Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

or you are the only animal,

who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today I'm happy to have as my guest, Donald Ray Pollock.

He has published a first book called Knockham Stiff, and those of you who have been

listening, no, it's pretty rare that I have a first book on the show.

And people often ask me, you know, how do you make a decision like that?

Well, in this case, the woman from the publisher, Doubleday, called me and called me and called me until I'd actually read the book saying to me,

I really think that you'll like it.

I know that you haven't heard of him.

No one's heard of him.

Please give it the time to read it.

And I read it, and I was very taken by the tone.

It's a book of stories about a town called Knockham Stiff, Ohio, where the author was born.

And, I mean, you've spent your life there, yes, or near there?

Yeah, I grew up there, and even now I only live about 13 miles away. I live in Chalcathie, Ohio now,

which is, you know, just a small town in southern Ohio. And yeah, I've always lived in Ross County.

And I did leave Knockham Stiff when I was 18. And I think I lived there again for, you know, a couple years when I was in my 20s, but I was home.

And like a town that makes it into a book, I would assume that the real knock-em stiff is very little like the town in your book.

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