77: From Appalachia to Cornell – A Conversation with Robert Ray Morgan

Robert Ray Morgan is the author of dozens of novels, biographies, short stories, and poetry collections, including the bestsellers Gap Creek: A Novel and Boone: A Biography. Born in 1944 on a farm in rural North Carolina, he went on to teach for fifty-one years at Cornell University and earn heavyweight honors including a Guggenheim, an NEA grant, and a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship. In this episode, he offers some words of advice for up-and-coming writers and recalls his exhilarating journey from Appalachia to the Ivy League.