Ron Rash

Biography

Ron Rash’s family has lived in the southern Appalachian Mountains since the 1700s. He has published numerous books of poetry, story collections, and novels. He holds the John Parris Chair of Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University.

See Work

POETRY / Summer 2000

Antietam

By Ron Rash

The feast-huddle explodes when I approach,
a gray fox remains, whitening to bone.
The risen wait in the limbs above
for me to glance the marker, pass on.

POETRY / Summer 2000

August, 1959: Morning Service

By Ron Rash

Beside the open window
on the cemetery side,
I drowsed as Preacher Lusk gripped
his Bible like a bat snagged
from the pentecostal gloom.

POETRY / Summer 2000

The Exchange

By Ron Rash

Between Wytheville, Virginia
and the North Carolina line,
he meets a wagon headed
where he’s been, seated beside
her parents a dark-eyed girl