Ronald Rash
Professor | Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC, UNITED STATES
Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall.
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Biography
Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall, in addition to four prizewinning novels, including The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; four collections of poems; and six collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.
Industry Expertise (2)
Education/Learning
Writing and Editing
Areas of Expertise (5)
Southern Writing
Poetry
English
Appalachia
Novelist
Accomplishments (4)
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (professional)
2009 Finalist for the New York Times bestseller “Serena”
Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature (professional)
2020 Mercer University’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies
PEN/Faulkner Award (professional)
2007 For “Chemistry and Other Stories”
Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award (professional)
2010 For “Burning Bright”
Education (2)
Clemson University: M.A.
Gardner-Webb University: B.A.
Links (7)
Languages (1)
- English
Media Appearances (5)
10 books that explore the brutal beauty of North Carolina's past and present
Sun Journal online
2021-08-09
Though better known for his regional novels, this collection shows Rash, a professor in Appalachian cultural studies at Western Carolina University, to be a master of the short story form. These feral, heartbreaking tales evoke life in North Carolina’s rural mountain communities, stretching from the Civil War forward to the meth-blighted present.
In new fiction from N.C. writer Ron Rash, life 'In the Valley' can be nasty, brutish and short
StarNews Online online
2020-09-19
Ron Rash of Western Carolina University is known as the foremost practitioner of what critics call "Appalachian noir."
English faculty Claxton, Railsback contribute essays for book about Ron Rash's work
WCU Stories online
2019-02-26
Ron Rash, best-selling author, poet and Western Carolina University’s Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies, is the subject of a new collection of essays published by University of South Carolina Press.
The roots of Joy: Ron Rash and Western Carolina University
Smoky Mountain News online
2020-08-19
Acclaimed Appalachian writer and poet Ron Rash has made a substantial impact on American literature during his three-decade career, but one of his most enduring legacies may be the influence he’s had on a whole crop of younger writers, like Jackson County author David Joy.
Ron Rash to add Sidney Lanier Prize to his list of awards
WCU Stories online
2020-02-07
Ron Rash, Western Carolina University’s John Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies in the Department of English, will soon add to his lengthy list of awards.
Event Appearances (1)
Author Talk: Ron Rash
Lexington County Library
2020-12-09
