Ron Rash to lead two readings next week

The western Carolinas in Ron Rash’s roots remain in so much expression in his words – written and spoken.

The author of such novels “The Cove,” “Serena,” most recently released by HarperCollins, “Above the Waterfall,” and such poetry collections as “Chemistry” and “Burning Bright,” splits his time living in the Clemson area and teaching Appalachian studies at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.

Speaking Sunday night from home before traveling for a reading at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Rash will soon take his turn in Conway for two local reading series, both for free and with the public welcome:

▪ 5 p.m. Nov. 18 in Coastal Carolina University’s “Word to Say It Series,” in Johnson Auditorium, room 116 in E. Craig Wall School of Business Administration, on main campus in Conway, off U.S. 501 and S.C. 544.

▪ 7 p.m. Nov. 19 in Horry County Memorial Library’s “Horry County Reads” Series, in auditorium at Horry County Museum, 805 Main St., Conway, in historic Burroughs School building, next to library’s Conway branch.

Spending time across the Carolinas, and having reads at such places as a local university and library gathering, Rash explained how the honor he shares in orating lets him share a piece of his ancestral connections in the western N.C. mountains begun in the mid-1700s.

Rash called readers’ reception everywhere he visits “always gratifying,” especially with audiences “who know the landscape” and appreciate his addressing “partilcular things” such as the dialect and choice of words that differ by setting in both Carolinas.

“Even little things such as knowing what kind of barbecue would be served in North Carolina versus South Carolina,” he said.

Rash quoted the late Eudora Welty, a lifelong Mississippian who won a Pulitzer Prize: “One place understood helps us understand all places better.”

Although he didn’t find his muse in writing start until he was in college and have a book published until age 49, Rash said when reading passages aloud to gatherings, he still will come across “a line wish I would have done better” when first putting down his words for publication, but that results only from natural, innocent perfectionism.

“Everything I read,” Rash said, “I find myself self-editing as I read. It’s a good test, to see that I got the rhythm right.”

Rash said even observing how “consonants and vowels are rubbing off each other” helps him craft his means of conveying something and “that’s where the magic comes from.”

Writing poetry also fulfills a purpose for Rash, who said when readers sense the pace of the writing is slowing, the attention to “seemingly little things” in the content only heightens.

Two more books are planned for release next year, Rash said. One compiles poems that have consumed him for several years, and the next HarperCollins novel, at the moment with a working title of “By the Wind Grieved,” words from the late Asheville, N.C.-native author’s autobiographic novel, “Look Homeward, Angel.”

Rash said audiences around the world – including Great Britain, Denmark, France and China – reading his material through books published in 15 languages makes him realize that through literature, it “reminds us that we are all more alike” than not.

As a professor working with students in this technology heavy time, more challenges to concentration abound than “in my generation,” Rash said, but he’s happy to help youth find their own voice to express.

“We live in a new world now,” he said, “with less solitude and silence, particularly in novel writing, but we have students willing to do it.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Ron Rash to lead two readings next week."