Taylor Brown

I’m thrilled to share the cover of my next novel, Rednecks, which busts into the wild on May 14, 2024 from St. Martin’s Press.

This novel was born from my Bitter Southerner short story “Rednecks” and is dedicated to my friend and editor Jason Frye of Logan County, WV, who asked the fateful question many years ago: “Do you know where the word ‘redneck’ comes from?”

I touched the back of my neck. “Sunburn, from working in the fields.”

Jason’s eyes sparked over his great iron-shot beard and he leaned toward me, rubbing his hands together. “Boy, you don’t know the half of it.”

Book Details

A historical drama based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, pitting a multi-ethnic army of 10,000 coal miners against mine owners, militia, and the United States government in the largest labor uprising in American history.

REDNECKS is a tour de force, big canvas historical novel that dramatizes the 1920 to 1921 events of the West Virginia Mine Wars — from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed uprising on American soil since the Civil War, when some one million rounds were fired, bombs were dropped on American soil, and the term “redneck” would come to have an unexpected origin story.

Featuring real-life and invented characters — men and women, adults and children, Black and white and immigrants from many countries who worked in the dangerous West Virginia coal mines — REDNECKS tells a dramatic story of rebellion against oppression. Taylor Brown introduces crucial point of view characters: “Doc Moo” Muhanna, a Lebanese-American doctor (inspired by the author’s own great-grandfather) who serves the mining camps; Frank Hugham, a Black miner who helps lead the miners’ revolt; Frank’s mother Beulah, who fights to save her home and her son; and true-life folk hero “Smilin” Sid Hatfield, a sharp-shooting sheriff who dares to stand up to the “gun thugs” of the coal companies.

These and other characters come fully to life in a propulsive, character-driven tale that’s both a century old and blisteringly contemporary: a story of unexpected friendship, heroism in the face of injustice, and the power of love and community against outsized odds.

Through inspired portraits of real-life characters including legendary union organizer Mother Jones, to dynamic battle scenes set in the West Virginia hill country, Taylor Brown reimagines one of the most compelling events in 20th century American history.

Three Things You Can Do to Support Rednecks

This is a story thundering to be told, and there are three things that would really support the book at this early and important juncture — I’d be so grateful if you considered them.

1. Add Rednecks to your Goodreads shelf.

2. Pre-order a signed copy from E. Shaver Booksellers.
(Or pre-order from your favorite retailer).

3. Forward this email to a friend or share this post on your social media.

Several weeks ago, I was asked by The Bitter Southerner to interview four-time Grammy winner Jason Isbell for the cover story of Issue 6. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement.

I discovered Isbell in 2005, when he was member of the Drive-By Truckers and I was a homesick young writer working on my first stories out of little cafés in Buenos Aires. After graduating from the University of Georgia earlier that year, I’d sold my car and used the money to move to Argentina with the intention to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). I ended up writing web content for two cents per word, hopped up on jarritos (double espressos, literally “little jars”) and force of will. In a strange twist of fate, I discovered a couple of Drive-By Truckers songs had come preloaded on my Dell laptop, and I immediately fell in love with their music. As I said in the BS piece:

“Here was a band doing what I aimed to do with my writing: Taking the old Southern stereotypes, lighting sticks of dynamite underneath them, and seeing what truth or beauty or horror might be found amid the dust and wreckage: usually an unforgettable constellation of all three.”

Since then, Isbell has branched out on his own, recording a string of No. 1 hits, earning a reputation for candor on social media, and becoming “Americana music’s favorite son.”

The Bitter Southerner didn’t want just another profile or album review, but something different: two writers talking about writing and art. I traveled to Isbell’s home in Nashville with this intention in mind. In reality, our conversation would range far beyond this starting point, turning over stones, upending myths, and looking for better ways of ways of moving through the world.

I’m damn proud of what came of our time together: “Jason Isbell is Walking Tall.” You can read the full 5500-word piece in Issue No. 6 of Bitter Southerner, available here: https://bsgeneralstore.com/products/bs-magazine-issue-no-6

Huge props to legendary rock photographer Christy Bush for the incredible photographs, Heather Mary Jackson for the styling, and the whole BS family for entrusting me with this story — it was an honor.

I’m thrilled to share the news that my next novel, REDNECKS, is coming in 2024 from St. Martin’s Press!

What if I told you there was a battle on American soil in 1921 in which more than one million rounds were fired, bombs were dropped from airplanes, and a multiethnic army of 10,000 coal miners wore red neckerchiefs to identify themselves, earning the nickname “Rednecks”…and almost no one outside Appalachia had even heard of it?

This is that story.

Started in 2017, this book was one hell of a beast to write. The main character is inspired by my great-grandfather, a farmer’s son who emigrated from Mount Lebanon to the US in 1889, at the age of 14, alone but for a priest as chaperone, and graduated from the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, becoming a physician and medical examiner in rural Kentucky. I’ve always felt a special connection with him since we share the same birthday.

The book also includes a cast of real-life characters including Smilin’ Sid Hatfield and Mother Jones, aka “The Most Dangerous Woman in America.”

I’m especially indebted to my friend Jason Frye — a native son of Logan County, WV, where the battle took place — for his stories, encouragement, and editing, and to the WV Mine Wars Museum staff for their recommendations and advice.

To get things right for this book, I not only had to read a library’s worth of books and talk to old-timers on the ground for their stories, but I took my dirt bike high and deep to find the old Blair Mountain battle sites where a car could hardly reach — and where coal companies still restrict access to much of the land.

I could not be more excited to share this novel with y’all.

Today I’m thrilled to share my new piece at The Bitter Southerner, a love song to blackwater rivers. This piece is particularly special to me, as it’s a collaboration with my BFF, Benjamin Galland, whose photography graces several books from UGA Press.

“More and more, we are realizing that what is good for the rest of the planet is good for us. That the health of our own species is tied inextricably to the health of our natural world. And that we remove ourselves from the natural dynamics of this majestic planet at our peril. Peril to ourselves, to our fellow living creatures, and to the incredible gift of this world, with all of its majesty, its beauty, and its mysteries still to be unfolded.”

Here’s a link to the full article: https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2022/ode-to-blackwater-rivers-taylor-brown-ben-galland

Photo: Jordan Mount

Today is pub day for Wingwalkers — woohoo! I’m so excited to release this book into the world and have it land in your hands!

Copies should be available wherever books are sold. My publisher has ordering options here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250274595/wingwalkers

Or, if you’d like an autographed copy, you can order directly from one of my my hometown stores:

• E. Shaver Booksellers: https://www.eshaverbooks.com/book/9781250274595
• The Book Lady Savannah: https://thebookladybookstore.com/

Let me know how y’all enjoy it!

It’s paperback release day for Pride of Eden, winner of the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Award!  The perfect time to purchase the book for a friend or family member!

Buying Options

• E. Shaver Books (Local Savannah store)
• The Book Lady (Local Savannah store)
• Bookshop.org (Supports Indie stores)
• Barnes & Noble (We need B&N sales)
• Amazon
• More Buying Options

I’m thrilled to reveal the cover for my new novel, Wingwalkers, coming April 19, 2022 from St. Martin’s Press! The book opens with a passage from Joseph Blotner’s Faulkner: A Biography, in which William Faulkner has been attending the opening festivities of the New Orleans Shushan Airport during Mardi Gras, 1934:

When [Faulkner] appeared at the Bradfords’ early Sunday morning, he looked ravenous and hung over. After he consumed a large breakfast, he launched into what seemed to Mary Rose a disjointed, nightmarish tale of accepting a ride from two motorcyclists, a man and a woman. They were aviators at the meet, and he had joined them in drinking, flying, and carousing.

Who were these aviator-motorcyclists, and how did their lives intersect with Faulkner’s? That question, which burned in my imagination, brought this whole novel to life.

In Wingwalkers, a female wingwalker and her husband, a former World War I ace, barnstorm across Depression-era America, performing acts of aerial daring, while a young William Faulkner attempts to take creative flight.

It would mean the world to me if you considered pre-ordering the book now, so it will arrive on your doorstep come publication day. Pre-orders have become incredibly meaningful in the current publishing climate. They help tell retailers to stock the book in stores, and a solid set of pre-orders will help us get this book in front of new readers.

• E. Shaver Books (For signed copies)
  
• Bookshop.org (Supports indie bookstores)
• Barnes & Noble (We need more B&N sales)
• Amazon
• Kindle
• You can also pre-order signed copies from The Book Lady: (912) 233-3628

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share the good news that Gods of Howl Mountain has been selected for a Kindle Monthly Deal, so the e-book is currently discounted from an original price of $17 to just  $1.99! I’m told this sale price is across all e-retailers. You can find yours from the list below:

• Bookshop.org
• Amazon
• Kindle
• Barnes & Noble
• Nook
• iBooks

If you’re curious about the book, below you’ll find a description and a few editorial reviews!

Book Description

In Gods of Howl Mountain, award-winning author Taylor Brown explores a world of folk healers, whiskey-runners, and dark family secrets in the high country of 1950s North Carolina.

Bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood – a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted ’40 Ford coupe. Between deliveries to roadhouses, brothels, and private clients, he lives with his formidable grandmother, evades federal agents, and stokes the wrath of a rival runner.

In the mill town at the foot of the mountains – a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing – Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother, Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that “some things are best left buried.” A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory’s mother – the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. When Rory’s life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows…or protect her only grandson from the past.

With gritty and atmospheric prose, Taylor Brown brings to life a perilous mountain and the family who rules it.

Editorial Reviews

“It’s the characters, so wonderfully vibrant and alive in their all-too-human variety?scared, tightly wound, angry, damaged, yet resourceful and resilient, some honorable, some not?that demonstrate Brown’s prodigious talent. Brown has quickly established himself in the top echelon of Southern writers, and his latest will please readers of Wiley Cash and Ron Rash.” – Booklist, starred review

“In his third novel (after The River of Kings), critically acclaimed novelist Brown gazes unflinchingly at the Howl Mountain community of 1950s North Carolina…Not to be missed, this bold, dark, gritty novel is another coup for Brown, whose lyrical descriptions of the landscape only add to the captivating story of indomitable but isolated folks bound by folklore, tradition, and a hardscrabble life.” – Library Journal, starred review

“Powerful…explosive…Brown’s lyrical prose invokes a verdant landscape whose rich past is woven into its roots and people; their dependence on the land and respect for its great mysteries are palpable. This tale of loyalty and retribution will linger with readers.” – Publishers Weekly

“The writing is strong and evocative, yielding a vivid picture whether he’s describing a forest or a car chase, and there’s plenty of action and intrigue. Pick up a copy of Gods of Howl Mountain and hold on. You’re in for a ride you won’t soon forget.” – Greensboro Triad