I enjoyed Alli Marshall’s article on WNC’s literary scene [“Literary Evolution,” May 30], but she left out whole genres of books and publishers.
OK, so she didn’t include my book, Hiking the Carolina Mountains, maybe because it is a hiking guide—although a pretty literary one. But my publisher, Milestone Press, www.milestonepress.com , should have been included. They have successfully published many outdoor guides since 1992 from their home in Almond, west of Bryson City. Most outdoor guides to the mountains are written by folks who don’t live in the mountains and are published by firms halfway around the country. Milestone Press is right in the mountains, and they know what they’re publishing.
And what about Cataloochee, a debut novel by Wayne Caldwell, published by Random House? Cataloochee is a real place in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the novel should have been mentioned.
— Danny Bernstein
Asheville
Writer Alli Marshall responds: While it’s unfortunate that some great regional writers were not mentioned in the article (some Xpress staffers among them), the point of the piece was not to feature individual authors, but to illustrate the important place literature serves in our community—both currently and historically. That said, it’s exciting that there are so many great writers from our area that we’re unable to fit them all into one story. Future stories along this line will address many other excellent writers, and we have a forthcoming feature (June 20) on Wayne Caldwell’s Cataloochee.
