Mar 17
By Jeremy Dae Paden
Rebecca Gayle Howell’s first full-length book, Render: An Apocalypse, which won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize for 2012 is beautiful. Read more
By Niki King
I’ve been thinking a lot about social media lately. It’s a residual warm and cozy feeling leftover from the Appalachian Studies Association conference in Indiana, Pa., this March.
Beth Newberry and I hosted a panel about online Appalachia, where we invited several folks whose work we admire to talk about how they’re using the web and social media to extend and enrich conversation, build community and encourage social action in the region. Read more
By Niki King
Here are a few fave rootsy music reads we’ve come across recently, loved well through the years and are looking forward to in the near future. Read more
By Niki King
We here at The HillVille can’t get enough of Emily Satterwhite’s thought-provoking book Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878, in which she examines how readers receive best-selling Appalachian fiction. We recently caught up with Satterwhite for a quick, follow-up conversation about the new release. Read our review of the book here.
This week we explore not only mass media portrayal of Appalachians, but the ways Apps respond to stereotyping. Contributor Abby Malik reports on how six writers dismantle stereotypes and misconceptions through their creative work and public art.
By Beth Newberry
We’ve collected a short list of a few blogs we read to keep us in touch with our rural roots. These blogs are kin to The HillVille in the shared purpose of uplifting folklore, current events, culture, news, politics, connecting rural and urban areas and exploring that unshakable yearning for back home.
Marianne Worthington is co-founder and poetry editor of Still: The Journal, an online literary journal publishing contemporary literature of Central Appalachia and the Mountain South. She grew up in Knoxville, Tn., and now lives, teaches, and writes in Williamsburg, Ky.
By Jason Howard
This is the third installment of our tribute to the life and work of community activist and outspoken mountain mama, Judy Bonds, who passed away a year ago this week. Here, friend and brother in the fight to end the Mountaintop Removal form of strip mining, Jason Howard, shares his memories and his thoughts on Judy’s legacy.
by Beth Newberry
Judy Bonds of Whitesville, W.Va., was an activist and community organizer, who in the latter part of her 58 years, tried to end the Mountaintop Removal (MTR) method of strip mining, particularly in the Coal River valley of southern West Virginia. While her work and life were centered on the mountains surrounding her ancestral home of Marfork Holler, her organizing work had national and international tendrils. She died a year ago of cancer on Jan. 3, 2011.
by Beth Newberry
Crystal Good’s poetry readings aren’t for a lazy listener. They are a patchwork of history lessons, current-events coverage and literary word play all sewn-up with an electric and provocative performance. If you’re asleep, she’ll wake you up. If you’re sitting down, she’ll get you on your feet. If you are already standing, she’ll get your hand in the air while you’re yelling, “Amen.”
The HillVille 