In this episode WMMT's Rachel Garringer talks with novelist Carter Sickels about his second book "The Prettiest Star" - which will be published in May of 2020 by Hub City Press.

"The Prettiest Star" is set in 1986 and it tells the story of a young gay man living with HIV who leaves New York City and moves back in with his family in rural Appalachian Ohio. In the interview Sickels reads an excerpt of the novel and talks about the process of writing this book, his interest in the intersection of rural and queer stories, and the challenges of finding stories of the AIDS epidemic in rural communities. And, Sickels talks about getting to spend time on set in Harlan County, during the production of a film based on his first novel "The Evening Hour."