The Appalachia of Cat Pleska’s childhood was filled with savvy, strong women and hard-working, hard-drinking men who taught her how to tell stories.
She’s now telling their stories and her own in her first book, Riding on Comets, published by West Virginia University Press.
Riding on Comets is the true story of an only child growing up in a working-class family during the 1950s and ‘60s.
As the family storyteller, Cat Pleska whispers and shouts about her life. Unlike many family stories set within Appalachia, this story provides an uncommon glimpse into this region: not coal, but an aluminum plant; not hollers, but small-town America; not hillbillies, but a hard-working family with traditional values.
From the dinner table, to the back porch, to the sprawling countryside, Cat Pleska reveals the sometimes tender, sometimes frightening education of a child who listens at the knees of these giants. She mimics and learns every nuance, every rhythm — how they laugh, smoke, cuss, fight, love, and tell stories — as she unwittingly prepares to carry their tales forward, their words and actions forever etched in her mind. And finally, she discovers a life story of her own.
Cat Pleska is a seventh generation West Virginian, and she is a writer, editor, educator, publisher and storyteller. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College. She is an essayist for West Virginia Public Radio and a book reviewer for The Charleston Gazette. She coedited the anthology Fed from the Blade: Tales and Poems from the Mountains. Pleska has been published in literary magazines and newspapers throughout the Appalachian region. She lives in Scott Depot, West Virginia, with her husband, Dan, one dog, four cats, and with a daughter, Katie, in nearby St. Albans.
Diana Hume George, author of The Lonely Other: A Woman Watching America proclaims she “could read Cat Pleska’s words forever, and still want more.”
Lisa Knopp, author of What the River Carries: Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte calls Riding on Comets “fresh, candid, gently humorous, tautly lyrical, and deeply moving,” while Janice Gary, author of Short Leash: A Memoir of Dog Walking and Deliverance, declares it “a joy to read.”
More praise for Riding on Comets:
“The details Pleska offers have the immediacy of truths well told, with a resolute eye and spacious heart.”
Geoffrey Cameron Fuller is an author of the true crime Pretty Little Killers and the crime thriller Full Bone Moon
“A razor-sharp honesty that brings heart-felt empathy to both the sweet and the wicked.”
Marc Harshman, Poet Laureate of West Virginia
“Cat Pleska is a natural storyteller.”
Laura Treacy Bentley, author of The Silver Tattoo and Lake Effect
Upcoming readings and events with Cat Pleska:
May 12: Main Street Art Studio: Hurricane, W.Va., 6-8 p.m.
May 16: Taylor Books: Charleston, W.Va., 1-4 p.m.
May 22: Bridgeport Library: Bridgeport, W.Va., 4-6 p.m.
May 23: Clarksburg Library: Writing workshop, Clarksburg, W.Va., 1-3 p.m.
May 30: Empire Books: Huntington, W.Va., 4-6 p.m.
June 24: Arts Monongahela with Marie Manilla: Morgantown, W.Va., 6:30 p.m.
Learn more at http://www.catpleska.com/
Riding on Comets by Cat Pleska
May 2015/156pp/PB 978-1-940425-51-1: $16.99/epub 978-1-940425-52-8: $16.99
To order this book, visit wvupress.com, phone (800) 621-2736, or visit a local bookstore. To learn more about WVU Press, visit wvupress.com. For updates on books and events, follow WVU Press on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest or join our mailing list on wvupress.com.
-WVU-
af/5/5/15
CONTACT: Abby Freeland, Marketing Manager at WVU Press
304 293-6188, abby.freeland@mail.wvu.edu
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