God’s Rascal examines the life of fundamentalist J. Frank Norris
“If fundamentalism had not existed,” Barry Hankins tells us, J. Frank Norris “would have invented it.” In God’s Rascal, Hankins offers a portrait of a talented, abusive man whose fiery rhetoric shaped a major U.S. religious movement.
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James Dickey in the classroom
In those days I wanted to become a novelist, but Mr. Dickey, author of a bestselling novel and wildly successful screenplay, taught only poetry, which he called in one of his book titles “the central motion.” So poetry it was.
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An interview with Museum of Appalachia founder John Rice Irwin
When he died in January 2022, historian John Rice Irwin was described as the “guardian of Appalachia’s past.” In a 2008 interview, he talked with poet Jesse Graves about his family and his life’s work.
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Neema Avashia explores community and identity in the South and beyond
In Another Appalachia, Neema Avashia explores what it is like to grow up both gay and the daughter of immigrants, making sense of life as both insider and outsider.
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Book Excerpt: Either Way, You’re Done
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Stephanie McCarley Dugger’s first full-length poetry collection, Either Way, You’re Done, was published by Sundress Publications in 2017.
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Ginseng Diggers traces the history of Appalachia’s root and herb trade
In the 19th century, large numbers of Appalachians supported themselves by harvesting herbs, roots, and other botanicals that grew wild in the mountain woodlands. These “sang diggers,” as they were colloquially known, and the story of their importance in the medicinal botanical trade are the focus of Luke Manget’s Ginseng Diggers.
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