Taylor Brown

I’m thrilled to share the cover of my next novel, Rednecks, which busts into the wild on May 14, 2024 from St. Martin’s Press.

This novel was born from my Bitter Southerner short story “Rednecks” and is dedicated to my friend and editor Jason Frye of Logan County, WV, who asked the fateful question many years ago: “Do you know where the word ‘redneck’ comes from?”

I touched the back of my neck. “Sunburn, from working in the fields.”

Jason’s eyes sparked over his great iron-shot beard and he leaned toward me, rubbing his hands together. “Boy, you don’t know the half of it.”

Book Details

A historical drama based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, pitting a multi-ethnic army of 10,000 coal miners against mine owners, militia, and the United States government in the largest labor uprising in American history.

REDNECKS is a tour de force, big canvas historical novel that dramatizes the 1920 to 1921 events of the West Virginia Mine Wars — from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed uprising on American soil since the Civil War, when some one million rounds were fired, bombs were dropped on American soil, and the term “redneck” would come to have an unexpected origin story.

Featuring real-life and invented characters — men and women, adults and children, Black and white and immigrants from many countries who worked in the dangerous West Virginia coal mines — REDNECKS tells a dramatic story of rebellion against oppression. Taylor Brown introduces crucial point of view characters: “Doc Moo” Muhanna, a Lebanese-American doctor (inspired by the author’s own great-grandfather) who serves the mining camps; Frank Hugham, a Black miner who helps lead the miners’ revolt; Frank’s mother Beulah, who fights to save her home and her son; and true-life folk hero “Smilin” Sid Hatfield, a sharp-shooting sheriff who dares to stand up to the “gun thugs” of the coal companies.

These and other characters come fully to life in a propulsive, character-driven tale that’s both a century old and blisteringly contemporary: a story of unexpected friendship, heroism in the face of injustice, and the power of love and community against outsized odds.

Through inspired portraits of real-life characters including legendary union organizer Mother Jones, to dynamic battle scenes set in the West Virginia hill country, Taylor Brown reimagines one of the most compelling events in 20th century American history.

Three Things You Can Do to Support Rednecks

This is a story thundering to be told, and there are three things that would really support the book at this early and important juncture — I’d be so grateful if you considered them.

1. Add Rednecks to your Goodreads shelf.

2. Pre-order a signed copy from E. Shaver Booksellers.
(Or pre-order from your favorite retailer).

3. Forward this email to a friend or share this post on your social media.

Several weeks ago, I was asked by The Bitter Southerner to interview four-time Grammy winner Jason Isbell for the cover story of Issue 6. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement.

I discovered Isbell in 2005, when he was member of the Drive-By Truckers and I was a homesick young writer working on my first stories out of little cafés in Buenos Aires. After graduating from the University of Georgia earlier that year, I’d sold my car and used the money to move to Argentina with the intention to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). I ended up writing web content for two cents per word, hopped up on jarritos (double espressos, literally “little jars”) and force of will. In a strange twist of fate, I discovered a couple of Drive-By Truckers songs had come preloaded on my Dell laptop, and I immediately fell in love with their music. As I said in the BS piece:

“Here was a band doing what I aimed to do with my writing: Taking the old Southern stereotypes, lighting sticks of dynamite underneath them, and seeing what truth or beauty or horror might be found amid the dust and wreckage: usually an unforgettable constellation of all three.”

Since then, Isbell has branched out on his own, recording a string of No. 1 hits, earning a reputation for candor on social media, and becoming “Americana music’s favorite son.”

The Bitter Southerner didn’t want just another profile or album review, but something different: two writers talking about writing and art. I traveled to Isbell’s home in Nashville with this intention in mind. In reality, our conversation would range far beyond this starting point, turning over stones, upending myths, and looking for better ways of ways of moving through the world.

I’m damn proud of what came of our time together: “Jason Isbell is Walking Tall.” You can read the full 5500-word piece in Issue No. 6 of Bitter Southerner, available here: https://bsgeneralstore.com/products/bs-magazine-issue-no-6

Huge props to legendary rock photographer Christy Bush for the incredible photographs, Heather Mary Jackson for the styling, and the whole BS family for entrusting me with this story — it was an honor.

I’m thrilled to share the news that my next novel, REDNECKS, is coming in 2024 from St. Martin’s Press!

What if I told you there was a battle on American soil in 1921 in which more than one million rounds were fired, bombs were dropped from airplanes, and a multiethnic army of 10,000 coal miners wore red neckerchiefs to identify themselves, earning the nickname “Rednecks”…and almost no one outside Appalachia had even heard of it?

This is that story.

Started in 2017, this book was one hell of a beast to write. The main character is inspired by my great-grandfather, a farmer’s son who emigrated from Mount Lebanon to the US in 1889, at the age of 14, alone but for a priest as chaperone, and graduated from the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, becoming a physician and medical examiner in rural Kentucky. I’ve always felt a special connection with him since we share the same birthday.

The book also includes a cast of real-life characters including Smilin’ Sid Hatfield and Mother Jones, aka “The Most Dangerous Woman in America.”

I’m especially indebted to my friend Jason Frye — a native son of Logan County, WV, where the battle took place — for his stories, encouragement, and editing, and to the WV Mine Wars Museum staff for their recommendations and advice.

To get things right for this book, I not only had to read a library’s worth of books and talk to old-timers on the ground for their stories, but I took my dirt bike high and deep to find the old Blair Mountain battle sites where a car could hardly reach — and where coal companies still restrict access to much of the land.

I could not be more excited to share this novel with y’all.