ISSUED: 3 April 2025
MEDIA CONTACT: Hans Fogle
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV—Hannah Williams-McNamee, director of student support and transfer pathways, announced on April 2 that the next selection for the Shepherd University Common Reading Program is Black Bear Creek: Stories by Shepherd English alumnus Dr. Joshua Cross.
Cross is the first Shepherd graduate whose book will serve as a common reading selection at the University.
Set in the fictionalized town of Black Bear Creek in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley, the book explores a community that has been ravaged by the declining mining industry. The characters in Cross’ debut story collection struggle to survive against poverty and environmental degradation; ultimately, they find ways to have hope and resistance.
Cross, who graduated from Shepherd in 2003, is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at Coastal Carolina University and fiction editor of Waccamaw: A Journal of Contemporary Literature.
His stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Big Muddy, Failbetter, and Puerto del Sol. Black Bear Creak: Stories was published in 2021 through the Southeast Missouri State University Press and won the 2022 Independent Press Award for Short Story Collections.
Since 2007, Shepherd’s Common Reading Program has fostered a shared campus and community reading experience. Each year’s selection is incorporated into curriculum for first-year experience courses and featured in community programming events.
First-year writing faculty from Shepherd compiled a list of four books that would be eligible as Shepherd’s common read this year.
The Common Reading Program invited Shepherd students, staff, faculty, and community members to vote on the nominees to determine the selection.
Williams-McNamee thinks that Cross’ book will serve as a great common read for the Shepherd community.
“I believe this West Virginia-centric short story collection will inspire a lot of engaging conversations with our students, staff, faculty, and larger community,” she said. “With the support of a select group of English faculty, I’m looking forward to the campus partnerships we can continue — and create — as we plan events and academic engagement for the next year.”
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