Clyde Kessler

Fiddling at Midnight's Farmhouse Clyde Kessler

Virginia's Blue Ridge Highlands, with Jack's Creek Bridge over the Smith River and Rock Castle Creek in Patrick County, set the stage for Clyde Kessler's fictional community of "Hackle Creek" in his book of poetry, Fiddling at Midnight's Farmhouse (Cedar Creek Publishing, 2017). Patterned a bit like Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Clyde's characters---mostly fiddlers, waifs, workers, and lost souls--emerge through poetic yarns, tall tales, ghost stories, retellings of family secrets, and even a few riddles of several families introduced in his earlier poetry collection, Dancing at Big Vein (Pocahontas Press, 1987). Both of Clyde's books feature illustrations by his artist/wife, Kendall Kessler.