How does a girl from Grundy, Virginia, become a successful writer? The interviews and profiles in Conversations with Lee Smith tell the story of one woman's discovery of her coal-mining hometown as a potential -literary place.-

In this first book of interviews with Smith, she revels in character and sense of place as cornerstones to her art. -What interests me most in writing are the characters, - she says. -I have a lot of trouble thinking of plots, but I love to create the people. I think a person that you create is coming out of some aspect of yourself.-

Smith's career spans...