​ Richard Currey grew up in Parkersburg, son of a schoolteacher father and a mom who had grown up on a mountain subsistence farm. His dad was descended from one of four brothers, who came from Ireland and settled in Harrison County.

He grew up hearing stories. "Everybody told stories," he said. "Everybody at the table. Everybody at the Sunday dinners. Everybody at Easter picnics. My grandparents would tell the stories of their days growing up, which went back to the turn of the century. My parents would argue over the destinies of cousins, nephews, and wayward uncles. The stories were everywhere. It was an environment. It was like being in a kind of water. I swam in it."

Now, his books have been translated into 12 language. A Los Angeles Times reviewer described Currey's writing as "word-sparing, stark, locomotive-driven, prose that would set to thumping the heart of any lover of the English language." He served in Vietnam with the US Navy for four years, where he was a medic in a marine combat unit. His first book, Fatal Light, is regarded as one of the best books to come out of the Vietnam War.

In this program, he reads from stories about the West Virginia Mine Wars, the Vietnam War, musicians, and murders. He sets most of his writing in West Virginia, which he calls "my mythic ground." "I wanted to be a writer," he said. "I just liked to do it. It was really that simple. I liked to do it."

He is also a musician. It shows in his writing. "I feel strongly that [writing] rises from the same creative place in me, and I use all the same tools composing a paragraph, a story, a book that I would use composing a piece of music."

In his books, Currey brings us stories about ordinary people struggling to deal with terrifying, soul- stretching situations.