In the late 1980s, I wrote a nifty little novel and signed on with a veteran agent who peddled it all over New York City. I papered the wall of my office with scores of rejection letters, licked my wounds, and went on to other pursuits. But I always wondered why my story went nowhere. Fast forward thirty years. In collaboration with the Perry County Council of the Arts, author Don Helin assembled a stellar faculty of successful,...