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Kendra D. Winchester

@kdwinchester

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Founder @readappalachia
Cofounder @littlebirdsliterary
Cofounder @thereadingwomen
Contributing Editor @bookriot
@thebookcorgi 🐾

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When I’m not reading Appalachian Lit, I’m reading a little bit of everything! I especially love nonfiction, and it’s (almost) time for Nonfiction November. Here a few books on my TBR.

✨LET THE POETS GOVERN by Camonghne Felix
✨OUR ARAB by Zaina Arafat
✨RAISING HARE by Chloe Dalton
✨SOMEBODY IS WALKING ON MY GRAVE by Mariana Enriquez, Translated by Megan McDowell
✨WE THE PEOPLE by Jill Lepore

[VD: Kendra moves in front of the camera showing off all of the books above, with the last shot showing Kendra holding the whole stack.] by @kdwinchester

😎📚✨

Books Featured
Another Appalachia by Neema Avashia
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Matthews
Our Women on the Ground edited by Zahra Hankir
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Every Drop Is a Man’s Noghtmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Kindred by Octavia Butler
South to America by Imani Perry
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, Translated by Megan McDowell
Severance by Ling Ma

[ID: a photo of Kendra, a white thirty-something with long brunette hair. Text on the screen says, I hate your taste in books. (2) a photo of Kendra in the same pose as the first photo. Text on the screen says, don’t care. The cover of the book covers mentioned above appear around her.] by @kdwinchester

It’s Disability Pride Month! Here are the three books that I’ve read so far:

A Way Home by Cinelle Barnes
Mother Tongue by Sara Nović
All My Dead Cats and Other Losses by s.e. smith

[VD: a video of Kendra, a white thirty-something with long brunette hair, wearing a black tank and colorful earrings. She hold up a copy of each book as she talks about them.] by @kdwinchester

Every other month or so, I talk about three audiobooks over on Behind the Mic podcast, which is part of Kirkus Audiobook Reviews (@kirkusaudiobookreviews). This time around, I’m sharing some of my favorite 2026 short story collections ft.

- Fat Swim by Emma Copley Eisenberg, read by Kristen DiMercurio, MW Cartozian Wilson, Marin Ireland, Lindsey Dorcus, Chrysanthy Balis, Samantha Desz, and Kristen Sieh (Random House Audio)
- My Dear You by Rachel Khong, read by Jialing Pan, Rachel Khong, Jen Zhao, and Annie Q. Riegel (Random House Audio)
- Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar, read by Rachel Elizabeth Smith (Macmillan Audio)

Each audiobook takes a unique strategy in its approach to a short story collection on audio, but I loved them all. (So did Gwen, apparently.)

You can find Behind the Mic wherever you get your podcasts.

[ID: a photo of Fat Swim, My Dear You, and Seasons of Glass and Iron sitting on a chair. (2) a photo of Gwen, a black and white cardigan welsh corgi, and Seasons of Glass and Iron (3) a photo o Gwen and Fat Swim (4) a photo of Gwen and My Dear You (5) a photo of Gwen and all three books together] by @kdwinchester

This summer, I’m determined to tackle the piles of books that have been multiplying (seemingly on their own) in my living room. First thing, I set aside some 2026 releases. Let’s see how many I can tackle this summer.

- On Sundays She Picked Flowers
- On Witness and Respair
- Mad Eden by Morgan Thomas
- The Hour of the Wolf by Fatima Bhutto
- Discipline by Larissa Pham
- Mother Tongue by Sara Nović
- Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd
- Kin by Tayari Jones
- John of John by Douglas Stuart
- Good People by Pateena Sabit
- The Complex by Karan Mahajan

[ID; a graphic featuring Kendra, a white 30-something with brunette hair holding a stack of books. Text reads New Book on My TBR (2) a graphic featuring a stack of books mentioned about with arrows pointing at different books in the stack (3) a graphic of the cover of On Sundays She Picked Flowers. Text Reads Southern Gothic?! Yes, Please. (4) a graphic of the cover of On Witness and Respair. Text Reads #1 auto-buy author (5) a graphic of the cover of Mad Eden by Morgan Thomas. Text reads Disability Pride. (6) a graphic of the cover of The Hour of the Wold. Text reads gem of a writer. (7) a graphic of the cover of Discipline. Text reads because my coworker said so (8) a graphic of the cover of Mother Tongue. Text reads Disability Pride TBR (9) a graphic of the cover of Murder at the Spirit Lounge. Text reads a favorite series. (10) a graphic ofthe cover of Kin. Text reads Because, of Course (11) a graphic of the cover of John of John. Text reads for when I want a good cray. (12) a graphic of the cover of Good People. Text reads judged a book by its cover (13) a graphic of The Complex. Text reads the description sucked me in (14) a photo of the stack of books text reads which book should I read first?] by @kdwinchester

Happy International Corgi Day!! There are few things Corgis love more than frapping about the forest. 🌳 🐾

[ID: a photo of Kendra, a white thirty-something wearing a hat and a t-shirt, holding Gwen, a black and white Cardigan Welsh Corgi (2) a photo of Gwen sitting on a wooden walkway (3) a photo of Dylan, a red and white Pembroke Welsh Corgi on a sandbar (4) a photo of Gwen on a sandbar (6) a photo of the corgi in the creek (7) a photo of Dylan walking in the creek (8) a video of Dylan digging in the sand (9) a photo of Gwen standing in the creek (10) a video of the corgis in the creek (11) a photo of the corgis in the creek] by @kdwinchester

“To our Read or Dead listeners: After 9 years of bringing mysteries and thrillers to your ears, we are sorry to say that this will be our last episode. We want to thank you all for making this show so excellent, and we hope you’ll stick around as we celebrate our favorite Read or Dead memories in today’s episode.”

I joined the team for the last third of Read or Dead’s run, and my cohost Katie McLain Horner welcomed me to the show. We hit it off like only two neurodivergent people can. This show stretched my reading life, making me realize I did in fact like horror novels. In fact, they became some of my favorites.

A huge thank you to Katie for being such a great cohost all of these years. We really did have the best time. And a huge thank you to our listeners. 🤍

[ID: Forever Read or Dead. My favorite books from cohosting the Read or Dead podcast. (2) a graphic of The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (3) Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (4) House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias (5) All the Sinner Bleed by S.A. Cosby (6) Butter by Asako Yuzuki, Translated by Polly Barton (7) Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, Translated by Megan McDowell (8) The Cutting Season by Attica Locke (9) The Lost Man by Jane Harper (10) The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (11) The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (12) Text reads, A Huge Thank you to all of our listeners. We’ve had the best time chatting about all things mysterious, thrilling, and horrifying with you.] by @kdwinchester

another trip around the sun ☀️

[ID: a photo of Kendra as a little girl picking dandelions in a field (2) a photo of Kendra as a little girl about to kiss a fish (3) a photo of Kendra as a little girl rollerskating (4) a Kendra as a girl sitting in a chair and hiding her face behind a book.] by @kdwinchester

To round us out, the last member of our team is @kdwinchester ✨

Kendra Winchester has been working in publishing and book media for 15 years. In 2016, she cofounded @theReadingWomen, a podcast with LitHub Radio, and in 2020, she founded @ReadAppalachia, an initiative that celebrates Appalachian literature and writing. In her off hours, you can find her posting about her Corgis @thebookcorgi . by @kdwinchester

Valentine’s Day Weekend on Paris Mountain

[ID: a photo of Kendra, a white woman wearing a black jacket and black hat, posing in front of a waterfall. [2] a photo of a lake [3] a photo of Kendra with her Corgis Dylan, a red and white Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and Gwen, a black white Cardigan Welsh Corgi [4] a photo of Dylan looking out across the lake [5] a photo of Gwen wading through a creek [6] a video of Dylan and Gwen venturing into a creek [7] a photo of Gwen and Dylan wading into a creek while their dad, Sam, observes them from a rock in the middle of a creek] by @kdwinchester