A Twilight Reel is a vivid portrait of a community in an age of rapid change. Some citizens are angered, and some more tolerant of the clash of the past with the future in the uncertain present. Michael Amos Cody is one of the most authentic and inspired voices in contemporary Appalachian fiction, addressing such subjects as AIDs, bias, troubling history, marriage, ghosts, dementia, and abiding loyalty and love. In these linked stories he speaks for both the region and the world beyond.
—Robert Morgan, Author of Chasing the North Star
This week, writer Abby Lewis had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Amos Cody over Zoom about his upcoming collection A Twilight Reel set for release through Pisgah Press on May 25th, 2021. Lewis inquires into how the these stories inhabit both musical and mountain-cultural influences and how composition and craft developed as the collection came together. Cody shares his processes and anecdotal influences to demonstrate the impact of a lived experience and how those intersections of identity, history, and goals come together to create these complex stories that explore realistic, prominent themes of Appalachian life. If you would like to follow along, don’t forget to check out the transcript as well!
Michael Cody Amos is a professor in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University and the author of Gabriel’s Songbook.
Abby N. Lewis is a poet from Dandridge, Tennessee. She earned her associate degree from Walters State Community College, where she received the faculty award in creative writing, and her BA in English from East Tennessee State University. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection Reticent (Grateful Steps, 2016) and the chapbook This Fluid Journey (Finishing Line Press, 2018). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in over a dozen journals and magazines, including Timber, The Mockingbird, and Sanctuary. You can keep up with her on her website.
12 months. 12 stories. Seemingly ordinary people with far from ordinary stories. A touch of Twain, Wilde, and O. Henry woven through a year’s worth of tales from the denizens of the fictional town of Runion, NC.
With “The Wine of Astonishment,” this anthology kicks off with an Edgar Allan Poe flavored story of temptation and desperation involving the preacher of a community church, a mystery woman, and a madman. The ending does not disappoint.
Other stories address infidelity, regret, hope, prejudice, tolerance, and compassion, running the gamut of human emotions. And what short story compilation would be complete without a tale where Marilyn Monroe is a central figure?
Michael Cody continues the prosaic brilliance displayed in his novel “Gabriel’s Songbook” that provokes the reader into rapidly turning pages out of pure enjoyment fueled by the anticipation of what is to come with each passing page.