Valerie Nieman’s Strange and Mysterious “To the Bones” and Her Sideshow Poetry Collection, “Leopard Lady”
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:40 — 59.4MB)
In this episode 72, we visit with Valerie Nieman, author of the novel, “To the Bones,” the poetry collection, “Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse” and three other novels and poetry collections.
The reviews of “To the Bones” call it a “parable on capitalism and environmental degradation,” set in “a strange, disconcerting place populated by thoughtful, articulate people; trigger-happy rent-a-cops; zombies; and residents who can mysteriously evaporate or be stripped to the bone.”
Lisa Schaefer, curator, The Coney Island Museum, calls “Leopard Lady” a “beautifully written book” that is “steeped in sideshow tradition, and addressing issues of race, gender, self-concept, and creative expression.”
We start the show with a reading from “To the Bones,” where we learn in the opening pages that the protagonist was not the first occupant in a pit left for dead.
Connect with the author
Check out the author’s website here: http://www.valnieman.com
Check the author out on social media here:
https://www.facebook.com/valerienieman1/
https://www.instagram.com/valnieman/
Reviews of “To The Bones”
This nicely paced, suspenseful tale, imbued with detailed knowledge of the Appalachian region and the coal mining industry, is aided by Nieman’s rich, artistic language and redolent descriptions of a grim but fascinating literary ecosphere where giant cracks open in the ground, ordinary rock underfoot leaks a kind of vile pus, and orange goo fills the waterways. It’s a strange, disconcerting place populated by thoughtful, articulate people; trigger-happy rent-a-cops; zombies; and residents who can mysteriously evaporate or be stripped to the bone.
Nicholas Litchfield in The Colorado Review
Zombie attacks and vampires in the wilds of West Virginia might not seem like fodder for literary fiction. Yet Greensboro novelist and poet Valerie Nieman pulls it off in “To the Bones,” a parable of capitalism and environmental degradation.
Ben Steelman in the Wilmington Star-News
In Valerie Nieman’s thrilling, genre-bending novel To the Bones, the richly rendered setting is inseparable from characters’ fears, strengths, and weaknesses and from nearly every tragedy and triumph in the story…. Instead of feeling like disparate parts, all these genre elements fit together seamlessly, and they build upon one another in satisfying ways. Finally, like Stephen King’s masterpiece The Dead Zone, Nieman’s novel insightfully portrays the complications of possessing unexpected powers, which rarely are unmitigated blessings.
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Reviews of “Leopard Lady”
Steeped in sideshow tradition, and addressing issues of race, gender, self-concept, and creative expression, your book is beautifully written.” Lisa Schaefer, curator, The Coney Island Museum.
Leopard Lady is a truly amazing book that succeeds in several areas. It illuminates how carnival artists are united by the very diversity that sets them apart from commonly perceived norms. It reveals the life of one woman who, it turns out, is more like every woman than may be imagined. And for those not inclined to read poetry, Nieman’s writing is so skilled, so smooth, that her poetry unfolds like a piece of fascinating prose.
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About the Author:
Valerie Nieman’s fourth novel, To the Bones, is a genre-bending satire of the coal industry and its effects on Appalachia and joins her award-winning novels Blood Clay, Survivors, and Neena Gathering. Her third poetry collection, Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse, includes work that first appeared in The Missouri Review, Chautauqua, The Southern Poetry Review, and other journals. Her poetry has appeared widely, from Poetry to The Georgia Review to The Galway Review, and has been published in numerous anthologies, including Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods and Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology.
Valerie has held state and NEA creative writing fellowships. A graduate of West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte and a former journalist, she teaches creative writing at North Carolina A&T State University.
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