Kevin Winchester Channels “A Confederacy of Dunces” in Small Town, North Carolina in “Sunflower Dog”
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:06:24 — 61.0MB)
In this episode 142, we visit with Kevin Winchester, winner of the 2013 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, and author of the novel, “Sunflower Dog,” an exploration of the many layers of life in a small, North Carolina town as its residents try to find their place in the neo-gothic South.
New York Times best-selling author Ron Rash, compares “Sunflower Dog” to John Kennedy Toole’s masterpiece, “A Confederacy of Dunces,” saying it is “a delightful novel by one of North Carolina’s best writers.”
If you’re a fan of Clyde Edgerton, Carl Hiassen, Celia Rivenbank, Tim Dorsey, or any of the many other southern humor writers, you’ll enjoy this book.
We start the show at a good place, the beginning, with Kevin reading from the opening chapter, “Take the Next Left to Salvation.”
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About the Author:
Kevin Winchester holds an MFA from Queens University. His story, “Waiting on Something to Happen,” won the 2013 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. Other works have appeared in Tin House, Gulf Coast, Barren Magazine, StorySouth, Barrelhouse, Dead Mule, and the anthologies Everything But the Baby and Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas. His short story collection, Everybody’s Gotta Eat, was published in 2009.
He currently teaches writing at Wingate University. When he’s not writing, teaching, playing in the band Flatland Tourists, or hanging with his family, he’s hiking, riding his Harley, or working in his garden.
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