William Gay is the writer that makes me want to write and an author who has had a profound impact on my own work.

Being an absolute fan of anything relating to Kris Kristofferson (a subject for a further musing), I was first introduced to William Gay through the 2010 film Bloodworth, which, despite only having a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score, I believe is one of the finest films about love and music, about family and dysfunction. The film was based on William Gay’s novel, Provinces of Night, and tells the story of E.F. Bloodworth coming back at the end of his life to the home and the family he abandoned many years ago after a night of violence. His homecoming is marred by more violence, by inter-generational turmoil and long-simmered hurts and as he navigates his way through his late days, he connects with the grandson, Fleming, who, in turn, is navigating his way into manhood.

As always happens when I love a film and find out it’s based on a book, I searched out the novel immediately and was wonderstruck. William wrote in an interesting way. His stories were almost exclusively set in the poverty stricken parts of Tennessee, often in the 1930s or 40s, but he juxtaposes these stories of poor, plain, and often violent folk with extremely beautiful and poetic prose with immensely vivid imagery and simile.

William Gay passed away in 2012, and while I count myself extremely fortunate to have discovered his writing, and that he had friends who worked diligently to ensure his last novels were released posthumously, I am saddened by the thought that, now, in 2022, having read those releases, I may never discover a new piece of his prose.

Provinces of Night remains one of my favorite novels and I come back to it any time I’m starting work on a new story or novel.