Barbara Kingsolver Thinks Urban Liberals Have It All Wrong on Appalachia
b'When Barbara Kingsolver set out to write her latest novel, \\u201cDemon Copperhead,\\u201d she was already considered one of the most accomplished writers of our time. She had won awards including the Women\\u2019s Prize for Fiction and a National Humanities Medal, and had a track record of best-selling books, including \\u201cThe Poisonwood Bible\\u201d and \\u201cUnsheltered.\\u201d But she felt there was one giant stone left unturned: to write \\u201cthe great Appalachian novel.\\u201d\\n\\nKingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky and lives in southwestern Virginia. Appalachia is her home. So when national coverage of her region started increasing in the years since 2016, with a focus on the region\\u2019s problems \\u2014 like deep rural poverty and the opioid epidemic \\u2014 she felt something was missing. She wanted to write a novel about Appalachia from the inside, as someone who is a part of it and who grew up in it. \\u201cThe story I wanted to tell was not about the big guys, but about the little people,\\u201d she told me.\\n\\nAnd if major awards are any indication, Kingsolver succeeded. \\u201cDemon Copperhead\\u201d won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and has been widely acclaimed for the nuanced portrait it paints of life in rural America. So I asked Kingsolver to talk about her background and the book, and to explore the often chasmic dissonance between how many of us city-dwellers think about Appalachia and the reality of living there.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\nShiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason\\n\\nBook Recommendations:\\n\\nLandings by Arwen Donahue\\n\\nRaising Lazarus by Beth Macy\\n\\nPod by Laline Paull\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\nThis episode of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Our senior editor is Rog\\xe9 Karma. The show\\u2019s production team also includes Emefa Agawu, Jeff Geld, Rollin Hu and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.'