Set in the rugged Appalachian Mountains just before the Civil War, Haughey鈥檚 debut novel blends suspense, historical detail and psychological depth into a gripping murder mystery centered around Irish immigrant laborers carving a railroad tunnel through the Blue Ridge Mountains.听听

Haughey drew inspiration from visits he made to Stumphouse Tunnel, an unfinished railroad tunnel located in the mountains above Anderson near Walhalla, South Carolina. He was struck by the story of the many Irish immigrants who worked on the tunnel in the 1850s until the South Carolina Legislature stopped funding the project at the onset of the Civil War, bringing the work to a halt.听

鈥淚nitially, I was going to try to write a historical book about the immigrant community, and I got an essay out of it. I published it in The Journal of the South Carolina Historical Association,” Haughey said. 鈥淭he more I researched, the more I realized that I was going to hit a dead end pretty quickly. Most of the archival material that I read was pretty much about how they were building the railroad. It wasn’t about the actual people building the railroad.鈥�听

But when Haughey tried to find out more about the people, he found there was little information to go on.听听

鈥淭here were a couple of little mentions and some letters. There was a book published by a priest who mentioned going up to the mountain to say mass for the immigrant miners,” Haughey continued. 鈥淭he priest was living along the grounds of Belmont Abbey in North Carolina. And I thought, 鈥榃ell, here I go. I’ll just go to Belmont Abbey and see what they have in the archive.鈥� Well, it turned out that the priest鈥檚 cabin burned down in 1893 and all his records went with it.鈥�听

Haughey also found an account of a group of men who tried to burn down a chapel where the immigrant workers worshipped. The immigrants retaliated, killing one of the men.听听

鈥淚 was able to find the journal session records for that period鈥�1859. There was a transcript of the trial. It didn’t say much other than just who the indicted were. I discovered later that several of them were convicted of murder and were sentenced to be hanged. This is right on the eve of the Civil War. The governor at the time commuted their sentences to time served, and at the end of story, we don’t know what happened, where they ended up or anything else.鈥�听

Faced with little of substance to write a factual account in book form, let alone a chapter or two, Haughey pivoted to the idea of creating a fictional story.听

Working closely with an editor, Haughey came up with a manuscript for an historical novel and pitched it to various publishers. Historical fiction, Haughey explains, is a niche area that didn鈥檛 interest many of the publishing houses he approached. After a number of rejections, Haughey received an offer from Redhawk Publications, a publishing house in North Carolina that specializes in Southern literature.听

In The Broken Season, hundreds of Irish workers endure brutal conditions as they blast through granite in a remote Appalachian camp. Accidents, disease, alcohol, and violence haunt their daily lives. When a young laborer is sentenced to death for murder, a world-weary priest arrives to give last rites, only to discover there鈥檚 more to the story, leading him on a quest to seek justice for the accused man.听

Haughey said the novel allowed him to combine his love of research with the creative freedom of fiction.听

鈥淔or years, I wrote about other writers and their work, but I always wondered what it would be like to mix research with imagination,鈥� Haughey said. 鈥淲riting historical fiction gave me the freedom to create something entirely my own while still grounding it in history.鈥�听

Unlike the structured nature of academic criticism, Haughey adopted a more exploratory approach to crafting the novel.听

鈥淲ith academic writing, there tends to be a formula you follow,鈥� he explained. 鈥淏ut with fiction, I often let the story lead me. Sometimes I had to retrace my steps, but other times I discovered scenes and ideas I never could have planned ahead.”听

Haughey has previously published The First World War in Irish Poetry through Bucknell University Press and has spent nearly 30 years writing literary criticism. The Broken Season marks his move into fiction after six years of creative writing.听

The novel will appeal to fans of historical fiction and murder mysteries, especially those interested in 19th-century Southern Appalachia, Irish immigrant history, and the social tensions surrounding the Mexican-American War and the approaching Civil War.听

In describing Haughey鈥檚 novel, award-winning southern writer Ron Rash writes, 鈥�Morally complex and memorable, The Broken Season is a magnificent debut.鈥澨�听

More information about the author and the novel can be found at .听

The Broken Season is published by Redhawk Publications. The book, being released in July 2026, is available through the and other major online retailers.听

The post Professor鈥檚 Novel Explores Irish Immigrant Life in Appalachia on the Eve of the Civil War appeared first on 91福利社.

Students in the class, titled 鈥淒ragons, Knights and Wardrobes: The Medieval Imagination in J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis,鈥� tried their hand at Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). The class is offered by the English Department of the 91福利社 College of Arts and Sciences and is taught by Dr. Katherine Wyma.听

The swords weren鈥檛 real, but the techniques were true to swordplay in the historical sense. Adjunct faculty member Amy Bright led in the activity, which contained elements of choreography in the form of defensive postures and some fancy footwork.听

Of course,听nobody was hurt.听

Students can explore this and other topics through an interdisciplinary minor in Medieval and Early Modern Studies offered by the 91福利社 College of Arts and Sciences.听

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The conference theme is 鈥淚maginative Reading: Walking into the Wardrobe.鈥�听

According to Dr. Katherine Wyma, conference director and associate professor of English in the 91福利社 College of Arts and Sciences, the conference theme is a nod to the 75th anniversary of the printing of the C.S. Lewis children鈥檚 classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.听

Featured conference speakers include New York Times, USA Today and Globe and Mail Bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry, presenting 鈥淭hrough the Wardrobe: The Alchemy of Grief, Imagination and Story. She has published historical fiction works that include Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Once Upon a Wardrobe. The public is invited to hear Henry, who will speak Friday, October 24 at 7 p.m. Details on this ticketed event can be found .听

Conference speakers also include Dr. Rachel Roberts, chair of the English Department at North Greenville University; and Rev. Austin Carty, pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church in Anderson.听

Dr. Roberts, whose academic specialty is early British literature, coauthored the book Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age. Rev. Carty is the author of High Points and Lows: Life, Faith and Figuring it All Out. He also wrote The Pastor鈥檚 Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for Ministry, which received the 2023 Christianity Today Award of Merit and was named Book of the Year by Preaching Magazine.听听

Dr. Wyma commented that regional meetings take place every October at a different location in the Southeast鈥攗sually CCCU institutions.听

College professors and other scholars have submitted paper proposals to be included among the meeting鈥檚 scholarly presentations.听

Details, including a schedule are available online.听

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A creative writing class Updegraff took in high school sparked his interest initially. When he entered college, Updegraff set his sights on a writing career.听

This fall, Dr. Updegraff is entering his fifth year at Anderson, leading the creative writing program in the English Department of the College of Arts and Sciences.听听

鈥�I’ve been publishing poetry and short stories for many years now and it’s my sixth book, but my first novel,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s a fiction writer, I always kind of saw myself as a short story writer and didn’t really have any aspirations to write a novel. I just loved working in the short story form.鈥�听

The origin of his novel, titled Whole, started out as a short story he planned to include in his second short story collection. As he gave more thought to the story, he felt it needed more space to play out. But in what form? He thought about possibly expanding the story into a Novela at one point.听

Dr. Updegraff continued, 鈥淚 didn’t feel like it was quite done and so I pulled it out of that book and just kept it on the back burner. It’s the only short story I’ve ever worked on where I felt like I couldn’t get to an ending. I needed to spend more time with the characters, so I spent a few more years on it here and there… It just never went away.鈥�听

Described as a complex novel dealing with fable, romance, theology, life, death, love and heartbreak, Whole follows the life of Joe, a young man in his late 20s who lives in the Inland Empire of Southern California and works at a local 肠补蹿茅. Joe is an aimless, somewhat introspective poet who provides a first-person narrative in the story. He is dating Ashley, a writer and a poetry professor at a small Christian College. Distracted by a text from Ashley, Joe inadvertently runs his car into Ronnie, a homeless man on a bicycle. The bike is crushed and the aluminum cans he collected were scattered, but fortunately Ronnie鈥檚 injuries were minor. In the pages of the novel unfolds an unlikely relationship between Joe and Ronnie.听听

Throughout Whole, short vignettes pop up that are written in the third person鈥攎ini short stories within the story鈥攚hat Updegraff refers to as flash fiction pieces.听听

Updegraff explains, 鈥�As the reader keeps reading the book, they’ll figure out that those short pieces were actually written by the narrator, so they give insight into his upbringing, past his psychology. It was really experimental鈥攕hort, bizarre, almost fairytale like little mini stories that pop up throughout the book鈥攖hat was really fun to do.鈥�听

For the novel鈥檚 setting, Updegraff, a native Californian, chose the San Bernadino-Riverside areas.听听

As for Joe and Ashley, Updegraff said, 鈥淧arts of me came out in these characters in the very beginning, but then I want to make it very clear that I allowed them to develop their own identities, and they become people very different from myself.鈥�听

What happens next? Updegraff said there鈥檚 one clear resolution at the ending, but some things are left open at the end.听

鈥淚 think that’s what literary fiction wants to do鈥攊n a sense leave some stuff open for the reader to contribute meaning and predict things without closing every avenue off completely.鈥�听

Since the publication of Whole, Updegraff has started work on another novel. He also plans to publish his third collection of short stories.听

Whole, published in 2024 by , is available at and other major book outlets.听

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