AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--APRIL 2025--APPALACHIAN AUTHORS

I love so-called “regional writers”, although I’m pretty sure none of them appreciate that label. Sometimes, defining what comprises a particular region is a dicey proposition. Take “Appalachian”, for example...one of my very favorite regions to read about. Where IS it, though, exactly? Depends on who you ask. The Appalachian Trail runs from Georgia to Maine, passing through 14 states, and there is even an international extension on into Canada. As a geographical region, Appalachia traditionally includes the Great Smoky Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains, much of northern Georgia, Alabama, and Missisippi, and all of West Virginia. Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe both advocated naming the whole country Appalachia, but westward expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountain Range meant that idea never caught hold. The Appalachian Regional Commission, created in 1965 to help alleviate poverty has defined the region based on economic need, not geography or culture. As a literary genre, Appalachian writing is no less problematic to pin down. Many books written by authors who were not part of the culture are viewed as critical or dismissive of it...hence derogatory terms like “hillbilly”. But the region and its culture, however we define it, is rich with contributions from Cherokee legend, Scots-Irish folk tales and music, ghost stories, tall tales, and folk heroes like John Henry and Johnny Appleseed. We’ve had some discussion of what constitutes Appalachian literature, and which authors qualify for this challenge,,on various threads, including The AAC planning thread. (Really, I think it’s been mostly Carrie and me!). For our purposes, as usual, I default in favor of inclusion. If an author feels Appalachian to you, read their work this month.

Some links on the subject, with book suggestions embedded:

https://electricliterature.com/7-books-that-show-a-different-side-of-appalachia/
https://bookriot.com/books-about-appalachia/
Special thanks to Carrie for this one: https://uacvoice.org/2021/10/exploring-the-notion-of-appalachian-identity-by-mik...
Some author suggestions:
James Agee
Harriette Simpson Arnow Read The Dollmaker, please!
Wiley Cash
Philip DePoy (The Fever Devilin series)
James Dickey
Charles Frazier
Earl Hamner, Jr.
Janice Holt Giles
Homer Hickam
bell hooks
Silas House
Barbara Kingsolver
Margaret Maron
Cormac McCarthy
Sharon McCrumb
Ron Rash
Kim Michele Richardson
Adriana Trigiani
Abraham Verghese (My Own Country)

The above list includes names I’ve read myself, and a couple who have been recommended to me. In some cases, you might need to pick and choose among their works, as not everything they all wrote fits the category, even when we stretch it wide. Arguments can be made for many more, including my man William Faulkner (I don’t include him myself, but if it gets more people to approach him kindly, I’ll climb aboard), August Wilson, Wendell Berry, Castle Freeman, Jr. . If you have a favorite Appalachian author, let’s hear about them!

>1 laytonwoman3rd: I will be reading Harriette Simpson Arnow's Mountain Path for this challenge. Sorry, Linda, but I had already purchased this one before I saw your note :(

>2 alcottacre: I haven't read that one myself, Stasia. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of it. I read The Dollmaker nearly 50 years ago, and it is one of those books that hit me hard and has never left me.

After reading Boardinghouse Women for a book group earlier this year, I'm now planning to read Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. His mother was one of the women profiled in Boardinghouse Women and it made me want to read Wolfe's novel, which I believe is considered autobiographical.

I would also add Wilma Dykeman, Jesse Stuart, and Nikki Giovanni as regional authors. And Catherine Marshall's Christy is one of my favorite books. It's considered Christian historical fiction, but it's not what I would call "preachy".

I believe Lee Smith would also qualify. I read several of her books in my teens and may re-visit one this month.

I've started reading The Coal Tattoo, by Silas House. It's the middle work (chronologically) in his Appalachian trilogy, but it was the last of the three written and published. House did things inside out, starting with Clay's Quilt set in the late 20th century, then A Parchment of Leaves which takes place during WWI, and ending with The Coal Tattoo set in the 1960's. I've read the other two, in publication order. I think I may have to begin again, at the beginning, to get the full picture after finishing this one.

Suggestions:
IF THE CREEK DON’T RISE
Bks by Sarah Addison Allen
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK
THE BOOK WOMAN’S DAUGHTER
THE GIVER OF STARS
FAIR AND TENDER LADIES
NIGHT WATCH, J Phillips
PRODIGAL SUMMER

Based merely on geography I was thinking about John Knowles and his A Separate Peace.

Knowles was born in West Virginia which is unmistakably Appalachian.

I've just inhaled a little photography collection entitled The Appalachian Trail: Hiking the People's Path. Highly recommended for when you need to experience the solace of natural beauty, and just can't get out there. I came across it on the "New Non-Fiction" shelf at my library, but I'd like to have my own copy. No text, other than a brief Foreword. Just 200 stunning color plates taken all along the AT from Georgia to Maine.

I loved reading Sharyn McCrumb's "ballad novels", of which The Songcatcher was one of the best. And I love what she had to say about that book on her website. It just wraps up the appeal of Appalachian fiction for me, as its theme is so often this: "Each of us is the link between the past and the future, and it is up to us to pass along the legends, the stories, the songs, and the traditions of our own families." I regret getting rid of my copy of The Songcatcher a few years ago, in one of my period purges. So naturally, I've done what any one of us might do---I've ordered another copy, direct from the author's website.

I read most of a collection of pieces under the title of Appalachia in the Sixties: Decade of Reawakening. Despite being written in the late 1960s, some of these pieces are disturbingly pertinent to the current times. The entire thing is accessible here https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232571737.pdf, should anyone wish to sample.

Tonight I finished Mountain Path by Harriette Simpson Arnow and really liked it. I gave it 4.25 stars and am hopeful of reading more of Arnow's work in the future.

I read THE JACKAL’S MISTRESS by Chris Bohjalian, set in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia; Civil War era.

Several books I considered, all on my shelves:

Born Fighting by James Webb. Scots-Irish culture clashes, set to roiling and boiling in the home countries, then drained into the colonies of America, where many many settled in the Appalachian regions. This would be a re-read for me.
My Land Is Dying by Harry Caudill. An old book (published in 1971) by a Whitesburg Kentucky attorney is a plea for reform of coal mining in his hme region. Also a re-read.
Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands by Allen Eaton. First published in 1937 by the Russell Sage Foundation, republished by Dover in 1973, which is when I acquired my copy. NOT a re-read.
Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery. This is the story of Emma Gatewood's walk along the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine. Having birthed and raised 11 children and many grandchildren, having divorced her abusive husband, she tried something new. It was 1955 and she was 67. She flew from Ohio to Atlanta, hired a cab to transport her to into the mountains, then started to walk. Having reached the end of the trail, she repeated the walk. Several times. And then she walked the Pacific Coast Trail.

   

I'm sure there's a copy of Born Fighting here somewhere...I'd forgotten about that one.

The Weatherford Award is given by Berea College to outstanding Appalachian fiction, non-fiction, and poetry books each year. I've tried to keep that award page up-to-date, but there are still a few titles that are not on LT.

One of my favorites was Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina, a fictionalized history leading to the Battle of Blair Mountain. Interestingly, 2024's Weatherford fiction winner also covers the same topic; I may try to squeeze that one into my TBR pile.

I recommend anything by Terry Roberts - mostly they are mysteries set in and around Asheville.

Actually I should not have said that Mr. Roberts writes mostly mysteries. His books run the gamut, but all are very Appalachian-flavored.

>16 legallypuzzled: Oh, thank you for that. I wasn't aware of that award, although I have several of the titles.

>17 RonGriswold: And thank you for mentioning Roberts. I'm not familiar with his mysteries, but I think I will seek him out.

I’m reading ORAL HISTORY
by Lee Smith

>20 nrmay: - Fun coincidence! I am too.

>21 katiekrug:
I loved FAIR AND TENDER LADIES by L Smith when l read it decades ago.
My sister says ORAL HISTORY is her favorite by Smith. It’s been on my shelf for years so l thought the time had come to read it. 🙂

>22 nrmay: - This is a re-read for me, but I first read OH when I was in my teens, along with Fair and Tender Ladies, Black Mountain Breakdown, and Cakewalk. I remember very little about any of them (unsurprisingly)!

I haven't read Lee Smith, so I'm glad to see the love here. Interestingly, when I look at Oral History, LT recommends it for me based on the Clyde Edgerton novels in my catalog. Which led me to realize that I have an unread Edgerton here. Haven't read him in years, but I remember he made me laugh and recognize characters so much like people I have known personally---guess I'll haul out my copy of Where Trouble Sleeps and wedge it in before the end of the month.

Late last month, early this month.....The thread for Pulitzer Prize Winners in the History Category is up.

>25 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks so much!

Karen O

I finished Another Appalachia the other day, which is a collection of personal essays making up a kind of memoir by Neema Avashia, a queer woman born to Indian immigrants in West Virginia. While not every essay is directly about her Appalachian roots, each one is certainly informed by them, and the essays that are more about her time in West Virginia offer a fascinating view of the region from "another" sort of voice than we may be used to or expect. Recommended.

I am not going to finish Look Homeward, Angel today. I hope I'll finish it soon. My reading time has taken a hit in the last few weeks thanks to a new puppy, which I think is a pretty valid excuse! Wally likes books, too. He prefers hardcover because they're better for chewing.

>28 cbl_tn: "He prefers hardcover because they're better for chewing." Uh oh, Wally....you don't want to lose your happy home!

I did finish Where Trouble Sleeps and was trying to fit in one more short novel, I Am One of You Forever, by Fred Chappell, but a few days of glorious spring weather meant I spent what might have been reading hours outside doing cemeteries to photograph graves for FindAGrave.com, and then loading those photos to the site. So I'll be winding up my Appalachian reading in May as well.

>29 laytonwoman3rd: Thank you for taking the time to upload photographs for FindAGrave! I use that site regularly, and I am very appreciative of all the volunteer hours that go into it!

>30 cbl_tn: I'm glad to know another F-A-G user, Carrie. A couple other LT'ers I know of are familiar with it as well. I started taking photos years ago, after the site was extremely useful to me in my own research. I really enjoy doing it, and there are a lot of smallish burial grounds in this area that haven't been fully (or at all) photographed. I have done two of them almost entirely by myself.