My first Civil war novel, Purgatory, has been rereleased in a tenth anniversary edition! In addition to Purgatory, this edition also includes an afterword and the text of my 2011 Civil War novella, “Camp Allegheny,” which first appeared in History’s Passion: Stories of Sex Before Stonewall, edited by Richard Labonté.
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Romanian Trip, Part One
During the pandemic, I’ve neglected this webpage, but my husband and publisher have been nudging me to update it regularly. I’ll try to do that. If you’re reading this, thank you for your patience! A good while back, I wrote some long blog posts that I never posted, about my
Read moreVisiting My Publisher
My husband and I were in New England last week and got to visit with my wonderful publisher, Steve Berman. Here are Mr. Steve and my own Viking-bearded self at the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
Read moreHuntington Reading, September 2019
Thanks to a kind invitation by author Carter Taylor Seaton, on September 16 I gave a reading as part of the “Writers Can Read” series, held monthly at the Inner Geek Bookstore in Huntington, West Virginia. Before the evening reading, Carter Taylor Seaton interviewed me for her television show, Chapters.
Read moreSPRING/SUMMER 2019
The spring and summer of 2019 have included a few short trips and a lot of reading and writing. On April 22nd, I drove down to Asheville, North Carolina, with Jakk Blood, a Maine buddy who’s the hot cub on the cover of my upcoming essay collection, Endangered Species. I
Read moreSPRING NEWS 2019: NEW ANTHOLOGY, NEW ESSAY COLLECTION, AND ASA
The anthology that Julia Watts and I have been co-editing, LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia, has finally been released. The book looks great, thanks to the production folks at West Virginia University Press. If you’re interested in buying it, here’s the link: At the March 2019 Appalachian Studies Association
Read moreCover Cub!
Maine photographer Jakk Blood is the sexy cover cub for my next book of essays. Check out this article: http://mc.mainelymediallc.com/news/2019-03-21/News/Biddeford_resident_on_cover_of_book_of_essays.html?fbclid=IwAR3dq9eitQf0XL1YRETRfs6gFrU5W8Jbvw1y0MtHA2j4iUa1YS1JL6R886w#.XJOfm6Z7kdV
Read moreInterview on Queer Words Podcast
Many thanks to Wayne Goodman and the folks at Queer Words Podcast for including a lengthy interview with me! Here’s the link: https://queerwords.org/2019/02/12/jeff-mann/
Read more_Appalachian Reckoning_ and _Appalachian Heritage_
West Virginia University Press has just released Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy, an anthology edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll. Many thanks to Theresa Burriss and the anthology’s editors for including my snarky poem, “Social Capital.” Quite a few Appalachians are profoundly annoyed with how J.
Read moreA PRODUCTIVE SABBATICAL: ESSAYS, POEMS, AND VIKINGS
Much to my great gratitude, professors at Virginia Tech can apply for a research leave every six years. I’ve taken mine for Fall Semester 2018 and Spring Semester 2019, and I’m glad to report that I’m getting a lot done. In Fall 2018, I wrote five new essays. “Muslim Food”
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