In stories like "Mannequins" and "Relocation" Dodd begins on the surface but takes the reader deep down. Appalachian, yes, but there's a wider lens as well. At the same time the sense of place and the stamp of authenticity never disappears: look into "Upstairs" or "Fissures" or "Tunnel," the very first story he wrote, as I recall.
With Dodd, there is no self-conscious attempt to insert cultural landmarks or guideposts in the work, because the work, by being his, is already everything it needs to be. As readers, we arrive at what his stories are naturally, and not as tourists to his tour guide. No, Dodd is a friendly local, someone who understands what his fellow literary travelers really seek: authenticity and a peculiar sensibility that strike a nerve through vivid characterization and telling conflict of a particular place and time.
~Steve Lambert, author of Heat Seekers