Join WordPlay on Friday, October 17, at 6PM as we welcome our Hampshire County neighbors Henry and Priscilla Ireys to discuss their new book, The Keep: Living with the Tame and the Wild on a Mountain Farm. The Ireys’ memoir in essays, published by West Virginia University Press, is the couple’s love letter to an unexpected place and adopted lifestyle on their farm in nearby Paw Paw.
The Keep—the term for “the strongest or central tower of a castle, acting as a final refuge”—reflects on the couple’s looping passage from disappointment and hurt to faith and healing on land they love as much as they love each other. Written separately by Priscilla and Henry, the book’s essays illustrate different perspectives of life on a farm. Priscilla embraces farming to recover from the grief of losing a 30-year career because of poor health; to her delight, heritage goats, hogs, and cattle claim both heart and imagination. In the forests around the farm, Henry discovers the intricacies of the natural world and enough mysteries to comfort his restless soul.
Prior to farming, Henry had a 40-year career as a health policy researcher working at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and Mathematica Policy Research. He published numerous papers in health policy journals and, since his retirement, has been writing for The Hampshire Review about farming and the natural world. His work has also been featured in several anthologies of Appalachian writers.
Priscilla attended the Pittsburg Institute of Art and FIT in New York. She designed and made stage clothes for country music stars including Loretta Lynn, and under her own label sold hand- painted scarves and jackets to Nordstrom's and many high-end boutiques. She left the fashion industry after 30 years and has since written numerous stories for Small Farmer’s Journal.
The October 17 author talk and signing will be held at WordPlay, 50 West Main Street, in Wardensville. Event is free; no registration required. Books will be available for purchase at WordPlay beginning October 1 and can also be purchased online through Bookshop.org. For more information, email
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