Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia

by Sandra L. Ballard (Editor), Patricia L. Hudson (Editor)

Overview

Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia is a landmark anthology that brings together the work of 105 Appalachian women writers, including Dorothy Allison, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Annie Dillard, Nikki Giovanni, Denise Giardina, Barbara Kingsolver, Jayne Anne Phillips, Janice Holt Giles, George Ella Lyon, Sharyn McCrumb, and Lee Smith. Editors Sandra L. Ballard and Patricia L. Hudson offer a diverse sampling of time periods and genres, established authors and emerging voices. From regional favorites to national bestsellers, this unprecedented gathering of Appalachian voices displays the remarkable talent of the region's women writers who've made their mark at home and across the globe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813143583
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	712
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Patricia L. Hudson is a freelance writer and former contributing editor for Americana magazine. She is also the author of Inns of the Southern Mountains, coeditor of Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia, and coauthor of The Carolinas and the Appalachian States, a volume in the Smithsonian Guide to Historic America series. To learn more about the research and writing of Traces, go to Patricia-Hudson.com.

Table of Contents

	Chronology of Works	xix
	Acknowledgements	xxix
	About the Editors	xxxi
	Introduction	1
6
	The Easter Frock, from Come Go Home With Me	8
10
	from Bastard Out of Carolina	12
17
	from Five Minutes in Heaven	19
22
	Ontological	24
	Long Story	25
	Sonnet for Her Labor	27
	A Place with Promise	28
30
	from This Day and Time	32
36
	from Hunter's Horn	38
	from Seedtime on the Cumberland	40
	The First Ride	42
47
	Neighbors	49
	When Grandmother Wept	49
	Cicada's Song	50
	Someday in a Wood	51
	The Stair	51
52
	Women Die Like Trees	54
	When Earth Becomes an "It"	54
	Anorexia Bulimia Speaks from the Grave	55
	A Time to Reweave, from Selu	56
	A Time to Study Law, from Selu	57
	Out of Ashes Peace Will Rise	61
62
	Belinda, Our Tremendous Gift	64
69
	from Behind the Blue Ridge	71
72
	from Sara Will	74
77
	from Dorie: Woman of the Mountains	79
81
	Wildwood Flower	83
	Bittersweet	84
	Lineage	84
	Easter	86
	Mountain Time	87
89
	from Sing for Freedom	91
95
	40, from Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet	97
	49, from Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet	98
	from Maybe, The Last of the 'Waltz Across Texas' and Other Stories	99
	from Daytrips	102
106
	from My Appalachia	108
112
	Second Christmas	114
	Spending the Night	114
	Discipline	115
	The Glad Gardener	116
117
	from Wilder	119
123
	The Boy	124
	Hospitality	125
	The Widow Man	125
	Kivers	126
128
	In Envy of Migration	130
	Maps	131
	About the Pelvis	133
	Tick	134
136
	The Hillbilly Vampire	138
	The Vampire Ethnographer	139
	No Minority	140
141
	Homer-Snake, from Sweet Hollow	143
	Sister	150
	Sports Widow	151
152
	from Call Home the Heart	154
156
	Country	158
	For Dr. Josefina Garcia & the "Tissue Committee"	159
	Zora neale	161
162
	from Life in the Iron Mills	164
168
	Giving the Sun	170
	The Hole	170
	Twins	171
	Poetics South	172
	In a Time of Drought	173
	Broadside	173
174
	from Praise House	176
179
	from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek	181
183
	This is what history is	185
	A woman is segmented as an ant	185
	Every open space fills with sky	186
188
	Appalachia	190
	Elegy For Jody	191
192
	from Fiddling His Way to Fame, The Heart of Old Hickory	194
197
	from Return the Innocent Earth	199
	from The French Broad	204
208
	from The Durket Sperret	210
213
	from More than Moonshine	215
	Granny Brock	217
	Mountains Fill Up the Night	218
	Appalachia, Where are your Hills?	219
220
	from Queen Ida's Hair-Doing House of Waves, Heartwood	222
	Irons At Her Feet	225
227
	from Sight to the Blind	229
231
	from Storming Heaven	234
	from The Unquiet Earth	236
240
	from Hannah Fowler	242
245
	Griots, from Racism 101	247
	Knoxville, Tennessee	249
	Revolutionary Dreams	250
	A Poem Off Center	250
252
	from A Southern Family	254
257
	from The War at Home	259
262
	from M.C. Higgins the Great	264
267
	Writing Lessons (I.)	269
	She	270
	Writing Lessons (II.)	271
	To her mother, lying in state	272
274
	from A Circuit Rider's Wife	276
277
	from The Hawk's Done Gone	279
282
	from Past Titan Rock	284
287
	Ms. Ida Mae, from Tough Customers and Other Stories	289
292
	from My Great-Aunt Arizona	294
298
	Momma's Letter	299
	The Last Unmined Vein	300
303
	from The Long Roll	305
307
	from The Autobiography of Mother Jones	309
311
	Life and Art in East Tennessee	312
	Hooked Album Quilt, 1870	313
315
	Weather Rhymes	317
319
	from Weeds	321
323
	from No Place Like Home	325
	The Familiar Level	327
	Refusing a Spinal	328
330
	from The Bean Trees	332
	from Prodigal Summer	336
338
	from Extended Learning, Farlanburg Stories	340
346
	from Some Days There's Pie	348
353
	from Coon Creek Girl	355
358
	from To Make My Bread	360
364
	from With A Hammer for My Heart	366
	Where I'm From	370
	Rings	371
	Salvation	372
	Growing Light	373
374
	Mulberries	376
	To My Daughter Going Off to College	377
	Welcome to the Other Side	379
	Good Luck Charm	380
381
	from Christy	383
386
	The Gifts of the Spirit	388
391
	Rain	392
	Saved	393
	Ascension	394
396
	from The McCoys	397
400
	from The Songcatcher	402
407
	from Up the Hill toward Home	409
413
	from Mother of the Disappeared: An Appalachian Birth Mother's Journey	415
419
	Many Waters	421
	For My Grandmother Who Knows How	423
	The Hollow	424
	Mother Milking	425
	Music	426
428
	Twilight in West Virginia: Six O'Clock Mine Report	430
	Deep Mining	431
	Sunday Morning, 1950	432
	The Only Portrait of Emily Dickinson	433
	Visiting My Gravesite: Talbott Churchyard, West Virginia	434
435
	The Other Woman	437
	Aubade to Fear (Heavy with Child)	437
	Hill Daughter	438
	Arrow Grasses by Greenbrier River	439
	from The Milkweed Ladies	440
442
	Lanterns and Lamps	443
	First Plowing in the Hills	444
445
	from The Spirit of the Mountains	447
449
	from The Edge of the Woods	451
	Seventh Grades	453
	Breadstuff	454
455
	All Those Nights	456
	Under The Earth	457
	The Way Back	458
459
	Story is a Woman	461
	Solidarity in the Night	462
	Ahlawe Usv' Tsigesvgi	463
	Rumors, from Red Woman With Backward Eyes	464
468
	from In the Tennessee Mountains	470
472
	Briers, from Brier Country: Stories from the Blue Valley	474
478
	from Machine Dreams	480
	from Motherkind	484
487
	Nativity	489
	Echocardiogram	490
	The Calling	492
494
	In the Kitchen We String Beans	496
	Clarissa and the Second Coming	497
	When You Lose a Child	498
	Snake Dreams	500
501
	July 18, 1966	503
	Woman Writer	504
	I Used To Be A Teacup	505
	Discovered	506
	How Do You Remember Him?	507
508
	from Singing Family of the Cumberlands	510
513
	from The Time of Man	515
517
	from Sketches of History, Life, and Manners, in the United States	519
521
	from Missing May	523
526
	Pink	528
	Mornings, Sheba Combs Her Hair	529
	Liza's Monday	530
	The Morning of the Red-Tailed Hawk	531
	All On A Summer's Afternoon	532
	Legacy For Rachel	533
534
	from Addie	536
	from The Killing Ground	539
543
	Why I Write	545
	Fat Sestina	546
	Spellcheck	548
549
	from Cabins in the Laurel	551
554
	Appalachian Winter	556
560
	from Our Mountain	562
565
	Homecoming	567
	Kathy	567
	My Father. His Rabbits	568
	Backwoods Haiku	569
570
	from What My Heart Wants to Tell	572
574
	Bad News	576
	And This Is The Way To Be Poor	577
	The Language of Poetry	578
579
	Memories of Home	581
583
	from Saving Grace	585
591
	Cycles from Transparencies	593
	Where Stuarts Lie	594
	Roots	594
	Composition	595
596
	from Big Stone Gap	598
602
	Economy	603
	New Poor	603
	A Dry Spring	604
	Our Bodies Remember	605
	Force	607
608
	from Shadow of the Mountain	610
613
	My Boy Elroy, from In the Mountains of America	615
624
	from The Raising, From the Bottom Up	625
628
	from The Morning Cool	630
	More Women Writing in Appalachia	635
	A Selected Bibliography	647
	Index of Titles and Authors	653
	Permissions	663

Editorial Reviews

A comprehensive and unsurpassed anthology of women writers from Appalachia.... Exceptional in diversity and scope.

Southern Historian

A successful anthology entices readers to move from its pages to find additional works by the writers included. Listen Here, therefore, is going to keep our libraries and bookstores busy for years to come.

A! Magazine

Collects work by 105 Appalachian writers, including Gail Godwin, Lee Smith, and Barbara Kingsolver, composed during the past 170 years.

Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

A marvelous confluence of compelling subject matter and almost perfectly executed presentation. Those who care about the literature of our region need to have this book at their fingertips because this is the authoritative guide to its subject.

Appalachian Heritage

Besides introducing readers to many new voices, the anthology provides a strong counterpart to the stereotype of hillbillies that have cursed the region.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A remarkable new anthology of 105 Appalachian women writers, many of whom have been forgotten or marginalized by the mainstream literary establishment. One of the keenest pleasures in Listen Here lies in its diversity of voices and genres.

Material Culture

What rings true through it all is the truth of women's experiences, not only in Appalachia, but universally.

Chevy Chaser

An important contribution to Appalachian literary life.

Mountain Eagle

Collectively, the 105 writers featured in Listen Here prove themselves, and their region, worthy of the wide recognition that has historically eluded them.

Floyd County Times

Counters the misperception that there is no significant body of Appalachian literature, particularly literature written by women, with the sheer volume of work included.

Journal of Appalachian Studies

If you haven't taken your beach vacation yet this summer, pack this book in your suitcase. Its 673 pages will keep you entertained... and the stories you read in it will nourish your mind and warm your heart throughout the coming fall and winter and far, far beyond.

Appalachian Life Magazine

Like a feast table piled high with samplers of everybody's best recipes.

Appalachian Journal

A number of wonderful gems [are] sprinkled throughout the 600 plus pages.

Red Raven Circling (redravencircling.wordpress.com)

A remarkable accomplishment, bringing together the work of 105 female Appalachian writers saying what they want to, and saying it in impressive bodies of literature.

Lexington Herald-Leader

A textbook companion for anyone interested in women's literature—or anyone interested in a more complete view of American literature than that found in most textbooks.

Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel

Full of welcome surprises to those new to this regional literature: specifically, it includes particularly strong selections from children's fiction and a substantial number of African American writers.

Choice

A giant step forward in Appalachian studies for both students and scholars of the region and the general reader.... Nothing less than a groundbreaking and landmark addition to the national treasury of American literature.

Bloomsbury Review

"A successful anthology entices readers to move from its pages to find additional works by the writers included. Listen Here, therefore, is going to keep our libraries and bookstores busy for years to come." — A! Magazine

"A marvelous confluence of compelling subject matter and almost perfectly executed presentation. Those who care about the literature of our region need to have this book at their fingertips because this is the authoritative guide to its subject." — Appalachian Heritage

"Like a feast table piled high with samplers of everybody's best recipes." — Appalachian Journal

"If you haven't taken your beach vacation yet this summer, pack this book in your suitcase. Its 673 pages will keep you entertained... and the stories you read in it will nourish your mind and warm your heart throughout the coming fall and winter and far, far beyond." — Appalachian Life Magazine

"Besides introducing readers to many new voices, the anthology provides a strong counterpart to the stereotype of hillbillies that have cursed the region." — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A giant step forward in Appalachian studies for both students and scholars of the region and the general reader.... Nothing less than a groundbreaking and landmark addition to the national treasury of American literature." — Bloomsbury Review

"What rings true through it all is the truth of women's experiences, not only in Appalachia, but universally." — Chevy Chaser

"Full of welcome surprises to those new to this regional literature: specifically, it includes particularly strong selections from children's fiction and a substantial number of African American writers." — Choice

"Collectively, the 105 writers featured in Listen Here prove themselves, and their region, worthy of the wide recognition that has historically eluded them." — Floyd County Times

"Counters the misperception that there is no significant body of Appalachian literature, particularly literature written by women, with the sheer volume of work included." — Journal of Appalachian Studies

"A textbook companion for anyone interested in women's literature — or anyone interested in a more complete view of American literature than that found in most textbooks." — Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel

"A remarkable accomplishment, bringing together the work of 105 female Appalachian writers saying what they want to, and saying it in impressive bodies of literature." — Lexington Herald-Leader

"A remarkable new anthology of 105 Appalachian women writers, many of whom have been forgotten or marginalized by the mainstream literary establishment. One of the keenest pleasures in Listen Here lies in its diversity of voices and genres." — Material Culture

"An important contribution to Appalachian literary life." — Mountain Eagle

"Collects work by 105 Appalachian writers, including Gail Godwin, Lee Smith, and Barbara Kingsolver, composed during the past 170 years." — Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

"A comprehensive and unsurpassed anthology of women writers from Appalachia.... Exceptional in diversity and scope." — Southern Historian

"A number of wonderful gems [are] sprinkled throughout the 600 plus pages." — Red Raven Circling (redravencircling.wordpress.com)

From the Publisher