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Acclaimed WNC novelist Ehle to be celebrated at WCU
 Acclaimed novelist John Ehle, whose book “The Road” is being featured throughout Western North Carolina by the Together We Read program, will participate in a Western Carolina University celebration of his contributions to the region and the state Wednesday, Oct. 19.
The free celebration, to be held in the Coulter Auditorium at 7 p.m., will include a discussion about Ehle’s work in fiction, film, drama, history and statesmanship, followed by a question-and-answer session. Together We Read, now in its fourth year, is Western North Carolina’s regionwide reading and discussion program.
Ehle grew up in Asheville and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his bachelor’s degree in radio, television and motion pictures, and master’s degree in drama. He taught at UNC from 1952-65 in the drama department.
Ehle published his first novel, “Move Over Mountain,” in 1957 and went on to publish 11 novels and six non-fiction books. He also wrote two screenplays and two movies, “The Journey of August King” and “The Winter People.” Most of his fiction is set in the mountains of North Carolina.
Ehle is also known for his contribution to the state under two governors, Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt. Sanford once said, “If I were to write a guidebook for new governors, one of my main suggestions would be that he find a novelist and put him on his staff.”
Ehle was dubbed a “one-man think tank” at the time for all the ideas he put into place. He is credited with conceiving of the N.C. School of the Arts, Governor’s School, N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, N.C. Institute of Outdoor Drama, N.C. Advancement School, N.C. Film Commission and many other projects. He went from North Carolina to Washington to serve on the first National Council of the Humanities.
The Oct. 19 ceremony at Western will feature appreciations from Ron Rash, Western’s John Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies and the winner of numerous national prizes for his Appalachian poetry and fiction, including an O. Henry Prize; Curtis Wood, professor emeritus in the history department and an authority on Appalachian history; and Terry Nienhuis, a film and drama scholar in the English department who had his first film role in Ehle’s “Journey of August King.”
Following the panel’s comments about his work, Ehle will respond to questions from the panel and speak about his long association with Western North Carolina, including his work on “The Road,” the fourth book in a series that follows a family through the history of the region. “The Road” retells the story of the coming of the railroad into Western North Carolina through the Swannanoa Gap.
The book is based on historical fact, said Newt Smith, professor of English at Western. “From November 1876 to November 1877, up to 766 convicts, most of them African-Americans, worked on bringing the railroad from Morganton to Asheville, opening the western part of the state to trade and expanded industry,” Smith said. “Many died from injuries, collapsed tunnels, and influenza and pneumonia epidemics. The most exciting part of the novel recounts how a locomotive was carried up the mountain by hand in order to complete the project.”
Ehle has been praised for his willingness to portray in this novel the human cost to the workers and the permanent impact on the Appalachian culture that resulted from the building of the railroad into the mountains, Smith said. “He has been a pioneering writer in terms of dealing with racial conflict and prejudice, beginning with his first novel and including the non-fiction book ‘The Free Men,’ about the civil rights movement in North Carolina. His treatment of Appalachian people has been notably free of stereotypes,” he said.
For more information about the event at Western, contact the department of English at 227-7264.
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