Events

Carter Sickels is the author of The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury, 336 pp., $16 pb). Being a gay trans guy, Carter is able to provide a unique perspective on the exploration of masculinity, and the fluidity and complexity of intimacy between men in his novel. Most of the wealth in Dove Creek, West Virginia, is in the mountains—in the coal seams that have provided generations with a way of life, but little prosperity. Born here and raised by his Pentecostal grandfather, twenty-seven-year-old Cole Freeman sidestepped work as a miner to become an aide in a nursing home. He’s got a shock of bleached blond hair and a gentle touch well suited to the job. He’s also a drug dealer, reselling the prescription pills of the older population to a younger crowd. Cole’s work leads him down back roads and hollows, and into the homes of the town’s uncommon characters: an openly gay ex-con, an octogenarian environmentalist, and a myriad of old-timers, war veterans, shut-ins, and church-goers. As Heritage Coal razes the mountains, some choose to leave, a few fight, and most, like Cole, try to ignore the devastation. Meanwhile, his whole world is shifting: his grandfather has died and the mining corporation is angling for the family land. His long-gone mother has reappeared, and his bad-news best friend is back. But it will take a true catastrophe to force Cole into action—if not to save his world, at least to save himself. Author photo by Yukiko Yamagata.