Ron Rash (born September 25, 1953) is an American poet, short story writer and novelist and the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University.

Early life

Rash was born on September 25, 1953, in Chester, South Carolina and grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Gardner–Webb University and Clemson University from which he holds a B.A. and M.A. in English, respectively.

Career

Rash's poems and stories have appeared in more than 100 magazines and journals. Serena was a 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award finalist. Rash has achieved acclaim as a short story author, winning the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award in 2010 for Burning Bright. Recent work such as The Outlaws (Oxford American, Summer, 2013) focused on ordinary lives in southern Appalachia. Jim Coby examined Rash's use of mystery thriller tropes in One Foot in Eden. Ron Rash holds the John and Dorothy Parris Professorship in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University, where he teaches poetry and fiction in the Department of English.

Literary work

One Foot in Eden (2002) was Rash's first novel. It fleshes out the characters and themes of Raising the Dead (2002), tells the story of a community displaced, disguised as a murder mystery and imbued with Rash's poetic language. His sophomore effort, Saints at the River (2004), covers a dispute in a South Carolina community torn over the issue of environmentalism. The World Made Straight (2006) is his third. This piece acts with dual purpose, as a coming-of-age story set in the 1970s Appalachia and a meditation on the role of the past on the present, in this case a Civil War massacre that has divided Madison County, North Carolina. It was later adapted into a feature film, directed by David Burris and released in 2015. Next was Serena (2008), which was also adapted into a feature film, too called Serena (2014), directed by Susanne Bier and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. The film was a critical and box office failure. In both, an ambitious wife of a North Carolina timber baron, Serena, brings the spirit of Lady MacBeth to depression-era North Carolina. In The Cove (2012), the main family is afflicted with a series of grave misfortunes. Their lives, particularly Laurel's, are interrupted at the arrival of a mute stranger who has been found after suffering a severe number of wasp stings.

Awards

New York Times Bestseller list

List of works

Novels

Short story collections

Poetry

Children's book

Magazine publications