Author Pam Duncan at Berea College Friday

Pamela Duncan, author of the novels Plant Life, Moon Women, and The Big Beautiful read on Friday, May 1, at a celebration of the spring 2009 issue of Appalachian Heritage, a literary quarterly published by Berea College from the Appalachian Center. Duncan is the featured author for this issue. “As anyone who has ever attended one of her readings can attest,” wrote acclaimed novelist Lee Smith in her article on Pam Duncan in the magazine, “she can be hilarious.” Pamela Duncan was born in Asheville, N.C., and grew up in the communities of Black Mountain, Swannanoa, and Shelby. Her large and impressive first novel, Moon Women, was a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Award Finalist, and her second novel, Plant Life, won the 2003 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2007 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers.