Survey from Phyllis Wilson Moore (Audience Participation Required)

FROM WV WRITERS PRESIDENT TERRY MCNEMAR:

Phyllis Wilson Moore of Clarksburg, West Virginia, an avid reader and word lover, researches and writes about the literature of West Virginia and she credits Dr. Jim Wayne Miller with inspiring her research project. Her publication credits are in the genres of fiction, literary history, memoir, nonfiction, and poetry. She headed the state’s effort to create its first official literary map, “From a Place Called Solid” and she managed www.mountainlit.com through much of its beginning.

In a continuance of this good work, Phyllis has requested our assistance in the form of a questionnaire about southern lit and West Virginia lit. Read it carefully and please respond. My mind is already spinning with ideas (well, that and visions of pumpkin pie). Please pass this on so that it gets a good circulation, to members of your own writing and reading community, in your schools, on Facebook, etc. This is an important project, please jump in with both feet.

Thanks!


FROM PHYLLIS WILSON MOORE:

Dear Members of WV Writers, Inc. and Others:


Would you care to have a go at sending your answers to these five questions about West Virginia literature, along with any other thoughts on the subject ? If so, thanks in advance.

Phyllis Wilson Moore.

Send your answers to: scoutdil@aol.com

2010 will soon be here. I'm looking back at the developments in West Virginia literature over the last fifty years.

• When you think of West Virginia fiction written since 1960, what ten works of fiction best portray the West Virginia you know?
• Over the years, folks in the know have been asked to describe West Virginia's literature in two words. The range has been wide: blood and politics; hope and suffocation; religion and family, etc.
• What two words would you come up with?
• A scholar asked to define southern literature quipped, "Is there a dead mule in it?" This humorous idea became the genesis for the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. http://www.deadmule.com/
• Does WV's literature differ from southern literature?
• If so, do you have a humorous name to suggest it?
• I'm interested in organizing panel discussions on West Virginia's literature; can you suggest knowledgeable panel members? I'd like the panel to represent the state’s ethnic diversity.
  

Thanks again,

Phyllis Wilson Moore
Clarksburg