Fate, Family, and Bluegrass: An Interview with Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne

by Jessica A. Kent
July 12, 2021

Bluegrass has its own distinct composition. Bluegrass bands may sound tight and polished, but the music is filled with complication: off beat rhythms, improvisation, intricate harmonies, and variations. The two main characters of the novel Holding on to Nothing (2019, Blair) are doing the same: improvising with what they’ve got, attempting to harmonize, and trying to find the rhythm of lives suddenly thrown a variety of complications.

Holding on to Nothing is the story of Lucy and Jeptha, two East Tennesseans whose lives become bound to one another after a drunken backseat fling results in a pregnancy. Bound for a better life in Knoxville, Lucy now needs to figure out if she'll stay on that path with a kid in tow, or if she'll stay in town and let Jeptha — a Taylor, one of the no-good, do-nothing Taylors — be part of her future. Mandolin-playing, hard-drinking Jeptha, who has been in love with Lucy all of his life, now has a choice: Sober up and shape up to take care of his new family, or give into his destiny of being a member of a family that manages to screw everything up.

It's a novel full of music, well-rounded characters, and a plot that asks if someone can change their fate, or if they are chained to circumstance and family reputation?

I sat down with debut author Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne to ask that question, and to find out how the novel originated, how it changed shape in the revision process, and how — like in most things — Dolly Parton played a role.

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