How Fire Runs

Charles Dodd White is the author of four novels, including two from Swallow Press: How Fire Runs and In the House of Wilderness. He has received the Appalachian Book of the Year Award and the Chaffin Award for his fiction. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is an associate professor of English at Pellissippi State Community College.

“White imbues his prose with deep compassion and finely honed storytelling. These skills were already on display in White's 2018 novel, In the House of Wilderness, but here they accelerate, fueled by powerful confrontation with the violent racism and environmental hazards that endanger our current national atmosphere. White holds nothing back, and these scenes spark and blaze." (Chapter 16) "White separates the principled from the opportunistic, the heroic from the cowardly, in a series of harrowing scenes accelerating at such a pace that the final chapters of the novel seem to disappear. Not merely action for its own sake, White again demonstrates the sure hand that illustrates consequences of many characters' choices and sore trials of their resilience." (Appalachian Journal) "How Fire Runs faces down one of the most worrisome contemporary social developments, a phenomenon that, after the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, is demonstrably problematic in Appalachia: the resurgence, expansion, and organization of white supremacist and fascist groups…. The novel warns that it is … the transformation of fear and suffering into hate for the perceived other that kindles flames and allows fires to run." (Appalachian Review) "How Fire Runs in saner times might read as a cautionary tale against the lure of authoritarianism and racist agitators. As it stands, however, the novel instead reads like reportage from the front lines of an increasingly polarized and frightening political and social landscape… White delves headfirst into the difficult questions of how a community must respond to a threat anathema to what they believe." (North Carolina Literary Review) "A spellbinding tale….Well-drawn characters are matched by evocative prose. Socially conscious readers will want to check this out." (Publishers Weekly) "No novel could be more timely than this suspenseful thriller that follows a delusional white supremacist who gathers an army of supporters who seek to turn an East Tennessee community into a bastion of his racist precepts." (Appalachian Mountain Books, April 4, 2021) "Although a deftly crafted work of fiction, How Fire Runs offers a sobering perspective on America today. A compelling and original work… especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections." (Midwest Book Review) "Both action-packed and introspective, How Fire Runs is a timely literary thriller that is hard to put down. Charles Dodd White continues to prove himself as one of the best prose stylists of Appalachian literature in a novel that transcends region to become raw commentary on this volatile moment in America." "Moments of introspection from White's well-delineated characters help How Fire Runs straddle successfully the contingent and the literary, transcending the 'ripped from the headlines' nature of many works dealing with political issues. Loss and the need to build an identity through connections that are more intimate than ethnic kinship is a theme that pulsates just as strongly in the personal stories of Kyle, Gavin, and Delilah's partner, Harrison. Coupled with the tense pacing of a thriller and an apocalyptic ending [that] pits its characters against the fury of nature, White's novel is an artful and suspenseful page turner." (WV Independent Observer) "How Fire Runs is at once elemental and blisteringly contemporary—a story rooted in our past, yet crackling amid the fires of the American present. Charles Dodd White writes with the steady hand of a master, confronting complicated truths and emotions with clear eyes and grace, giving us a constellation of characters grappling over the identity of their town… and America itself. This is a brave and important novel from one of our best." "Charles Dodd White puts to use his deep knowledge of the people who live in eastern Tennessee, the good as well as the bad. It's a powerful portrayal of contemporary life in a landscape that serves as its own omnipresent character. White's work gets better and better." "With artfully complex characters…White's work captures the rhythms of rural life as they begin to beat faster in the face of calamity." (Booklist) "A work of artistic merit and a significant (and timely) contribution to our ongoing national discussion of extremism." "Line for line, White is one of the most talented writers at work in the American South."