Robert Gipe
Robert Gipe, a Kingsport native who lives and works in Harlan County, Kentucky, is the guest writer Sunday, Jan. 30, in the “Sunday with Friends” series at the Washington County Public Library in Abingdon, Virginia. The event is at 3 p.m. in the conference room at the library.
Gipe is known for his serious depictions of poverty, violence, drug addiction and hopelessness in the forgotten coal towns of eastern Kentucky. The tone of his novels is tempered with whimsical illustrations which have been drawn by Gipe.
His newest novel, “Pop,” finishes a trilogy of works about the Jewell family. Dawn Jewell was the teen narrator in “Trampoline,” then a young mother in “Weedeater.” Now in “Pop” her daughter Nicolette is a teenager representing an Appalachia where young people are starting businesses rooted in local food culture and working to build communities out of the tragedies of the past.
“Trampoline” won the 2016 Weatherford Award for Appalachian novel of the year. “Weedeater” was a Weatherford finalist. For the past 30 years Gipe has worked in arts-based organizing and is the founding coproducer of the Higher Ground community performance series. He has contributed to numerous journals and anthologies, is a playwright, and is a script consultant on the television series based on Beth Macy’s “Dopesick.”
Gipe has said about his work, “I try to write stories that help people identify with and love people with too-complicated lives. I don’t want anybody feeling sorry for them. I want people to see what it’s like and realize maybe hard-luck people are actually pretty smart and creative and have a lot of grit and are a lot of fun to root for, whether you are one of them or not.”
Book sales and signing as well as a reception will follow the lecture/reading. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.wcpl.net.
