{"id":985,"date":"2021-09-10T17:04:33","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T17:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.ccu.press\/edwardslive\/?p=985"},"modified":"2021-10-18T05:34:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T05:34:36","slug":"speaking-of-place-joshua-cross-on-perspective-and-the-short-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.ccu.press\/edwardslive\/speaking-of-place-joshua-cross-on-perspective-and-the-short-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking of place: Joshua Cross on perspective and the short story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joshua Cross, lecturer in Coastal Carolina University\u2019s Department of English, held a reading and discussion of his newest work, Black Bear Creek<\/em>, for the Words to Say it Visiting Writers Series in September 2021. We had a moment to talk to Cross about his background, his process and how he applies his expertise in the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Bear Creek <\/em>is a collection of short stories connected by a fictional town in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia. Cross grew up in Beckley, W.V., and says elements of the stories are loosely inspired by the communities that surrounded him. He also finds influence in other authors of the region including Ann Pancake, Breece Pancake, Pinckney Benedict, and Jayne Anne Phillips. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of Southern writers, such as William Faulkner or contemporaries like Randall Kenan, who focus on fictional towns in a way that I admire,\u201d said Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Bear Creek<\/em> began out of Cross\u2019 work on his doctoral dissertation at Oklahoma State University.  His primary focus in writing was poetry, until he found great influence in a writing workshop with Dr. Aaron Gwyn, professor at UNC Charlotte. \u201cThat class was sort of what changed things for me. It really got me started with writing fiction,\u201d said Cross. \u201cI never found that I could write about southern West Virginia until I moved to Oklahoma.\u201d  After finishing his Ph.D. and accepting a position at CCU, he continued revising and adding stories to the collection. \u201cThere was something about getting so far away from [my hometown] that allowed me the space to write about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never found that I could write about southern West Virginia until I moved to Oklahoma.<\/p>Joshua Cross<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Cross notes the distinction between the short story and novel genres. \u201cI think a really good short story does a lot of what a novel accomplishes,\u201d said Cross. \u201cThe condensed form adds difficulty to the writing experience, since you don\u2019t have as much time and space to invest your reader in characters and setting, but I think it also makes for a more appealing read.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross finds his work in the CCU classroom rewarding. \u201cI like to teach and talk to students about things that interest them,\u201d he says. \u201cIn my creative writing classes, I like when students connect their own experience to what they\u2019re reading; in composition, students can write about their identity and the communities that they come from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n