Ep. 14 | Rural Stories for Kids and Teens
For September’s theme, we’re discussing rural literature for young people. Host Kendra Winchester is joined by special guests Dr. Chea Parton and Nora Shalaway Carpenter.
Things Mentioned
Books Mentioned
Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions about Small-Town America edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
The Edge of Anything by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Fault Lines by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Too Shattered for Mending by Peter Brown Hoffmeister
Vicious Is My Middle Name by Kevin Dunn
What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte
Eagle Drums by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson
The Last Carolina Girl by Megan Church
Guest Info
(c) Chea Parton
Chea Parton grew up on a farm and still considers herself a farm girl. She has been a rural student, a rural English teacher, and is currently a visiting assistant professor at Purdue University where she works with future teachers through the Transition to Teaching Program. She is passionate about rural education. Her research focuses on the personal and professional identity of rural and rural out-migrant teachers as well as rural representation in YA literature. She currently runs Literacy In Place where she seeks to catalogue rural YA books and provides teaching resources, hosts the Reading Rural YAL podcast where she gives book talks and interviews rural YA authors, and co-chairs the Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural YA Literature selection committee. Her first book Country Teachers in City Schools: The Challenge of Negotiating Identity and Place is available through Rowman & Littlefield. You can reach her at readingrural@gmail.com.
(c) Chip Bryan
Nora Shalaway Carpenter is the contributing editor of the critically acclaimed YA short story anthology Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America, which was named an NPR Best Book of the Year, a YALSA Best Fiction YA selection, a TAYSHAS list selection, and a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, among numerous other honors. Her debut YA novel The Edge of Anything was named a Bank Street Best Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book, and A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year. Her next anthology, Ab(solutely) Normal, is out now from Candlewick. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is on faculty for the Highlights Foundation's Whole Novel Workshop.
