I'd like to comment...on West Virginia Indie Bookstores
From the beginning of October to the start of November, its been a month of book things and bookstores, all in my home state of West Virginia.
It started with the opening of Monkey Wrench Books in Morgantown (which, technically might have been the end of September, but I have been in there in October). Having groused for years that we had no indie bookstore in our college town, it’s truly LOVELY to have Monkey Wrench. Almost as soon as I walked in, I saw my book, Fierce and Delicate on the shelf. I thanked Lindsey Jacobs, the store’s owner, for including my book (note—always thank bookstores that carry your book!) She immediately asked if I’d sign it (always!). The store is airy, with a coffee bar—yes Morgantowners! if you are on S. High Street, pop in for a delicious coffee drink—and an eclectic and smart selection of books, as well as an inviting children’s section.
It was fun to see the spine of my book on the shelf with so many other WVU Press books. And, now that I have a hometown bookstore, I’m already planning my upcoming Christmas present list, which will definitely include many, many books from my new hometown bookseller.
And yes, I definitely want to meet up with people for coffee at Monkey Wrench. See you there soon?
Not long after I first visted Monkey Wrench, I had the chance to check out Wordplay WV in Wardensville. It’s another place I saw my book “in the wild,” this time, my recently published collection of poems, Postscripts. I’d sent out materials to “local” bookstores about the release of the collection, and many thanks to Marlene at Wordplay WV for adding it to their Appalachian selection. The main street in Wardensville has many cute shops and behind Wordplay, in the same building, is a wonderful little coffee shop, Drifters Cafe, which also has a nice selection of sandwhiches and other lunch-y treats.
The weekend I went to Wordplay, I was visiting nearby Lost River, and if you’ve never hiked up to Cranny Crow Overlook at Lost River State Park, it’s quite a trek. The park ranger told me that if you make it to the overlook, you gain about 1,000 feet of altitude. And you are rewarded with an amazing view. Such a cool part of our state.
The picture can’t really capture it, but seeing miles and miles of mountains fills one with a sense of how marvelous the natural world is.
Rounding out my month or so of West Virginia Indie Bookstores was a November 1, 2024 event at Booktenders in Barboursville, WV. Ashley, one of Booktenders owners, suggested an event with Edwina Pendarvis, author of Another World: Ballet Lesson from Appalachia. This book is a lovely history of ballet in Appalachia told through the stories of dancers in and from the region, and Eddy—as Pendarvis goes by—honored the stories of those dancers by inviting many to the event to share their stories. I’d known this book before I knew Eddy, having used it in some presentations about dance, and I am beyond thrilled to know this author personally. As a bonus, she quotes one of my poems as an epigraph to one of the chapters in Another World.
Booktenders features an impressive selection of Appalachia-connected books, and I saw many titles of friends and WVU Press books. Next door to Orbit’s Recordshop, and across the street from a brewery and pub and Bruno’s Spotted Hare, a restuarant that serves “internationally flavored Appalachian fare” (and is delicious), Booktenders finds itself on a section of a street that’s as fun and cool as any you will see in the state. Booktenders also has a coffee/wine bar (one of the patrons in the store when I arrived called it, “a wine bar with books”), and all the details inside the store just make it an inviting space (with an impressive selection of stickers, if that’s your jam).
Eddy got our event started by discussing how she came to write her book, and inviting people to share their stories. Included were Ella Hay, a one-woman dance institution in the Huntington-area, who taught and still teaches (in her 90s!) generations of young dancers. Another dancer, Angie Copley, grew up dancing in Cusco, Peru, eventually settling with her husband in West Virginia, and told of brining her love of dance from one continent to the other. Yet asnother was Deb Novak, a longtime dancer and actor who was trained at the Tisch School for the Arts in NYU in the 70s. Deb is now finishing a PhD at Ohio University, and her dissertation focuses on how to use the Stanislavski Method to help train dancers to act. Deb also danced for Charleston Ballet, and added many entertaining stories to the evening’s events, which featured even more stories and experiences from dancers young and not-as-young.
I read a little from Fierce and Delicate, trying to match those stories to some being told. I ended up reading “When I Was A Mouse,” the short essay that opens the book, and found out later it was Eddy’s favorite. I love it when that happens!
We had a picture taken of all the former and current dancers (except Ella, who had to leave before things ended). I appreciated, too, the non dancers in the audience who enthusiastically listened to our tales of the studios and stages. It’s one author event that I’ll never forget, and I appreciate Booktenders so much for giving us this wonderful space and time to celebrate the stories of dancers.
And many thanks to Eddy, with her generous spirit and wonderful way of bringing people together. This may have been our first event together, but I don’t think it will be our last. And thanks again to Ashley and Booktenders, who had many copies of both Fierce and Delicate and Postscripts.
I appreciate all the indie bookstores, in West Virginia and beyond. Hoping to visit many more soon.
News and Notes:
Many of you may have seen the news from WVU Press, but if not, I’m really excited to be the Series Editor of Connective Tissue, which will feature books on health humanities, narrative medicine, and art in medicine. I’m sure I’ll comment more on this work soon.
For all my fellow Gen Xers (and older Millenials), did you see that The Cure has a new album? Give Songs of a Lost World a listen—it will take you back to 1992, in a good way. I listened to this new Cure along with The Night The Zombies Came, the new Pixies effort, on my drive to Barboursville.
Thank you to all of you who have voted for me in the FabOver40 contest. Most important about FabOver40 is the money and awareness it raises for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Somehow I’m still in it, having made the Top 15. I’ve never been good at this sort of thing, and I appreciate the votes. But most of all, I’m happy for the support of the NCBF and the work they do.
Also, the Healthcare Is Human podcast continues our series on metabolic health. You can hear one of my poems at the end of each podcast. And you get to see the wonderful photography of Molly Humphreys.