Synopses & Reviews
"Buy this book, it's a barn burner!"Dorothy Allison
In an extraordinarily diverse anthology of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and graphic narratives by contemporary Appalachian writers, Red Holler takes us over and beyond the stock imagery of rural mountain communities. We travel into housing projects, forest-stripped ravines, and trailer parks, to explore vibrant hometown and migrant Appalachian cultures. Editors John E. Branscum and Wayne Thomas have assembled a collection spanning ten years and communities in locales ranging from Mississippi to New York, placing fresh new voices alongside widely known and celebrated authors. Drawing on Appalachian literatures roots in Native American myth, African American urban legend, and European folk culture, and embracing Appalachian urban fiction, the Southern Gothic, gritty no-holds-barred realism, and magical realism, the stories and poems of Red Holler elegantly cohere to perfectly depict what makes Appalachia so fascinating: its irreverent and outlaw challenges to mainstream notions of propriety and convention.
Review
"The best surprise of the collection is Pinkney Benedicts graphic narrative, 'ORGO vs the FLATLANDERS,' which lovingly mocks the genres overwrought mythologies while 'work[ing] out on paper that boyhood understanding of the true nature of the world,' which his farmer father broke in two: 'mountain people and flatlanders.' .... Teachers and enthusiasts of Appalachian literature will appreciate the breadth of work, including artist statements and bios."
--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
This anthology of contemporary Appalachian literature travels through housing projects, forest-stripped ravines, and trailer high-rises, exploring Appalachia's vibrant migrant tradition.
About the Author
John E. Branscum grew up in the small-town trailer parks and inner-city housing projects of Kentucky, Arkansas, and California. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs pedagogy committee, and text editor for
Black and Grey Magazine. He is the recipient of the national Ursula K. Le Guin Award for Imaginative Fiction, several Academy of American Poets awards, and has made appearances in
Best American Non-required Reading, and
Best American Horror.
Wayne Thomas is the author of plays, fiction, and essays. He teaches creative writing at Tusculum College, a small school located in the northeast Tennessee mountains. He is editor of The Tusculum Review.