Reach out, they said. Try and talk to those across the aisle, they said. So I tried. Several times, all with family members. I made an honest effort to speak peaceably, to ask questions, to try and understand why they would vote for a rapist[..]
Let's talk about Harry's memoir SPARE for a moment, shall we? Like many of you, I have complicated emotions about Harry's tell-all. When Harry told Anderson Cooper about the fight with Will, I thought of how upset their mother would be that her boys aren't[..]
We are starting out our New Year with one less family member. It was not a death that claimed him. Not a death in the typical sense at any rate, though, if I am completely honest, there have been moments when I think that[..]
Hardly anyone ever mentions the people we don't miss at the family gatherings. I don't mean those we love who have gone on to what I hope is an eternal celebration and not an eternal rest. I'm talking about the people who no longer gather[..]
I asked her if she had read a certain Christian's blog that we both followed at one time. "No," she replied. "I don't keep up with anything out of the Evangelical community any more." I didn't have to ask why; I already knew. The[..]
Alienation. To be estranged, hostile or indifferent, especially where attachment formerly existed. We most typically think of alienation as the thing that occurs when couples separate or divorce. Alienation always precedes such break-ups. Bookstores have a wide swath of self-help books for those dealing[..]
Several years ago, while working on Mother of Rain, the beginning of the Appalachian novels I wrote, I snuck in late to the evening service at Christians Bend Church in Tennessee. I had not been in the church since 1968. The last time I[..]
She gave me a ring; rose gold, with a Celtic Cross made of turquoise, a diamond at its center, this woman whose name I can no longer remember. I saw her sitting there, on a bench in a dark corner of a popular eatery in[..]
I came across this photo while looking for another. Everyone in this picture has gone on to be with God except for me and the babies. The two I'm carrying and the one sitting at the table. That's Mama, the baby of her family,[..]
I made cornbread. The old-fashioned kind. You know, with corn meal and flour, not the kind that comes out of a Jiffy or Dave's box. There was a time when I knew how to make cornbread from heart, the way I do my biscuits. Today,[..]
Karen Spears Zacharias is an Appalachian writer, a former journalist, and author of numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction.
She holds a MA in Appalachian Studies from Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and a MA in Creative Media Practice from the University of West Scotland, Ayr, Scotland.
Her debut novel Mother of Rain received the Weatherford Award for Best in Appalachian Fiction from The Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College, Kentucky.
Zacharias was named Appalachian Heritage Writer in 2018 by Shepherd University.
Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post and in numerous anthologies.
She lives at the foot of the Cascade Mountains in Deschutes County, Oregon, where she’s an active member of the League of Women Voters and Central Oregon Writers Guild. She is a member of Phi Beta Delta and Phi Kappa Phi. A Gold Star daughter, she is a fierce advocate for democratic principles and women’s rights.
Zacharias taught First-Amendment Rights at Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington, and continues to teach at writing workshops around the country.
Her forthcoming novel No Perfect Mothers will be released by Mercer University Press, Spring 2024.
For more information on Karen and her books, click here
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