Among the Believers - Softcover

Rash, Ron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0916078507 ISBN 13: 9780916078508

Publisher: Iris Pr, 2000

Synopsis

Ron Rash's second book of poetry is based on the historical realities of the mountains of western North Carolina, where Mr. Rash's ancestry goes back for at least five generations. These skillfully crafted and highly compact poems capture the spirit and feeling, the beauty and cruelty, of a place and time which has now largely faded from the American Landscape.

About this title

About the Author

Ron Rash's family has lived in the southern Appalachian mountains since the mid-1700's, and it is this region that is the primary focus of his writing. Rash grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and graduated from Gardner-Webb College and Clemson University. He now lives in Clemson, South Carolina, with his wife and two children. He teaches English at Tri-County Technical College and teaches poetry at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts.

In 1987 his fiction won a General Electric Younger Writers Award and in 1994 he was awarded an NEA Poetry Fellowship. He was awarded the Sherwood Anderson Prize in 1996. His poetry and fiction have appeared in a number of journals, including Yale Review, Georgia Review, Oxford American, New England Review, Southern Review, Shenandoah and DoubleTake. He is the author of two books, The Night The New Jesus Fell to Earth, a collection of stories, and Eureka Mill, a collection of poems.

From the Back Cover

The language of Among the Believers is alive. The slant couplets, the vigorous and exact meters, the plain yet vivid diction, make the old words sing and the new words seem inevitable. The narratives and dramatic monologues are spoken with an awesome intensity, recalling bothethe harsh times and the spirituality of the mountain past. The poems evoke a special feeling for the ceremonial mysteries of everyday life, and they are haunted by mortality, while turning to honor the dead. With his fresh, surprising voice, Ron Rash creates a living past. _Robert Morgan

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Corpse Bird

Bed-sick she heard the bird's call
fall soft as a pall that night
quilts tightened around her throat,
her gray eyes narrowed, their light
gone as she saw what she'd heard
waiting for her in the tree
cut down at daybreak by kin
to make the coffin, bury
that perch around her so death
might find one less place of rest.

Edition details

• Publisher: Iris Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0916078507
• ISBN 13: 9780916078508
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 71