Knockemstiff is a collection of short stories set in the holler of the same name in southern Ohio where I grew up. I tried to link the stories together through the place and some recurring characters.

I'm beginning to believe that anything I do to extend my life is just going to be outweighed by the agony of living it.

Knockemstiff is a collection of short stories set in the holler of the same name in southern Ohio where I grew up. I tried to link the stories together through the place and some recurring characters.

I look upon [writing about religion] as a nice way to get by in this precarious world, though I've never been able to do it myself.

I started going to Ohio University when I was in my mid-thirties, ended up with an English degree when I was forty.

I'm trying to break myself of that habit [of not writing out a first draft ] because I'm working on a couple novels and I know if I tried to write those books the way I wrote the stories it would take me years to finish.

Michael Koryta is an amazingly talented writer, and I rank The Prophet as one of the sharpest and superbly plotted crime novels I've read in my life.