In this episode 209, guest host and award-winning author Heather Bell Adams interviews Ron Rash, aptly called by The New York Times “one of the great American authors at work today.” His latest book is In The Valley,  named a Garden & Gun and Atlanta Journal Constitution best book of the year and Winner of the 2020 Thomas Robinson Prize for Southern Literature.

In the Valley is a collection of ten searing stories and the return of the villainess who propelled Serena to national acclaim, in a long-awaited novella. Two of the stories have already been singled out for accolades: “Baptism” was chosen by Roxane Gay for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 2018, and “Neighbors” was selected by Jonathan Lethem for The Best American Mystery Stories 2019.

Ron Rash has long been a revered presence in the landscape of American letters. A virtuosic novelist, poet, and story writer, he evokes the beauty and brutality of the land, the relentless tension between past and present, and the unquenchable human desire to be a little bit better than circumstances would seem to allow (to paraphrase Faulkner).