Given Ground - by Ann Pancake (Paperback)

About the Book

Short stories explore cultural change and class conflict in contemporary West Virginia.

Book Synopsis

Departing from Appalachia's 150-year-old literary legacy of formula and caricature, West Virginia native Ann Pancake uses the texture of language, an intense attention to place, and complexity of characterization to recreate the region -- its tragic history and fragile culture, the interior landscapes of its people, and their deep rootedness in a threatened land. Her characters, already marginalized economically and socially, confront what many perceive as an invading outside culture, enduring and at times transcending the loss of their "place," both literally and figuratively. Their stories undermine the assumption that just because people don't articulate what happens inside them, nothing much is happening at all.

Review Quotes

"Ann Pancake . . . is indisputably a regional writer, but her stories are free from the kitschy sentimentality and high-art self-consciousness that this label has come to imply. Pancake shares [her characters'] fondness for what ordinarily appears unlovable, depicting an ignored pocket of the country with a clear and admiring eye. She has an unusual gift for portraying difficult lives with a plain-spoken accuracy that makes them seem suddenly exceptional."-- "The New York Times Book Review"

About the Author

ANN PANCAKE is a native of West Virginia. Her numerous awards include an NEA grant, the Whiting Award, and a Pushcart Prize. Her novel, Strange As This Weather Has Been (2007) was one of Kirkus Review's Top Ten Fiction Books of 2007. She now teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University.