Vivian Wagner teaches journalism at the Muskingum University in Ohio, where she also directs the school’s interdisciplinary journalism program. She is also a widely published freelance writer, whose work has appeared in a variety of journals, Bluegrass Unlimited among them.
In April, Fiddle, her first full-length book was published, a personal reflection prompted by her new-found passion for fiddle music. Vivian tells us that she started the book to document her pursuit of the devil’s box, which turned into something more as the pilgrimage unfolded.
“I was trained in classical violin as a child, but fiddle was new to me. As I began the journey, traveling around, meeting fiddlers, learning about fiddling, I also began to go through a divorce, and fiddling became a way of improvising a new life for myself and my children beyond that difficult period. So the book is an account of that journey and the things that fiddling had to teach me along the way.”
Fiddle: One Woman, Four Strings, and 8,000 Miles of Music is available through Kensington Publishing Corp, as well as most popular online booksellers.
