Christopher Scotton

Christopher grew up outside of Washington, D.C., in what was then undeveloped countryside — a place of cornfields and tree houses, dammed-up creeks and secret swimming holes. It was a magical place to be a kid, something that Christopher recaptured in his debut novel, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth, which is set in a fictionalized eastern Kentucky town.

As a teenager, developers bought up most of the land and the idyllic bounds of Christopher’s childhood became one big construction site — creeks were backfilled and swimming holes ran to mud. By the time he went to college, the countryside of his youth was solidly suburban.

It was in college that Christopher first fell in love with Appalachia. Initially for the music — the spinning lilt of a fiddle reel, the compact fury of a mandolin run, the plaintive harmonies — then, for the beauty, as he came to know the region with little more than a backpack and a camp stove.

Christopher currently lives near Washington, D.C., where he is president and CEO of a software company.