Author Matthew Null – Phyllis W. Moore Author Series
On Tuesday, February 23rd, Author Matthew Neill Null joined us on WebEx to read from his book, Honey from the Lion. This online event was free and open to the public. When joining, I saw Matthew along with many faculty, professors, and students already there. Shortly after Matthew Null was introduced by Interim Director, Dr. Francene Kirk, he began to read a few pages from his book. His book, Honey from the Lion, is a fiction-based novel about a logging company that decimates 10,000 acres of virgin forest in the West Virginia Alleghenies and transforms a brotherhood of timber wolves into revolutionaries. Matthew also wrote another book called Allegheny Front, which is comprised of short stories based in his homeland of West Virginia.
After Matthew finished reading a section out of Honey from the Lion, he then opened up the chat for questions. Many questions about his book and West Virginia stereotypes surfaced. He revealed that he’s been working on a new novel for years. This novel takes place in Nicholas County, West Virginia, and is estimated to be completed soon. When the questions began to wrap up, so did the WebEx itself. Everyone then thanked Matthew Null for attending and reading a portion of his book.
This event was a part of the Phyllis Wilson Moore Author Series continued by The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center. To wrap up this semester, Matthew Null was the last author of the series. The Folklife Center will be continuing with the series next semester.
This series allows students, faculty, staff, and members of the community to learn about the work of authors who are from West Virginia or have written about West Virginia. The goal for this semester’s series was to listen to writings that explore the struggles of working people. The authors who were invited to share were Diane Gilliam, Donna Meredith, a graduate of Fairmont State, and Matthew Null.
