{"id":85859,"date":"2025-11-30T16:58:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/?p=85859"},"modified":"2025-11-30T16:58:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:58:51","slug":"book-feature-leanders-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-leanders-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Book Feature:<\/strong> <em>Leander\u2019s Lies<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nancy Werking Poling, Author<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-85861\" src=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Book-Feature-1-Leanders-Lies-Fihal-book-cover-110325Screenshot-2025-11-03-front-cover-copy-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"303\" \/>Intrigued by a family story, Black Mountain author Nancy Werking Poling wrote an essay, \u201cLeander\u2019s Lies,\u201d that won North Carolina Literary Review\u2019s 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize. Even after penning the essay, Poling was left with questions and so she researched further, eventually deciding she had enough material for a historical novel.<\/p>\n<p>Set in Western North Carolina in the late 19th century, <em>Leander\u2019s Lies<\/em> tells the story of a poor but ambitious tenant farmer who feels trapped by circumstances that deny him the life of a gentleman of ideas and literature.<\/p>\n<p>The title character mirrors the life of Poling\u2019s husband\u2019s storied ancestor. Her mother-in-law, as long as she lived, believed that her father had been a US Congressman from NC, had hunted with Theodore Roosevelt and was a widower when he married her mother. \u201cOn Ancestry, I discovered that in fact, he had two living wives and five children when he married my husband\u2019s grandmother,\u201d Poling says. \u201cI smelled a compelling story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her research involved a lot of reading and communication with a buggy-building expert and a Church of the Brethren archivist. She was searching, too, for a reason for Leander\u2019s mendacious ways. \u201cWhen the Panic of 1893 shook the country\u2019s economy, many men escaped debt by deserting their families,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s plausible that\u2019s why Leander left his first family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She learned the names of the real-life Leander\u2019s wives and children. \u201cBut facts aren\u2019t the same as Truth,\u201d Poling says. \u201cI began the project outraged that he would leave two wives and five children. But as I became more familiar with the historical period, as I considered what life was like for a man of books and ideas to be stuck in rural North and South Carolina, my heart softened. A little.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leander\u2019s Lies,<em> December, 2025, historical novel, paperback, $19.99, by Nancy Werking Poling, and published by April Gloaming Publishing, Nashville, TN. Learn more at <a href=\"http:\/\/NancyPoling.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NancyPoling.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intrigued by a family story, Black Mountain author Nancy Werking Poling wrote an essay, \u201cLeander\u2019s Lies,\u201d that won North Carolina Literary Review\u2019s 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":85861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Book Feature: Leander\u2019s Lies - The Laurel of Asheville<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Intrigued by a family story, Black Mountain author Nancy Werking Poling wrote an essay, \u201cLeander\u2019s Lies,\u201d that won North Carolina Literary Review\u2019s 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-leanders-lies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Feature: Leander\u2019s Lies - The Laurel of Asheville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Intrigued by a family story, Black Mountain author Nancy Werking Poling wrote an essay, \u201cLeander\u2019s Lies,\u201d that won North Carolina Literary Review\u2019s 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-leanders-lies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Laurel of Asheville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thelaurelofasheville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-30T21:58:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Book-Feature-1-Leanders-Lies-Fihal-book-cover-110325Screenshot-2025-11-03-front-cover-copy-2-e1764539919333.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1040\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"739\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amy Pryor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AshevilleLaurel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AshevilleLaurel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amy Pryor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-leanders-lies\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-leanders-lies\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amy Pryor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13d76582350fe4093b37d2b69174af00\"},\"headline\":\"Book Feature: Leander\u2019s Lies\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-30T21:58:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-leanders-lies\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":337,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-leanders-lies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/Book-Feature-1-Leanders-Lies-Fihal-book-cover-110325Screenshot-2025-11-03-front-cover-copy-2-e1764539919333.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Arts\",\"Literature\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-leanders-lies\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-leanders-lies\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thelaurelofasheville.com\\\/updatestage\\\/arts\\\/book-feature-leanders-lies\\\/\",\"name\":\"Book Feature: Leander\u2019s Lies - 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