Description
A new and thoroughly unsentimental take on changing life and cultural traditions in Southern Appalachia.
A young maid an an upscale resort hides her banjo-playing freighthopper brother.
An unlikely romance bridges a quarter-century age gap and a 150-year-old murder.
A man tries to turn his sheltered mother’s backyard shed into a pricey vacation rental.
A gig worker must shake off her darker identity to become a professional baby namer.
An extraordinary debut from one of America’s most exciting new talents, THE BALLAD OF CHERRYSTOKE weaves together the quirky and the sublime: an important new voice in Appalachian literature. Each story is something lyrical and unflinching, with characters that remain with you long after you’ve finished.
“Melanie McGee Bianchi writes with graciousness for the reader: it feels like she’s invited you on her porch to tell you these stories because you need to hear them. She also shows graciousness for her characters, allowing them the full spectrum of humanity no matter what space they occupy in the world.”
– Steven Dunn, author of Potted Meat
“Yuri in “Abdiel’s Revenge” says: ‘If there’s a main idea in all those ballads, in all of Appalachia, to my mind, it comes down to this: bones in the river.’ THE BALLAD OF CHERRYSTOKE is a collection about Appalachian people (not characters, not stereotypes) with secrets and trust issues, brain injuries, prison records, sh**ty jobs, broken hearts, urges and needs and fears — but Bianchi is observant and wise, kind but unflinching, an archaeologist; she listens, and excavates, and through rich and luxuriously meandering prose pulls those bones up onto the bank for us to touch, and taste, and feel. This is the best debut collection I’ve read in years. Melanie McGee Bianchi is sharp, and tender, and brilliant.” — Meagan Lucas, author of the award-winning novel Songbirds and Stray Dogs and Editor-in-Chief of Reckon Review
“The narrators in this collection shrug off their wounds to observe and report their fascinating stories. With language as striking and surprising as it is beautiful, Bianchi adds a new and unique voice to Appalachian literature.” — Heather Newton, author of McMullen Circle
“Brilliantly weaving together original narratives with elements of the real Appalachian mountains and their people, these stories reveal startling details that create immediate, visceral impressions of complex, haunting characters: their secrets, their fears, and their anguish… Like the mountains they inhabit, these characters are a mercurial parade of stunning beauty and terrible pain.” — Elizabeth Baird Hardy, author of Milton, Spenser, and the Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis Novels
“The complex, the quirky, and the sublime are interwoven with humor, love, and above all, grace, in contributing to a tradition of powerful storytelling. The landscape is steeped in the voices of the people.” — Tony Robles, author of Cool Don’t Live Here No More – A Letter to San Francisco and Fingerprints of a Hunger Strike
“Bianchi has created worlds that seem simultaneously magical and rooted in the grit of rural reality —a vexing combination that dares the reader at every turn. Her rich characters grow within us in uncomfortable and compelling ways that force the next page turn.” — Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, author of Even As We Breathe
“The characters in Melanie McGee Bianchi’s debut collection, THE BALLAD OF CHERRYSTOKE —gritty, determined, shrewd— are modern balladeers, narrating remarkable stories set in the Appalachian South. Beautifully unusual, told in penetrating, straightforward prose, these stories reveal genuine, universal truths, affecting and unforgettable.” — Susan Beckham Zurenda, award-winning author of Bells for Eli
Through deep lyricism and a sharp eye for detail, Melanie McGee Bianchi’s stories peel back the quotidian moments of everyday life to demonstrate the complexity of what it means to live in a world crafted by both our desires and our choices — and what it means when those two elements don’t always coincide. THE BALLAD OF CHERRYSTOKE is a powerful collection that uncovers the music of humanity that emerges each time a person interacts with another person in a complicated and changing world. It’s an extraordinary and haunting debut.” — Adam Clay, author of To Make Room for the Sea and editor of Mississippi Review
Fiction. Short Stories.
Author Bio
Melanie McGee Bianchi grew up in a series of character-forming historic houses in different parts of the U.S. Starting at age 12, she gathered modest notice on the spelling-bee circuit, won short-story contests in various newspapers, and placed poems and fiction in national print publications, including the grunge-era teen magazine Sassy. After university, she began a career in features journalism in Asheville, North Carolina, where she has lived most of her life. Melanie was the lead arts reporter and Arts & Entertainment Editor at Mountain Xpress, a member paper of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, for ten years. She also edited VERVE, a women's magazine. In 2004, she won an industry Gold Award for special-section editing. Melanie currently manages three regional lifestyle publications: Asheville Made, Bold Life, and Carolina Home + Garden. Her humor essays have been published regionally and nationally, and her poetry has been shortlisted in national chapbook contests and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Melanie's current fiction has appeared in The Mississippi Review, Chattahoochee Review, and The Moth Magazine (based in Co. Cavan, Ireland). These pieces and more are included in her first book, THE BALLAD OF CHERRYSTOKE AND OTHER STORIES (Blackwater Press, 2022).
Author City: ASHEVILLE, NC USA