Mandi Fugate Sheffel

Mandi Fugate Sheffel was born and raised in Red Fox, KY. She owns and operates Read Spotted Newt, an independent bookstore in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky, and is currently the Sycamore Fund Project Coordinator at The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. She is the board vice chair of the Appalachian Arts Alliance and a Mountain Association board member. Mandi is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University. 

Visit Read Spotted Newt! readspottednewt.com

Read some of Mandi's recent writing: 

Appalachia deserves more than coal or cages. - Lexington Herald Leader

We will rebuild in EKy. Then we must ask why 100-year floods are happening so often.

Interview location: Hazard, KY

Mandi’s Books on the Bed:

The Beatinest Boy by Jesse Stuart

Christy by Catherine Marshall

Clay’s Quilt by Silas House

Trampoline by Robert Gipe

Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith

Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories by Gurney Norman

Matt’s gifts for Mandi:

O Pioneers! By Willa Cather

Outlawed by Anna North