This week we visit with Ann Pancake in Reedsville, West Virginia.

Ann Pancake grew up in Summersville and Romney, West Virginia and graduated from WVU with a Bachelor of Arts in English. After teaching English in Japan, American Samoa and Thailand, she earned a Masters degree in English from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Washington.

Pancake is—publicly and fervently—a West Virginia writer. She is the author of two story collections set in West Virginia: “Given Ground,” winner of the Bakeless Prize, and “Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley,” a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her novel “Strange as This Weather Has Been” features a southern West Virginia family struggling with a mountaintop removal mine. It was named one of Kirkus Review’s Top Ten Fiction Books of the year, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, won the 2007 Weatherford Prize and was a finalist for the 2008 Orion Book Award. “Strange as This Weather Has Been” is now cited and taught as a key piece of literature about Appalachian coal country.

Ann's Books on the Bed:

Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Deer Man: Seven Years of Living in the Wild by Geoffroy Delorme

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Mind and Our World by Max Fisher

Country Queers: A Love Letter by Rae Garringer

The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley

Bloodroot by Bill King

Matt's Gifts for Ann:

Groundglass by Kathryn Savage

Trinity by Zelda Lockhart