Not many folks remember Billy C. Clark, an Appalachian writer who churned out eight popular books during the 1950s and 60s. His autobiography A Long Row to Hoe was named to…
Short Story: The Used-to-Be-Dog
A Visual Love Letter to Appalachia
Roger May photographs the mountains with the longing of a lost son. He left them when he was just fourteen years old. His family relocated to Raleigh. He did a…
Give a Crapalachia
You know what Appalachian literature needs? It needs more experimental prose, the kind that makes you cringe like you just saw blood gush. It needs more emotionally explosive writers who…
Win New Kingsolver Novel
I was tickled pink when an advance copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel Flight Behavior showed on my doorstep. You might have read the post I wrote after skimming the first…
New Heirlooms for Your Family
None of us are old enough to remember when handmade goods were the only goods. I’m talking life before Amazon, before Walmart, even before Sears. You have to go way…
Homegrown Appalachian T’s
I just learned that a member of The Revivalist’s Facebook community is making great Appalachian t-shirts. Kathy Anderson, a West Virginian native who now lives within spitting distance of the Georgia…
A Boy’s Mountain Story
As I explained a few week’s back, Jim the Boy was presented to me by The Great Book Pile along with another book–Child of the Mountains. I am convinced that these two…
Arborvitae: A Poem
It’s Labor Day, and we’ve scattered to the winds. Some of you might be at the beach, others at the lake. I’m in Savannah, marveling over Spanish moss and architecture….
Made in the Shades
Summer may be waning, but the sunglass season is hardly over. Around Labor Day, lakes and streams will bounce sunbeams into your eyes; you’ll drive toward beautiful but blinding sunsets…
Big Easy Express
Remember Old Crow Medicine Show’s “tour of dreams?” This is their ride in vintage train cars from San Francisco to New Orleans. With two other alt-folkish bands–Mumford & Sons and…