Miss America Kissed Caleb: Stories

by Clark, Billy C.

• ISBN13: 9780813122960
• ISBN10: 0813122961
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

Welcome to Sourwood, a small Kentucky town inhabited by men and women unique and yet eerily familiar. Among its joyful and tragic citizens we meet the crafty, spirited Caleb and his curious younger brother; Pearl, a suspected witch, and her sheltered daughter, Thanie; superstitious Eli; and the doomed orphan Girty. In Sourwood, the mountain is both a keeper of secrets and an imposing, isolating presence shaping the lives of all who live in its shadow. Strong in both the voice and sensibilities of Appalachia, the stories in Miss America Kissed Caleb, the newest collection of short fiction by Billy C. Clark, are at turns heartbreaking and hilarious. In the title story, young Caleb turns over his hardearned dime to the war effort when he receives a coaxing kiss from Miss America, who sweeps into Sourwood by train, "pretty as a night moth." Caleb and his brother share in the thrills and uncertainties of growing up, making an accidental visit to a brothel in "Fourth of July" and taming a "high society" pooch in "The Jimson Dog."

Author Biography

Billy C. Clark, the award-winning author of thirteen books and numerous short stories and poems, is founder and editor of Kentucky Writing and Virginia Writing. Clark's stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and numerous anthologies, and his novel, A Long Row to Hoe, was selected as one of Time magazine's best books of 1960. A native of Catlettsburg, Kentucky, he lives in Virginia

Table of Contents

Miss American Kissed Caleb	1	(8)
The Ring	9	(30)
Fourth of July	39	(8)
A Pair of Shoes	47	(20)
The Jimson Dog	67	(28)
On Joe Carter's Mule	95	(12)
The Cornstalk Fiddle	107	(18)
Girty	125	(8)
To Plant a Windsong	133	(26)
Love and a Can of Worms (An Appalachian Love Story)	159	(8)
Reliefing It	167