration of the Celtic peoples to America’s southern mountains. The Rosewood Casket (1996) centers on the theme of people losing their land which McCrumb sees as an eternal process which began occurring when geological changes affected plant and then animal life even before human habitation. The San Diego Tribune Arts section said of She Walks These Hills: "With her eloquent, lyrical and richly-textured novels, McCrumb provides fresh evidence that there is no one quite like her among present-day writers. No one better, either." The Rosewood Casket is a novel illustrating the passing of the land from one group to another, as a preface to the modern story of farm families losing their land to the developers in today's Appalachia. The voice of Daniel Boone is central to the novel's message, a reminder that the land inherited by the farm families was once taken from the Cherokee and the Shawnee. The novel begins with Cherokee wise woman Nancy Ward, in the last spring of her life, as she realizes that her people are about to lose the land that she tried so hard to preserve for them. As a reminder of that transience of ownership, in a passage in chapter one of The Rosewood Casket, McCrumb traces the passing of the land even farther back: to a time at the end of the last Ice Age, twelve thousand years ago. The Washington Post said of the novel: "In an earlier life, McCrumb must have been a balladeer, singing of restless spirits, star-crossed lovers, and the consoling beauty of nature. Here that older folk material acts as a refrain to the more realistic narrative... The overall effect is spellbinding." Kirkus Reviews called the novel "grave, poignant, and altogether magical." The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1998) is a true story of 18-year old frontier girl Frankie Silver, who, on July 12, 1833, became the first woman in the state of North Carolina to be hanged for murder. Burgess Gaither, the 1832 Clerk of the Court for Burke County, narrates the story from her arrest to her execution. As he begins to understand the true nature of events, he wonders if there is such a thing as equal justice under the law. This tale of mountain justice is also a study of contrasts between the mountain south of log cabins and trappers and the flat land south of plantations. The novel examines how the poor are treated in the justice system. Many university classes study this book-- in surprising places. At the University of Colorado, Frankie Silver was taught in the Anglo-Hispanic Relations class, and the Hispanic students identified with Frankie. They say that mainstream America treats them the same way today. The Keene School in Keene New Hampshire studied the book, and those students also identified with Frankie, saying that if someone from New Hampshire committed a crime and was sent to be tried in Boston, they would be treated the same way today. (Because NH is a mountain region, and Boston was settled by flatland English.) Appalachian Studies classes use the book to highlight the cultural differences between the mountain and flatland Southern communities. The Los Angeles Times said of The Ballad of Frankie Silver: "Eloquent prose…In a triumph of plot construction, several lines converge in a remarkably dramatic final confrontation… The reader can’t wait to see how the book comes out, but is at the same time reluctant for the book to end." The Songcatcher, resonant with details inspired by Sharyn McCrumb's own family genealogy, tells the story of one family's descendents beginning with the kidnapping of nine-year-old Malcolm McCourry in 1751 from a Scottish island to a ship bound for America. In this novel, a song passed from generation to generation serves as a link. McCrumb writes, "Each of us is the link between the past and the future, and it is up to us to pass along the legends, the stories, the songs and the traditions of our own families. If we don't, they will be lost." She intends the reader to understand that the kind of migration across continents that was experienced by the Scotch-Irish in Appalachia is a common experience all over the globe. The folk music magazine Dirty Linen said : "Sharyn McCrumb is noted for taking folkloric material — specifically Appalachian ballads and stories — and expanding them through works of fiction to relate to our modern world. She is a master at finding some inherent truths in characters and events of the old stories and updating those ideas to accommodate a modern setting." Ghost Riders examines the Civil War in the North Carolina Mountains through the novel's primary narrators are the historical figures Malinda Blalock and Zebulon Vance. Malinda Blalock, a young mountain woman whose husband was forced to enlist in the Confederate army, disguised herself as a boy and went with him. Discharged soon afterwards, it isn't long before the Confederacy wants Keith to take up arms again, and he does, only this time it is as a bushwhacker for the Union. With not many people left to trust in a war that has pitted brother against brother, the couple head for high ground to avoid the county militia, and soon become hard-riding, deadly outlaws who avenge the deaths of their kin and neighbors at the hands of the Rebels. North Carolina Governor Zebulon Baird Vance, a young lawyer from Asheville, rose from humble beginnings on a frontier farm to serve in the U.S. Congress. Although he opposed secession, Vance loyal to his home state when the war broke out, leaving Washington to become colonel of the 26th North Carolina, and later the Confederate governor of North Carolina. In the present, the war resonates like a half-remembered nightmare. It lingers on in the Confederate battle flag flying in the yard of a trailer, in the church names "Union Baptist" and "Cumberland Presbyterian," which are expressions of politics not faith, and in the minds of scholars and weekend warriors who continue to relive the war. Library Journal said: "A compelling Civil War tale with a chilling twist. McCrumb proves once again to be an especially fine storyteller, and her characters' observations about war in general—and this war in particular—resonate. As well researched as it is told, this will appeal to Civil War buffs in addition to McCrumb’s fans." McCrumb attempts to connect contemporary Appalachia to a broader, world-wide vision while at the same time insisting upon the highest possible standards. She views the split between the mountain South and the flatland South as extending into literature with the Deep South tradition being more mannered and minimalist while the Appalachian tradition is a bardic tradition which transmits the cultural values of the past in an entertaining way. In a sense it is a split between the "folk" and the "fine," but there is no reason that our "folk" traditions should have any less literary merit than those of Homer, the first epic poet who lived in the Eighth Century, B.C.E. In fact, McCrumb cherishes the bardic or "folk" tradition in writing as an alternative to the worst of the "fine" tradition which sometimes appears to showcase authors who are merely writing to show off their prose styles instead of allowing the reader to become totally wrapped up in the story itself. The distinction sometimes made between "popular" and "literary" novels can be viewed similarly. McCrumb feels the best writing combines popular appeal with the thematic strengths some associate exclusively with "literary" writing. Thus she sees herself not only as a champion of an often misunderstood Appalachian culture, but also of the "folk" and "popular" traditions in writing as well. And she sees her writing from the Appalachian perspective as helping people to understand native peoples from all over the world. She feels a strong obligation to celebrate and explain these traditions, not to exploit them. Although she is a serious novelist, and not a mystery writer, McCrumb's first books, notably the satirical Elizabeth MacPherson novels, written while she was in graduate school at Virginia Tech, were marketed as mysteries. She won the 1988 Best Paperback Original Edgar for her satirical novel Bimbos of the Death Sun, a caricature of S-F fandom, but she grew increasingly frustrated by the trivialization of her work ("People kept reading my work with their brains in neutral," she says.) She was determined to write serious fiction examining the cultural heritage of her Appalachian forebears. The Elizabeth MacPherson novels were satires on crime fiction, in which the "sleuth" Elizabeth MacPherson never solved the crime. In Missing Susan the main character actually committed the crime. The other novels in this series are: Sick of Shadows (1983) a satire of Southern weddings; Lovely in Her Bones (1984) a look at racial isolate cultures in Appalachia; Highland Laddie Gone, (1985) which examines cultural stereotyping in the Highland Games. Also: Paying the Piper, (1988); The Windsor Knot (1989); Missing Susan (1990); MacPherson's Lament (1992); If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him (1994); and The PMS Outlaws (2000.) In 2005 McCrumb began to explore another facet of Appalachian culture: stock car racing, a sport which evolved in part from the moonshining tradition of western North Carolina to the billion dollar culture of NASCAR, Racing is surely the most maligned and misunderstood aspect of Southern mountain culture. St. Dale is The Canterbury Tales set on the NASCAR circuit. In St. Dale Harley Claymore, a down-and-out ex-Cup driver, takes what he thinks is a job leading a tour of Southern speedways, only to be told that the tour is a memorial pilgrimage, and that the passengers intend to lay a wreath in honor of Earnhardt on every Southern speedway from Bristol, Tenn., to Daytona Beach, Fla. The horrified tour guide, who raced against Earnhardt, did not think the Intimidator was a saint, but from Bristol's 2002 Sharpie 500 through the Labor Day Race at Darlington, and at all the empty speedways they visit in-between, he has to keep his opinions to himself. The bus is filled with a diverse group of characters, all there for various reasons. For Harley and his passengers, the trip soon becomes one of self-discovery. The novel is not about sports, nor is it a biography of Dale Earnhardt. When McCrumb studied The Canterbury Tales in grad school, she says she was struck with the idea of grassroots canonization. The object of the pilgrimage in Chaucer -- Thomas Becket -- had been a Saxon in Norman England, in other words, a redneck. And as Archbishop of Canterbury, he had stood up to Henry II, opposing the Crown's infringing on the powers of the Church-- that made Becket the first Intimidator. Within decades he had become the most popular saint in England. McCrumb reasoned that lately "the people's saints" were being popularly elected, rather than appointed by the Church. Like Elvis and Princess Diana. She toyed with the Canterbury Tales idea for years, but did not feel moved to write the book, until Dale Earnhardt died. Though McCrumb wasn't a NASCAR fan, she thought she could understand his world and the reasons for his secular sainthood. Although Dale Earnhardt dropped out of the ninth grade, he died the #40 person on the Forbes List of 100 Richest Americans. Despite his wealth and fame, he continued to live a few miles from his birthplace, and to live and act as unpretentiously as ever. He was a 21st century St. Thomas a Becket: a poor boy who made good in a system stacked against him, and who retained his humility to the last. Ultimately, the novel is about people's search for something to believe in. Living in a secular age has not made that yearning so away. It has simply produced a collection of unusual saints. In addition to winning two major awards and being a featured work at the National Festival of the Book in Washington, St. Dale is taught in schools throughout the southeast, both for Chaucer studies and Southern literature, and it was the 2007 Campus Book of Caldwell Community College, in Lenoir NC. Denver Post reviewer Dorman T. Schindler called St. Dale "a perfect blend of comedy, pathos, thoughtfulness, and the fine points, history and joy of stock car racing." Sharyn McCrumb's second NASCAR novel Once Around the Track, published in 2007, chronicles the adventures of an all-woman NASCAR team that hires a "pretty" male driver. With a female version of Viagra for a sponsor and the driver’s evil manager thwarting the team’s efforts, it is a wild ride both on and off the track. On her website McCrumb says, "I was interested in all the different ways the "pretty male driver" is perceived by the other characters. Skinny boys in firesuits look like warrior angels, and one tends to expect them to be kinder, wiser, braver, etc. than they could possibly be. It was an interesting way for me to structure to look at our need for larger-than-life heroes." "Researching the book was quite an adventure. I did a ride along in a race car, consulted the Pettys and the Earnhardts, and had a NASCAR driver on SpeedDial to keep me out of trouble. This may be the first book ever to have a pit crew to make sure I got everything right. My good friend Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton helped to write the chapter set at Darlington, and a NASCAR gas-man and an engineer helped out. I got advice from a Who's-Who of NASCAR. But what really interested me was that feeling of awe that fans have for their driver. In some ways this book is as much about religion as St. Dale was." Richmond Times Dispatch contributor Judith Chettle called Once Around the Track a "beguiling tale" that "celebrates loyalty and love for racing cars, rather than just winning prizes." Holloway, Kimberly, ed. From a Race of Story Tellers: Critical Essays on The Ballad Novels of Sharyn McCrumb. Atlanta: Mercer University. Press, 2003. Haskell, Jean and Rudy Abramson, eds. Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Entry on Sharyn McCrumb by Kimberly Holloway. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006. Sizemore, Judy. Appalachian Literature, Appalachian Culture. Edited by Ginny Eager. Ashland KY: Jesse Stuart Foundation Press, 2000. Dyer, Joyce, ed.. Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers" Lexington KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1998. Eubanks, Georgann. Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains: A Guidebook. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press. Kidd, Kim H. Mythical Mountains; Celtic Mythology in the Ballad novels of Sharyn McCrumb. Masters Thesis, department of English, East Tennessee State University, 1998. Journal of American Culture- Volume 29 Issue 3 Page 337-344, September 2006. Linda J Holland-Toll "Bridges Over and Bedrock Beneath: The Role of Ballads in Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad Novels" Antietam Review - Volume XX, 2000. Hagerstown, MD, 2000. Fischer, Ethan. Highland Mastery: Interview With Sharyn McCrumb. Ed. Ethan Fischer. Appalachian Heritage- Fall 2004 - Sharyn McCrumb Issue . Interview with Sharyn McCrumb by editor George Brosi; article by Charlotte Ross on Nora Bonesteel. Appalachian Journal - Fall 2000 - "The Ballads of Sharyn McCrumb" by Meredith Sue Willis. Asheville Citizen-Times - April 26, 1998, Rob Neufeld, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver; July 6, 2003, Rob Neufeld, "Haunted By the Past," review of Ghost Riders; January 30, 2005- Rob Neufeld, review of St. Dale; August 12, 2007- Rob Neufeld, review of Once Around the Track. Atlanta Journal & Constitution March 18, 1990, Michelle Ross, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O; February 20, 2005 Don O'Briant, "Sacred Rounds; Novelist Searches for the Soul of Appalachia On an Endless Oval With a Secular Saint." (review of St. Dale.) Booklist - March 15 1992, Peter Robertson, review of "The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter and Zombies of the Gene Pool," p. 1340, and "The Booklist Interview: Sharyn McCrumb," p. 1341; November 1, 1992, Donna Seaman, review of MacPherson’s Lament, p. 467; August 1994, Mary Carroll, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 1989; September 15, 1995, Joseph Rice, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 184; March 15, 996, Emily Melton, review of Rosewood Casket, p. 1219; September 15, 1997, Emily Melton, review of review of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, p. 210; December 15, 1998, Kren Harris review of She Walks these Hills, p. 761; April 15, 1999, Mary McCay, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver, p. 1542; June 1, 2000, Joanne Wilkerson, review of the Rosewood Casket, p. 1850; July, 2000, Connie Fletcher, review of The PMS Outlaws, p. 2014; May 15, 2001, Connie Fletcher, (starred) review of The Songcatcher, p. 1733; June 1, 2003, Carrie Bissey, review of Ghost Riders, p. 1744; January 1, 2005, Wes Lukowsky, review of St. Dale., p. 827; May 1 2007, Shelley Moseley, review of Once Around the Track, p. 74. Charlotte Observer, June 3, 2001, Salem Macknee, review of The Songcatcher; January 30, 2005, Sam Hodges "A Novelist Shifts Gears to NASCAR," p. E-1. Chicago Sun-Times, April 12, 1992 Edward S. Gilbreth, review of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, p.(E)15. Chicago Tribune , March 11 2005 Matt Burgard, review of St. Dale. Christian Science Monitor May 12, 2005 David Kirby, "Female hearts Now Pound for NASCAR." Denver Post, March 13, 2005, Dorman T. Shindler, "If Chaucer Had Written Tales About NASCAR." Dirty Linen, #76, June-July 1998. Pamela M. winters. "A Trip to Appalachia- Sharyn McCrumb." Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1996, review of The Rosewood Casket; April 15, 2001, review of The Songcatcher, p. 2310; May 1, 2003, review of Ghost Riders, p. 635; December 1, 2004, review of St. Dale, p. 1109. Journal of Kentucky Studies - 17 (2000): 79-89. -"The World of Sharyn McCrumb: Timelessness and Changes in the Appalachian Mountains." New York Times Book Review, May 20, 1990, Marilyn Stasio, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, p. 53; April 19, 1992; Marilyn Stasio, review of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, p. 50; January 8, 1995, Clyde Edgerton, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 16; May 19, 1996, Marilyn Stasio, review of the Rosewood Casket, p. 21; January 18, 1998, Jack Sullivan, review of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, p. 17; ; May 3, 1998, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver, p. 28. Publishers Weekly, February 23, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, p. 207; March 9, 1992, review of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, p. 50; August 29, 1994, review of She Walks these Hills, p. 63; April 1, 1996, review of The Rosewood Casket, p. 59; August 25, 1997, of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, p. 47; March 16, 1998, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver, p. 57; May 14, 2001, review of The Songcatcher, p. 51; May 19, 2003, review of Ghost Riders, p. 49; January 17, 2005, review of St. Dale, p.35; April 23, 2007, review of Once Around the Track, p. 31. Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 29, 2001, Sharon L. Vecchione, review of The Songcatcher; p. F-4; June 17, 2007, Judith Chettle, "FICTION: Fast women, NASCAR-style, a review of Once Around the Track." San Diego Union-Tribune -May 17, 1998, Robert Wade, review of the Ballad of Frankie Silver. School Library Journal- December, 1995, "SLJ’s Best Books 1995," review of She Walks These Hills, p. 25. Spectator Magazine Raleigh NC- June 17, 1998- Art Taylor "Blood on the Frontier; A Review of the Ballad of Frankie Silver." Virginia Libraries Vol. 43, No. 3. Summer, 1997. Lane, Rebecca. "Sharyn McCrumb: A Novelist Looks at the Southern Mountains." Ed. Cy Dillon. Virginia Quarterly Review, spring 1995, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 59. Washington Post Book World, October 16, 1994, Pat Dowell, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 10; ; April 21, 1996, Maureen Corrigan, review of The Rosewood Casket; August 12, 2001, Lee Smith, "Mountain Music‘s Moment in the Sun": July 15, 2001, Judith Warner, "Chords of Memory", p. 4. ONLINE: Sharyn McCrumb Home Page, (March 1, 2008). Bristol Herald Courier: (February 21,2008) Tom Netherland interview of Sharyn McCrumb Boerne Public Library, (March 1, 2008) Michelle Ratliff article on the geography of Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballad series. Salem News Journal, (February 29, 2008) Artucle by Meg hibbert, "Salem-area writer Sharyn McCrumb named one of Virginia's Women of History" Sharyn McCrumb MySpace Profile, (March 1, 2008.) BookPage Interview July 2003: Sharyn McCrumb Bibliography In addition to the Ballad Novels, Sharyn McCrumb has written satirical and comic novels as well as short stories. Download a comprehensive bibliography of McCrumb's work. (MS Word format) or (PDF file) |
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