ISSUED: 13 February 2025
MEDIA CONTACT: Hans Fogle
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — North Carolina-based author Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle is the next Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence (AHWIR) at Shepherd University.
Clapsaddle will hold this position from March 2025 to January 2026.
Clapsaddle’s debut novel “Even As We Breathe” (UP Kentucky 2020) was a finalist for the Weatherford Award and listed as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020.
The novel received the 2021 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.
Clapsaddle’s work extends beyond fiction and includes essays on the importance and perseverance of local foodways (“Everything is Nuts”) and contemporary Cherokee belonging in North Carolina (“Smoky Mountain Roots,” “Where’s the Reservation?”).
Her multifaceted writing career will serve as the basis for the AHWIR programming through Shepherd’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities.
As the writer-in-residence, Clapsaddle will help edit the 2026 volume of the “Anthology of Appalachian Writers,” featuring fiction, poetry, essays, and art inspired by or connected to her work.
Dr. Benjamin Bankhurst, director of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities at Shepherd University, received a grant of continued support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the official state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This grant will fund the AHWIR project.
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