high S¤h¤¤t hhshcthhh ¢¤¤¤h Whh hhihcg- Holly Goddard jones was born and raised in western
nates one of his female players, “informed _ _ _ _
by tht tab1OtdS_» Sht Says that tht Otttn at_ Kentucky, the setting for her f1ct1on. Her short stories have
t€m{>t§ t0 §hYd¤;’¤¥ {tim Htthm that is dh appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review,
rciigilgggfts agt)(§Wi;i;titHdtntab1y at The Gettyshurg Review, The Hudson Review, Epoch, among
BSW in th€ pgihlllil S1i¤;li€S ?’»Lr¢5”¤¤d d others. She was the winner in 2007 of a Rona Jaffe Foundation
mtjigtjgjgg    Sgigltty Writers’ Award, a prize of $25,000 given to only six emerging
student. The stories echo the brutal fate woincii fiction writers cagh ycaig
that met WKU student Katie Autry in
2003. ]ones acknowledges that Autry’s tors. She is similarly immersed in classic lit- symbolizes his inner strengths or weak-
death was a springboard for these stories. erature: Plato, Descartes and Shakespeare nesses, a father stands by his criminal son
She says that she was haunted by Autry’s are directly discussed in ”Giri Trouhie.” As to the detriment of his own happiness, and
story: “I couldn’t let it go. I was having she describes a household which recog- a teenage girl must choose whether she
nightmares about it. The way for me to nized the innovation of such television wants to be part of a seedy crowd.
make sense of it was to write about it.” She shows as (Murphy Brown” while also in- It is at Hrst hard to reconcile ]ones’s
began the process by writing the story stilling a voracious appetite for books, it is smart, feisty girl-next-door persona with
(Turts,” which tells the story of a mother easy to see the basis for ”Giri Trouhiems the haunting stories of death, loss and
dealing with the aftermath of her daugh- characters, such as a Plato-quoting truck morality of the collection. She best ex-
ter’s murder in what ]ones calls a tradi- driver or a mother who frames her life’s plains this paradox in describing the impe-
tional storytelling approach. “ If something tragedies in the context of Shakespeare’s tus for the story ”Gooii GirL” in which a pit
that horriHc happened to your family,” the (Titus Andronieusf as well as those charac- bull has bitten a child. The character ]acob,
author asked herself, “how does it affect ters who select late ’80s hair metal or the father of the do g’s owner, feels extreme
the rest of your life ?” ]ohnny Cash songs as the appropriate attachment to the dog, but makes an un-
While working on her M.F.A. at Ohio soundtracks to their daily activities. sentimental choice. Initially terriHed by her
State, ]ones says that she was challenged by ]ones says her own modern literary influ- in-laws’ pit bull, ]ones says that she began
her creative writing professor, Lee Abbott, ences include William Faulkner, ]oyce the story as a tale of terror. Upon becom-
to reconsider the perspective of the Katie Carol Oates, and Andre Dubus. The inclu- ing a dog owner herself, she became Hercely
Autry story. Abbott encouraged his cre- sion of an Epigraph story in “Giri Trouhie,” loyal to her dogin what she calls an “al-
ative writing students to tell a story from a she says, is a direct homage to Faulkner. most religious conversion.” This personal
different viewpoint; ]ones chose to tell the The well-versed reader will certainly also experience created a dramatic shift in how
story from the perspective of a rapist and see Faulknerian influences in the Hctional- she crafted the ]acob character, ]ones re-
murderer. As she delved deeper into the ized town of Roma, from the characters’ calls. “I wrote more effectively because I
second story, “which became Troqfqf realistic dialogues to their moral dilemmas. could feel.”
GoiL’” she says that she began to diverge ]ones notes that the Dubus short story, Z4 Like William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha
from the initial inspiration of the Katie Futherk Stor)/,” moves her to tears and County, Roma is a Hctionalized version of
Autry story. She removed the elements of strongly influenced her story ”Gooii GirL” ]ones’s hometown. When asked how
class struggle inherent in the actual crime both stories deal with the sacriHces that a closely Roma resembles Russellville, she
and began to look at the psychological father makes for his child. muses, “I can’t say this is really Russellville.
prohle of her characters. The result, ]ones Like her literary role models, ]ones says It’s larger than life.” She goes on to note
says, is far preferable to writing a direct that she has never shied away from “big that Roma has a heightened sense of the
“true crime” account. She also notes that stories” about right and wrong. As such, tragic, with individual characters encoun-
she doesn’t want to sensationalize actual she creates a world in which her characters tering more extreme situations than a small
events ofthe region out of respect for her create bright-line dichotomies for accept- town usually produces. She bestowed the
hometown. “It’s important for me to able behavior. The people of Roma name Roma upon her Hctitious town, pur-
honor where I’m from? she notes. “I want strongly abide by strict codes of morality. posely invoking classical tragedy which she
people to be proud that someone local They self-identify as good or bad men, and says, “just happens to be in a small Ken-
wrote a book. I would be heartbroken if assess their friends and neighbors by the tucky town.”
someone thought it was a stereotype.” same stringent code. Women are classihed In writing about the Kentucky life that
Far from a stereotype herself, ]ones is as “good girls” and “bad girls,” with the ac- so many of us feel or know Holly Goddard
well-versed in high and low culture, a jux- companying moral judgment that those ti- ]ones spins a smart, sassy and empathic
taposition which she says that she inten- tles connote. The people of Roma live hard yarn.
tionally includes in her work. She grew up lives and their fate often feels preordained,  
reading true crime and genre Hction, influ- yet they possess a certain quiet dignity, Heuther C VWztson is uffeeiunee writer in
ences that can be seen both in her un- even in the most desperate situations. Lexington. This urtiele originulhi uppeureii
flinching portrayal of crime scenes and in ]ones’s strength lies in setting subtle scenes in the Septeinher 10 2009, issue {Ace
the rough justice exacted by Roma’s which provide a subtle glimpse into their VWe/eh (wwwueewee/eh/.eoin 
crooked cops and easily-swayed prosecu- character: A man’s treatment of his dog
www.uka|umni.net 21 ((