Shepherd University’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities hosts reading

ISSUED: 8 April 2025
MEDIA CONTACT: Hans Fogle

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV - Shepherd University's Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities will present a reading on Wednesday, April 23, at 6:30 p.m. featuring "The Devil's Pulpit and Other Mostly True Scottish Misadventures," a new book chronicling the journey of two Appalachian women across Scotland.

Poet E.J. Wade and author Karen Spears Zacharias co-wrote the book after their Shepherd University study abroad experience at the University of West of Scotland in 2022.

Published by Mercer University Press in March 2025, the book is a collection of stories and poetry about how these two Appalachian women, one Black and the other white, turned heads and initiated an extraordinary discussion about race, diversity, and the difficult task of being human.

The reading takes place in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education and will be followed by a reception.

Karen Zacharias was the 2018 Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence and 2018 West Virginia Common Read author. She is a two-time winner of the International Weatherford Award for Fiction.

Wade is an award-winning poet whose work has been published in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Women Speak, Salvation South, and Callaloo Literary Journal.

She holds an Ed.D. in disability and equity in education from National Louis University, a master's in Appalachian studies from Shepherd University, and a master's in creative media practice from the University of the West of Scotland.

Zacharias is an American writer whose work focuses on women and justice.

She holds a master's in Appalachian studies from Shepherd University and a master's in creative media practice from the University of the West of Scotland.

A Georgia native, Zacharias lives at the foot of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon.

For more information about the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities at Shepherd University, contact Dr. Benjamin Bankhurst at bbankhur@shepherd.edu or visit https://www.shepherd.edu/appalachian.

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