LibraryThing is pleased to present our interview with novelist and poet Andrew K. Clark, whose work has been published in The American Journal of Poetry, UCLA’s Out of Anonymity, Appalachian Review, Rappahannock Review, and The Wrath Bearing Tree. Deeply influenced by his upbringing and family history in western North Carolina, Clark received his MFA from Converse College, and made his book debut in 2019, with the poetry collection Jesus in the Trailer. His first novel, Where Dark Things Grow, a work of magical realism set in the Southern Appalachian Mountains in the 1930s, is due out this month from Cowboy Jamboree Press, and is available in our current monthly batch of Early Reviewer giveaways. Clark sat down with Abigail to answer some questions about his new book.
Where Dark Things Grow follows the story of a teenage boy with a troubled home life, who finds something magical and uses it to embark on a course of revenge. How did the story idea first come to you? Did it start with the character of Leo, with the theme of revenge, or with something else?
The novel came from a short story I wrote about my grandfather’s childhood growing up in Southern Appalachia and grew from there. I’ve always been drawn to magical realism and supernatural stories, so I was interested in mixing a sort of hardscrabble Appalachian setting with those more fantastical elements. Initially the story started with Leo, but as I got into the difficulties he faced, I realized he, like all of us, have a choice: to respond to adversity with anger or with resilience. His story is finding his way to resilience after a dark turn toward revenge and violence borne out of his family’s struggles, what he sees happening to missing young women, and a lack of empathy from the community.
Tell us more about wulvers. What are they, where do they come from, and what kinds of stories and traditions are associated with them?
One of the decisions I made early on in writing the novel was that I would use folklore elements from my own cultural heritage, as much as possible. So wulvers come from Scottish folklore. I use them quite differently than they appear in the lore, mixing in elements of horror and even the notion of direwolves from the Game of Thrones books. In Scottish tradition, wulvers are benevolent, and there are stories of them doing things like placing fish in the window sill of families that were struggling, that sort of thing. So in my novel there is a benevolent wulver, but there is also a dark, sinister one causing mischief. In the folklore, one thing that stuck with me is the wulvers can walk on their hind legs, much like a human, so mine do this when they want to seem imposing.
What made you decide to set Where Dark Things Grow during the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression? Is there something significant about that period, in terms of the story you wanted to tell?
My grandparents grew up during the Great Depression in Southern Appalachia, and that period of time has always fascinated me. My grandfather was a story teller in the Appalachian tradition (my people came to Western NC in 1739), so I grew up hearing a lot of stories, including what it was like to grow up in the 1930s. One thing that always interested me is that Asheville is seen as this wealthy Gilded Age kind of place in literature and popular culture, but for my grandparents, the Great Depression brought almost no change to their lives – they were very poor before it started and so they didn’t feel the pain that some did. As a matter of fact, my grandfather would say their lives got better because of the Great Depression because my great grandfather got a job with the TVA. I always knew I wanted to write a story about a teenager growing up in this time period, and that story grew into Where Dark Things Grow.
You have described yourself as deeply rooted in the region of western North Carolina, where your ancestors have lived since before the American Revolution. In what ways has this geographic and cultural background influenced your storytelling? Which parts of your story are universal, and which parts could only happen in Southern Appalachia?
What’s often said about Appalachian writers is that the landscape is often a central character to story. That’s true for Where Dark Things Grow and so I don’t think it could happen anyplace else, in the same way. The major themes of the novel: revenge, the corrupting influence of power, criminal behavior (human trafficking), the struggle between good and evil, friendship and family, are universal and could be present in any setting. I think at the heart of every story is this sense of conflict, and so in that way, even if my reader doesn’t have reference points for Southern Appalachia, they can connect to the story and see themselves in the characters.
Your first book was a collection of poetry, and you have published individual poems in numerous publications. What was it like to write a novel instead? Does your writing process differ, when approaching different genres? Are there things that are the same?
I think one thing I carry to my prose is a focus on the structure and sound of the individual sentence. I always admire a well crafted sentence in a book I’m reading. So in that focus on language, there doesn’t feel to be as much of a difference as one might think. What’s different is that a single poem captures a more singular feeling or scene in the case of a narrative poem. In fiction, scenes build on each other and excavate themes more deeply over time. What I do find is that I feel comfortable with the novel form and the poem form; I am not as comfortable with the in between, short stories, if that makes sense. If I have that little to say, it feels more natural to distill it down into a poem. That said, I love short fiction, and read a lot of short story collections. In some ways a poetry collection or short story collection is a perfect vehicle for our modern attention challenged brains. But I love to get immersed in a world, in the lives of characters, the way I can with a novel. I think I’ll always write both.
What’s next for you? Are you working on more poetry, do you intend to write more novels, or branch out still further?
One thing I am happy about for readers is that my second novel, Where Dark Things Rise, is coming next fall from Quill and Crow Publishing House. It is a loose sequel to Where Dark Things Grow, which was published by Cowboy Jamboree Press. These two novels took about seven to eight years to write, and while the first book is set in the 1930s, the second is set in the 1980s, both in the Asheville / Western North Carolina area. I have started a third novel, which is quite different but also in the horror / magical realism genre. I have some poems assembled for a second poetry collection as well.
Tell us about your library. What’s on your own shelves?
My taste is pretty eclectic. You’ll find a lot of southern fiction by writers like William Gay, Ron Rash, Taylor Brown, Daniel Woodrell, S.A. Cosby, etc. You’ll also find a lot of magical realism novels: Murakami, Marquez, Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward, Robert Gwaltney, etc. And of course horror novels by Andy Davidson, Paul Tremblay, Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, Nathan Ballingrud, etc. I also have a couple of shelves dedicated to poetry books. Some favorites: Ilya Kaminsky, Kim Addonizio, Jessica Jacobs, Tyree Daye, bell hooks, Anne Sexton, W.S. Merwin, Ada Limón – I could go on and on.
What have you been reading lately, and what would you recommend to other readers?
One of my favorites this year is Taylor Brown’s Rednecks, about the West Virginia mine wars of the 1910s and 1920s. It’s a rich narrative; one of the most compelling historical fiction novels I’ve read. I’d also recommend The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson, which mixes historical fiction elements, horror, and folklore in a delightful way. The Red Grove by Tessa Fontaine is a 2024 favorite, and definitely has elements of magical realism. For poetry, I’m really digging Bruce Beasley’s Prayershreds right now.
