The Gold Piano tells the story of Emerson Wainwright, a young man whose idyllic life in a small North Carolina town is turned upside down after his father is caught on videotape in a homosexual act at the county hospital. To escape from his hometown and its painful memories, Emerson enrolls at an under-funded historically black college a hundred miles away, attending on a minority grant. As the only white student living on campus, he struggles with his loneliness and his role as an outsider.

STEPHEN MARCH lived in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, until his recent death. An accomplished musician and songwriter, he authored a number of books of fiction, among them the novel Hatteras Moon (2013) and a collection of stories, Tell Him You Saw Me. Armadillo won the TRP Clay Reynolds Novella Prize in 2002.