Pineville Trace: Author Wes Blake in Conversation with Jay McCoy

Join Kentucky author Wes Blake, in conversation with poet Jay McCoy, as he discusses his debut book, Pineville Trace. A signing will follow, with copies available for purchase from Poor Richard's Books.

This novella-in-flash stories deftly uses short chapters in a unique format to allow for quick, intimate, and gripping flashes into the perspective of the main character, Frank, as he sets off on a quest through North America following a cat named Buffalo. After Frank escapes from a prison in Kentucky, his journey to find meaning in the absence of his former life as a charismatic traveling preacher leads him all up and down the US and Canada, delving into his own memories and questions of faith, family, self, and stories—and where those stories lead us.

Wes Blake’s fiction and essays have appeared in Louisiana Literature Journal, Electric Literature, Blood & Bourbon, Book of Matches, Jelly Bucket, White Wall Review, and elsewhere. His novella, Pineville Trace, won the Etchings Press Book Prize at the University of Indianapolis. Lee Martin, author of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Bright Forever, described him as "a writer to watch." His novel, Antenna, was a semifinalist for the Sundress Publications Book Prize & the UNO Press Lab Prize. He holds an MFA from the Bluegrass Writers Studio and lives in Nonesuch, Kentucky. He studied writing under Gurney Norman, James Baker Hall, Julie Hensley, R. Dean Johnson—and very briefly under Denis Johnson.

Jay McCoy is a multimedia artist working primarily in poetry and visual collage. He calls Lexington home but maintains his Appalachian connections and deep roots in Eastern Kentucky. Jay is an adjunct Professor at Eastern Kentucky University and Bluegrass Community and Technical College. Also, he is a writing instructor with the Carnegie Center and founder of their Q-munity program for LGBTQ+ writers, as well as the archivist for the Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum. In addition to his book, The Occupation, you may find Jay’s work in anthologies and journals, including Naugatuck River Review, Still: the Journal, and Blue Fifth Review.