By Rodney Wolfenbarger

Appalachian author Pamela Duncan enjoyed a warm reception as she read to a packed house during a celebration of the Spring 2009 issue of Appalachian Heritage. More than 50 people attended the reading, held in the newly-named Loyal Jones Appalachian Center on Friday, May 1, 2009. Duncan, the issue’s featured author, read an excerpt from her forthcoming novel The Wilder Place and a selection from one of her previous award-winning novels The Big Beautiful. As celebrated novelist Lee Smith once observed of Duncan, both selections were “filled with the good humor that has increasingly become one of Pam’s trademarks.”

Another aspect of Duncan’s signature style on display Friday night was the authenticity of her writing. “Just a wonderful voice,” one attendee said, “as soon as she opened her mouth I was engaged.” Friend and fellow Appalachian author Silas House, who attended the reading, says “the reason that Pam’s writing sings is because it rings with the voices of the people…all of her characters carry Appalachia in their mouths and hearts.”

Duncan credits her former teacher and mentor Lee Smith with helping her find that voice. She also points to reading Smith’s Oral History as a life-changing experience. As the story goes Duncan was working in a bookstore when a co-worker pointed out a customer saying, “Why don’t you read her books? She writes just like you talk.” That customer was Lee Smith. On reading Smith’s book, Duncan says “here was a powerful novel about my people, working-class people, mountain people. After years of floundering blindly, looking for a way into the world of writing, Lee Smith’s work opened the door and turned on the light. I thought, this sounds like my grandma talking.”

Three novels later, Duncan seems to possess the same qualities she so admired in Smith’s work, prompting Smith to write that “Pamela Duncan has given new meaning to the term authentic. Her novels honestly chronicle the real lives of real people, their good times and hard times, their valor, humor, and passion as they deal head-on with the circumstances that shape their lives.” Those in attendance Friday observed the same: a writer who knows who she is and where she’s from, a storyteller with a sense of humor, and a familiar and convincing voice poised and able to carry forward both our oral traditions and literary history.

“I believe the best writers listen and then preserve,” said Silas House. “This is Pam’s great legacy already, that she has listened so well, and preserved so beautifully.”

For those who missed the event, you can listen to the full webcast at Berea College’s blogtalkradio page or watch an excerpt of the event at YouTube.

The next Appalachian Heritage author reading is scheduled for Friday, June 12, 2009, and will feature a panel of writers who will speak and read in honor of Jim Wayne Miller, featured author of the Summer 2009 issue. Speakers include his widow, Mary Ellen Miller; former Appalachian Center director, Loyal Jones; and Morris Grubbs, editor of the Jim Wayne Miller reader forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky. The reading will be held in conjunction with the Alumni Office during the Summer Reunion, as both Jim Wayne and Mary Ellen Miller are alumni of Berea College.