Very few works of historical fiction have been set in the tumultuous world of the West Virginia Mine Wars since the release of Denise Giardina’s monumental novel Storming Heaven in 1987. That changed in late 2021 with first-time novelist W. Jeff Barnes and his book Mingo which follows two brothers, separated by the 1912 Paint Creek Strike, who find each other on opposite sides of the Battle of Blair Mountain. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph has praised Mingo as “a timeless trip through homespun heroism, heartbreak and resolution.”rrBorn in Tazewell, Virginia, near the border with West Virginia, Barnes developed a fascination with the Battle of Matewan as a young man, long before he moved to Richmond to practice law. In this Little Lecture, he’ll discuss the importance of his coal mining family roots, putting himself into hundred-year-old shoes, and using fiction as a tool for exploring ideological conflict.