Appalachian writing, like its region, is shaped by contradictions: deep ties to land with a history of environmental exploitation; industrial triumph and ruin; resilience and resourcefulness born out of struggle and need, and a tradition of independence but also fierce solidarity. The following fiction and nonfiction titles feature new voices in Rust Belt literature that aim to disrupt a homogenous, stereotypical view of an often-misrepresented culture.
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In her memoir, Neema Avashia opens up the idea of what it is to be Appalachian and to be Indian American.
This title is also available for checkout in eAudio on Libby and in eAudio on Hoopla.
Local Ohio Valley reporters share stories from communities involved in the coal industry, ranging from the financial and environmental devastation of the failing industry and the resiliency and innovation of the towns left behind.
A coming-of-age novel that tells the story of Betty, the eighth child of a white mother and Cherokee father, as she struggles to transcend the poverty and violence of her 1950s Appalachian community.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby, as an eBook in Spanish on Hoopla, and in eAudio on Libby.
When a girl goes missing in her secluded Appalachian town, seventeen-year-old Linden, who can taste other people’s emotions, recovers haunting memories of her own disappearance and explores the legend of the Moth-Winged Man, leading her to wonder if there are some secrets best left buried.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.
This anthology celebrates 25 years of “Affrilachian” poetry, a term coined by poet Frank X Walker to represent artists of African descent who work against long held stereotypes of Appalachia as a racially and culturally homogenized region.
This title is available for checkout as an eBook on Libby.
An Appalachian-set collection of poetry explores mental illness and the relationship between humans and nature with humor and lightness.
These interconnected stories, set across 100 years in the Appalachian Georgia town of Muscadine, follow the Black women of the town as they experience hardships and triumphs.
In her third full-length collection, Dirt Songs, Kari Gunter-Seymour’s poems are full-throated, raw, deceptively simple, and rippling with candor, providing readers an insider’s lens into the larger questions surrounding the many aspects of Appalachian culture, including identity, the impact of poverty, generational afflictions, and the brunt of mainstream America’s skewed regard for the region.
A tragicomic collection of modern Appalachian stories that explore the relationship between the characters and their post-industrial environment.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby, as an eBook on Hoopla, in eAudio on Libby, and in eAudio on Hoopla.
West Virginia state folklorist Emily Hilliard argues for a broader, more contemporary, and more flexible view of Appalachian cultural traditions using examples like hot dogs, the 2018 Teacher’s Strike, pro-wrestling, and Fallout 76.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla.
As the keeper of her family’s stories and treasured dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in this Part memoir, part cookbook. “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century. This title is also available as an eBook on Libby.
A historical drama based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, pitting a multi-ethnic army of 10,000 coal miners against mine owners, state militia, and the United States government in the largest labor uprising in American history
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby.
Using Western Pennsylvania as a case study, this book explores the breakdown of labor’s political power and how the weakening of unions in the fabric of working-class American life has made way for conservative institutions to take their place.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and an eBook on Hoopla.
When Helen is abandoned by her boyfriend after moving to Appalachian Ohio with the intention of homesteading, she finds support in collective living with neighbors Rudy and couple Karen and Lily. However, threats from the outside world might cause their makeshift family to unravel.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Hoopla.
Leah is called back to her estranged Appalachian hometown when her stepmother Jean passes away and leaves behind her collection of industrial sculptures. Leah reckons with the world she left behind in all its beauty and flaws.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.
Leslie Bruin is assigned to the backwoods township of Spar Creek by the Frontier Nursing Service to vaccinate the flock, birth babies, and weather judgements of churchy locals who look at him and see a failed woman. Forged in the fires of the Western Front and reborn in the cafes of Paris, Leslie believes he can handle whatever is thrown at him–but Spar Creek holds a darkness beyond his nightmares.