Mandi Fugate Sheffel presents THE NATURE OF PAIN in conversation with Pam Duncan
Schedule
Sat, 25 Oct, 2025 at 03:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
3 East Jackson Street, Sylva, NC, United States, North Carolina 28779 | Sylva, NC
Mandi Fugate Sheffel will visit City Lights on Saturday, October 25th at 3:00pm to share her memoir, THE NATURE OF PAIN: Roots, Recovery, and Redemption amid the Opioid Crisis, in conversation with Pam Duncan. "One by one, the mourners came to me. I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to discuss what might have happened. I didn't want to be here. The lump in my throat was suffocating. I'm not meant to grieve like this... I wanted to go somewhere without all these eyes. Pain is easier to digest in solitude."
Mandi Fugate Sheffel was born in the heart of rural small-town America, in a place where "wild teaberry grows," with creeks "as clear and cold as nature would allow." As a curious, sensitive child raised in a challenging environment, she formed a deep bond with her cousin Eric. As the pair grew up together, they sought a sense of belonging, and drugs and alcohol provided a temporary escape from the harsh realities of their lives. Everything shifted when Purdue Pharma launched aggressive marketing campaigns for Oxyc**tin in central Appalachia.
In The Nature of Pain, Sheffel recounts coming of age during the opioid epidemic of the late 1990s and early 2000s. She illuminates the importance of kinship and connection to place while exposing the bitter truths of a community transformed by opioids. With candid, lyrical prose, Sheffel reveals what life is really like for people in active addiction and recovery. Her lived experience as an eastern Kentuckian affected by the opioid crisis is an underrepresented story that must be heard. Sheffel's memoir is an aching tale of empathy for modern mountain folks—of love and grief, of family and place, and of the addictions that continue to pain them.
Mandi Fugate Sheffel was born and raised in Redfox, Kentucky. She is the owner of the Read Spotted Newt, an independent bookstore in Hazard, Kentucky, and has been involved with the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky and the Appalachian Arts Alliance, among other organizations. Her personal essays and opinion pieces can be found in Still: The Journal, Appalachian Journal, The Lexington Herald-Leader, and The Courier Journal.
Pamela Duncan lives in Sylva, NC and taught creative writing at Western Carolina University. She holds a BA in Journalism from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA in English/Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. She is the author of three novels: Moon Women, a Southeast Booksellers Association Award Finalist; Plant Life, winner of the 2003 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction; and The Big Beautiful. In 2007, she received the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. In 2017, the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival at Lincoln Memorial University honored her with the Lee Smith Award, which recognizes an individual who has worked to preserve and promote Appalachian culture. Duncan has appeared on North Carolina Bookwatch on public television and on The State of Things on NPR. She is currently at work on The Wilder Place, a novel set in western North Carolina, and a collection of short fiction titled On the Inside Looking Out. Visit her website at www.pameladuncan.com.
