Stories from Knockemstiff
My father’s hometown’s original name was “Knocked-Out Dog.” One of the early settlers took down a large animal, most likely a tiger, and a town with an interesting history was created. Towns with off-beat names usually produce a lot of off-beat stories.
Knockemstiff is a short story collection about a town in Ohio written by Donald Ray Pollock, a former paper mill worker. Apparently, Pollock had wanted to write all his life, and at the age of 45, decided that if he “didn’t give it a shot, it would be too late.”
The characters in his short story collection live on the fringes of Appalachian society. According to the editor of his collection, Gerald Howard:
“American fiction by and large is written by people who have gone through, and come out of, our elite educational institutions, which is not to say that those people don’t try to take a hard look at the conditions of American life, because they do.”
“But there’s no substitute for experience, and Don is a witness to things that don’t come across the radar of many American fiction writers.”
You can read more about Knockemstiff and Donald Ray Pollock on the Detroit Free Press website here.
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