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Good Reads

Books we're reading at the station and recommend to you.When we're not on-the-air or at our desks, we like to pick up good books. Most of us here at the station are, in fact, avid readers. In the style of NPR's "What We're Reading" (an excellent weekly guide) we, too, decided to share what we've been reading. Here's a list of books recently read by WKMS staff members, student workers and volunteers.Interested in a book on our list? Follow the Amazon link beneath the picture. A small percentage of your purchase of anything on Amazon through this link goes right to WKMS at no additional cost to you!

WKMS Storytelling Contest Results are in: Dr. Barbara Cobb Wins!

WKMS | By WKMS Staff

Published November 9, 2017 at 9:35 AM CST

Hopkinsville Brewing Company was host to the final chapter of the 2017 WKMS Short Storytelling Contest in late October. The four finalists who presented their work were Barbara Cobb, Angie Hatton, Rachel Lundberg, and Summer Warner. The crowd voted Barbara Cobb winner with her post-apocalyptic story "Not Up."

Congratulations to all who entered stories and to the final four writers. Below you can read all four stories, including the winning story, "Not Up."

"Not Up" by Barbara Cobb

"Best Friends Forever" by Angie Hatton

"Such Stars as These" by Rachel Lundberg

"Those Who Question" by Summer Warner

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About Our Winner:

Dr. Barbara Mather Cobb

1. What do you do?

I teach English and serve as Coordinator of Academic Advising at Murray State University.

2. When did you start writing?

I am the consummate amateur writer and have been since I was a teenager. I have been an avid reader all my life, and my experience as a reader, plus my vivid imagination, give me infinite material from which to draw when I do write.

3. What topics/genres interest you the most?

Everything interests me. I don't like to read or watch horror, but I imagine it all the time. I love historical fiction and sci-fi and anything that is well-written. I made a career as a teacher so I can read for a living -- ironically there have been times in my career when I have not had time to read and write except for what I was doing for work.

4. One fun fact about yourself

I was afraid of my own back yard for the first two days after I wrote "Not Up." (I told you I have a very vivid imagination.)

BTW, the "seed" for the idea of the large person knocking me out came from a real-life event: my former spouse and I were in the car and I was furious because he would not wear his seat belt; I argued that, if we were in a wreck, his body could become a projectile and kill me. Ironically, five minutes after he begrudgingly put on his seat belt, the car hydroplaned and we were tossed across four lanes of roadway twice until we hit a tree and the car landed in a ditch, totaled. I was not crushed and lived to use the idea in a short story.