Kentucky straight is bourbon with no mixer. Kentucky Straight is Kentucky seen without nostalgic gloss. These riveting, often heartbreaking stories, take us through country that is unmapped. They are set in a nameless Appalachian community too small to be called a town, a place where wanting an education is a mark of ungodly arrogance and dowsing for water a legitimate occupation; where hunting is not a sport but a means of survival. These are stories of coal miners and backwoods medicine men, of gamblers and marijuana farmers, tales of real tragedy and unutterable strangeness that convey their sense of place so vividly that we feel its ground rise beneath our feet.
Offutt has received a James Michener Grant and a Kentucky Arts Council Award.
Chris Offut is the author of two previous books, Kentucky Straight and The Same River Twice. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he was named as one of Granta's Best Young American Fiction Writers. His work has been published in Esquire, GQ and numerous anthologies. He and his wife, Rita, have two sons. They live in Missoula, Montana.
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