Join Appalachian authors PJ Piccirillo and Ben Moyer for a conversation of the region's literary richness
Piccirillo's historical novel, The Indigo Scarf, is the story of two ex-slaves and the white women they're forbidden to be with who flee the black codes of post-colonial Pennsylvania only to confront the privations of a wild frontier while their former owners scheme their return. Though shadowed in whiskey-making and timber-pirating, The Indigo Scarf is a paean to devotion.
Moyer's collection, Smoke to See By, gathers 21 essays and stories that track his quest for intimate knowledge of his home region, the foothills and ridges of Northern Appalachia. It is a quietly joyous celebration of the ecological resilience and diversity of a region those without Moyer’s perception might categorize as “unspectacular,” yet which harbors its own marvelous natural wonders, offered to those who would know them up close.
PJ Piccirillo is an award-winning author and literary artist-in-residence for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He is the founding editor and current editor-in-chief of the Northern Appalachia Review, a literary journal dedicated to writing from and about the region of northern Appalachia. A two-time winner of the Appalachian Writers Association Harriette Arnow Award for Short Story, PJ’s fiction and articles have appeared in journals, magazines, newspapers, and syndicates. An instructor of English and Humanities at Butler County Community College, PJ holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine and a B.A. in English from Saint Francis University.
Ben Moyer’s writing on nature, outdoors, and conservation issues appears in numerous regional and national publications including Northern Appalachia Review and Pittsburgh Quarterly magazine. He also authors the monthly “The Wild Around” column and the quarterly back page in Pennsylvania Game News magazine. In 2019, the Outdoor Writers Association of America honored Moyer with its Enduring Excellence Award, which recognizes an outstanding lifetime body of work. His writing has also garnered numerous awards from the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and the Mason-Dixon Outdoor Writers Association. Moyer strives to convey the value of personal affiliation with place, while interpreting scientific concepts and natural history through creative prose. He writes and lives in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, with his wife Kathy.