WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Smothermoss has been described as a haunting, imaginative, and twisting tale of two sisters and the menacing, unexplained forces that threaten them and their rural mountain community. Alering has said, “that sense of threat may well come from being an outsider in a place where you are supposed to belong. It makes you an observer, always watching closely, always questioning.” The novel has three points of view: sisters Sheila and Angie, and the mountain. “I needed a witness, and the mountain was there.”
It is happening again. Snow melts, the crust of frost cracks and heaves. Water sinks below ground, swelling channels. Sap rises. Wild garlic sprouts, arbutus creeps, and bloodroot quickens. Curved shoots of spotted skunk cabbage thrust toward the light.
Beetle larvae wake and gorge. Red-tailed hawks wheel and shriek. Gusts sweep a fledgling from the nest, hard smack on the ground. The countless populations that call this mountain home are waking, but the seeds of decline are already sown. Eggshells thin, limbs fail to form, leaves wither and curdle, water roils brackish and sour.
Overhead, the stars, distant cold brothers who knew the world before the mountain was formed, revolve unmoved. Redness flares. Scabs multiply, membranes stretch thin.
That’s the moment when unpredictable things seep in.
ABOUT
Alisa Alering grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and now lives in Arizona. After attending Clarion West, their short fiction has been published in Fireside, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Podcastle, and Cast of Wonders, among others, and been recognized by the Calvino Prize. A former librarian and science/technology reporter, they teach fiction workshops at the Highlights Foundation.
New York Times Book Review, 7/14/24
MUSIC
John Fahey – America
“Voice of the Turtle”
“Mark 1:15”
CREDITS
Narrator: Alisa Alering
Producer & Host: Robert Shull
Audio Engineer and Music Director: Doug Storm
Literary Consultant: Shana Ritter
Musical Theme: “Firetime” by The Keithe Lowrie Duet
Executive Producer: Josh Brewer
