Buckhannon (West Virginia) native wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; 'Night Watch' based at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston

“Night Watch” is a fictional tale of a mother and daughter set in the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston right after the Civil War.

Phillips is already a well-known author who often sets her books in the Mountain State, and thought the issue of the Civil War has grown more timely.

“The Civil War still has such an enormous hold on this country,” she said. “I hope people can pick up a piece of fiction and put their politics aside and enter into feeling what it was like for people at that time.”

Phillips began working on “Night Watch” eight years ago and, as The Associated Press reported, sees it “as the third of a trilogy of novels about war, following the Vietnam-era narrative ‘Machine Dreams’ and the Korean War story ‘Lark & Termite,’ which draws in part on a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press investigation into the No Gun Ri massacre.”

During her recent visit in early April, Phillips was “at home” in the area, talking with guests and praising the local book store and the interest in literature.

As Staff Writer Noah Jeffries reported, “Phillips was happy to be back and reconnect with past friends and loved ones while also hearing about the relationships people have with the areas she writes about in her books.”

“It feels wonderful,” she said. “People are very interested. They really know these places and they have their own relationships with the places I’ve written about. People I haven’t seen for so long have turned up and it’s just miraculous.”

Phillips also praised Argo Books and emphasized the importance of having a place where residents can gather to enjoy literature and have events.

“They’re fantastic, and I’m so glad they’re here,” she said. “It’s wonderful to have a literary bookstore and a gathering place right here in town. It’s a great neighborhood builder.”

Phillips talked about the importance of highlighting West Virginia authors and fighting back against the harmful stereotypes that the Appalachian region sometimes faces.

“When you’re from an area that is the subject of a lot of stereotypes, it’s very important that people who really live here become artists of different kinds because they translate the experience into something that people who have no experience of the place can understand,” Phillips said.