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THE WICKED ROAD TO YAM JUNCTION

$22.95

In the tiny, unincorporated town of Fetch, Tennessee, population 457 and falling, life is lived on "limited information". To the family of the young narrator, the world effectively ends at the county line. His grandfathers, Abe and Randall, along with his mother, Alice, live by a strict code: if you can’t find it in Fetch, you don’t need it. But for a boy with an imagination in "full throttle," the three-lane highway leading north toward the mysterious Yam Junction represents a "wicked road" filled with the very sins and secrets his elders preach against.

Through a series of humorously interconnected stories, the secrets of Fetch begin to unravel. The narrator discovers his family’s "holy" boycott of Wal-Mart is a facade hidden behind cupboards full of "Great Value" cereal. He watches as his friend Jerry, a tattoo artist who "couldn’t draw a straight stickman," becomes an accidental sensation in the Knoxville art scene for his "intentional naiveté". From a preacher attempting to monetize a local sinkhole as a "Gate to Hell" to the fabrication of local legends to satisfy a middle-school project, these stories explore the eccentricities of Appalachian life.

The Wicked Road to Yam Junction is a spirited collection that captures the tension between the safety of home and the pull of the horizon, proving that even the most "wicked" roads often lead us right back to the people we love.

In the tiny, unincorporated town of Fetch, Tennessee, population 457 and falling, life is lived on "limited information". To the family of the young narrator, the world effectively ends at the county line. His grandfathers, Abe and Randall, along with his mother, Alice, live by a strict code: if you can’t find it in Fetch, you don’t need it. But for a boy with an imagination in "full throttle," the three-lane highway leading north toward the mysterious Yam Junction represents a "wicked road" filled with the very sins and secrets his elders preach against.

Through a series of humorously interconnected stories, the secrets of Fetch begin to unravel. The narrator discovers his family’s "holy" boycott of Wal-Mart is a facade hidden behind cupboards full of "Great Value" cereal. He watches as his friend Jerry, a tattoo artist who "couldn’t draw a straight stickman," becomes an accidental sensation in the Knoxville art scene for his "intentional naiveté". From a preacher attempting to monetize a local sinkhole as a "Gate to Hell" to the fabrication of local legends to satisfy a middle-school project, these stories explore the eccentricities of Appalachian life.

The Wicked Road to Yam Junction is a spirited collection that captures the tension between the safety of home and the pull of the horizon, proving that even the most "wicked" roads often lead us right back to the people we love.

Praise for THE WICKED ROAD TO YAM JUNCTION

The Wicked Road to Yam Junction is Larry Thacker at his best. Fearless, breathless, and shameless, this story collection should sit on the shelves, roughhousing with Harry Crews and Larry Brown. With dialogue that pops like gravel from the back of a pair of swinging mudflats, this book is an almanac of the true dirty South.

Charles Dodd White, Author of How Fire Runs

Written in an affable style as if you’re leaning against a pickup truck and listening to a friend, this collection of stories is a welcome addition to Larry Thacker’s evolving work. Here is contemporary Appalachia without adornment or sentimentality.

Chris Offutt Author of the Mick Hardin series

 

About LARRY D. THACKER

Larry D. Thacker is a Kentuckian writer, artist, and educator living in Johnson City, Tennessee. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in more than 200 publications, including Appalachian Review, American Journal of Poetry, Poetry South, and Still: The Journal, with stories nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net. He is the author of multiple poetry collections and short story books, including Working it Off in Labor County (West Virginia University Press) and Everyday Monsters (co-authored with CM Chapman). A U.S. Army veteran and seventh-generation native of the Cumberland Gap region, Thacker holds an MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan College and works in higher education. He also appears on Netflix’s Swap Shop.

 

  • Genre: Fiction / Short stories
    ISBN:978-1-969421-45-7
    Publication Date: NOVEMBER 3, 2026