The Falls of the Wyona

By David Brendan Hopes

In The Falls of the Wyona by David Brendan Hopes, four friends growing up on the banks of a wild Appalachian river just after WWII discover, almost at the same time, the dangerous, alluring Falls and the perils of their own maturing hearts. Seen through the eyes of his best friend Arden, football hero Vince falls in love with the new kid, Glen. They have no context for their feelings, and the next few years of high school become a tense, though sometimes funny, artifice of concealment. The winner of Red Hen’s Quill Prize, The Falls of the Wyona is the first of three achieved (and several more projected) novels by this author imbued with the magical atmosphere of Appalachian culture.

In a lyrical sequence of persona poems, the pilots in Exuberance wonder how the experience of moving through the air will transform life on the ground. They learn to name the clouds, size up the winds, mix an Aviation Cocktail, perform a strange field landing, and make an emergency jump.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Hen Press
• Release date: May 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781597098342

David Brendan Hopes

David Brendan Hopes is a poet, a playwright, and an author of fiction and nonfiction prose. His theatrical works have been produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and regionally, including Asheville, NC, where he lives. He has twice received the North Carolina New Play Project Prize, as well as the Holland New Voices Playwriting Award, the Sprenger Foundation Award for Historical Drama, the Desert Star Award for Best Original Writing, the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Award for Playwriting, and the Siena Playwrights' Prize. Poetry accolades include the Juniper Prize and the Saxifrage Prize. Originally from Ohio, Hopes taught at Hiram College, Syracuse University, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His published novels include "The Falls of Wyona," which won the Quill Prize from Red Hen Press; "Night, Sleep and The Dreams of Lovers"; and "The One with the Beautiful Necklaces." His nature essays, "A Sense of the Morning" and "Birdsongs of the Mesozoic," appeared from Milkweed Editions and his memoir, "A Childhood in the Milky Way," from Akron University Press.