Tore All to Pieces: An Evening with Willie Carver Jr.

Nestled in the mountains, in an out-of-the-way part of rural America, the fictional town of Mosely is home to ordinary people: proud, compassionate, and complex. Women serving biscuits at the gas station counter, kids listening to Loretta Lynn with their uncles, teenage boys flirting with one another at prom, and parents busy raising their children's babies. This community is woven together by family ties, church congregations, coal mines, and fast-food chains. In Mosely, the residents work hard to find belonging, love, and identity.

Tore All to Pieces is a fragmented novel that delves into the lives of Appalachian characters with similar struggles, backgrounds, and experiences and examines how people are often lonely despite these connections. Each narrative, presented in the form of a poem or short story, bends and weaves like the roads of Appalachia. Each character's voice is richly portrayed in gripping and lyrical language, uniting the stories in a quest for truth, genuine understanding, and respect.

At a time when the rights of queer individuals, women, and people of color are increasingly under threat, this work powerfully reaffirms the humanity and significance of marginalized people. Tore All to Pieces underscores their enduring presence and rightful belonging.

6 pm reception/6:30 pm program
Free & open to the public. Registration required.

Copies of Tore All to Pieces will be available for sale & signing courtesy of Joseph-Beth Cincinnati.

About Willie Carver Jr.

Willie Carver Jr. is a youth advocate, Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and the author of Gay Poems for Red States, a recipient of awards from Stonewall, American Library Association, World Pride, Read Appalachia, Whippoorwill, and Book Riot. His fragmented novel, Tore All to Pieces, was published in March 2026 by the University Press of Kentucky.

Willie’s writing has been published in textbooks, anthologies, and journals, including Testament, Discarded, Rural and Outrooted, Appalachian Journal, Southern Humanities, Louisville Review, Another Chicago, Harbor, Smoky Blue Literary, Miracle Monocle, Good River Review, Salvation South, and Gay & Lesbian Review.

Willie believes everyone deserves to feel that they matter.