Stories of LGBTQ representation and Appalachia are touched on in the novels “The Evening Hour” and “The Prettiest Star” by award-winning author Carter Sickels.

Sickels will host a reading of the novels in the Drinko Library Atrium on Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Sara Henning, assistant professor of English and the coordinator of the Stringer Visiting Writers Series, said in a statement, “Carter Sickels has redefined what is possible for the spectrum of LGBTQ+ literary Appalachia.”

The event is sponsored by the Department of English, the College of Liberal Arts, University Libraries and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

“The Evening Hour,” Sickel’s debut novel that was published in 2012, is about a retired coal miner who finds work as a nursing home aide. The book was turned into an independent film that debuted in the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 27, 2020, to mostly positive reviews.

“The Prettiest Star,” published in 2020, is about a young, gay man who lives in New York and suffers from AIDS returning to his hometown in Ohio. The book is highly acclaimed, winning the Fiction Ohioana Book Award in 2021, the Southern Book Prize in 2021 and the Fiction Weatherford Award in 2020. 

His writing has also appeared in publications such as The Kenyon Review, The Atlantic, Oxford American and Buzzfeed. He is also an assistant professor of creative writing at North Carolina State University.

Jordan Ooten can be contacted at [email protected].