This month we’ve been thinking about a term that has become increasingly common in conversations about regional literature: Appalachian noir.

It’s an appealing label, but also an imprecise one. Too often it’s treated as an aesthetic—misty mountains, old mines, men with guns—rather than a literary tradition shaped by questions of power, poverty, land, and survival. We wanted to spend some time exploring what the term really means, hear from one of the writers working in the field, and recommend a few books for readers who want to dig deeper.

We’re also celebrating some exciting news about The Storied Song and sharing a few upcoming events where we’d love to meet you. —Natalie

What Is Appalachian Noir?

Have you seen Justified?

The FX series starring Timothy Olyphant as an eastern Kentucky lawman never quite worked for me. Olyphant was too polished, and his hat too Western, for the eastern Kentucky I knew to be convincing. That’s a failure on my part—an inability to suspend disbelief—and I want to be clear it’s my failure, not the show’s. Justified was popular, long-running, and genuinely well made. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching.

But here’s something worth knowing.

Elmore Leonard, who wrote the source story “Fire in the Hole,” had no personal connection to Appalachia. Born in New Orleans and raised in Detroit—the city that earned him the nickname “the Dickens of Detroit”—Leonard reached for Harlan County because of what it represented: coal camps, feuds, isolation, and a place where disputes are settled outside the reach of institutions.

Those associations are powerful. They’re also the perspective of an outsider. And Justified inherited that perspective.

That distinction matters because it points toward what Appalachian noir actually is at its best—not a collection of atmospheric ingredients, but social commentary wearing the clothes of a crime novel.

The writers doing the most important work in this tradition aren’t borrowing Appalachia as a backdrop. They’re writing from within it.

Chris Offutt’s Mick Hardin novels, beginning with The Killing Hills, examine the lives of eastern Kentucky families with remarkable precision. Ron Rash’s fiction gives the landscape moral weight; the mountains become participants rather than scenery. David Joy pushes still further, refusing to let crime stand in for the conditions that produce it. His novels confront addiction, economic decline, and racial history without looking away.

The violence in these books isn’t decorative. It’s consequential. It’s rooted in place.

That’s what distinguishes Appalachian noir from the stereotype that often surrounds it.

I’m still discovering this body of work, and the deeper I read, the more convinced I become that Appalachian noir deserves to be understood as one of the most compelling literary traditions developing in contemporary American fiction.

From Appalachia Book Company

Louisville Public Media Features The Storied Song

We’re thrilled to share that Louisville Public Media recently featured The Storied Song, our audio drama series that transforms traditional Appalachian ballads into fully produced radio plays.

Reporter Andrew Henderson explored the history behind “The Wreck of the Old 97” and spoke with playwright Ann Gillespie about adapting the famous ballad into The Nightmare of the Old 97.

“Appalachian ballads are story songs—they’re among Appalachia’s earliest cultural exports.”

We’re grateful for the thoughtful coverage and hope you’ll take a listen if you haven’t yet.

Read the story →

Listen to the series →

Conversation

Chris Helvey on Appalachian Noir

Appalachian noir doesn’t exist in isolation. It has a close relative — Southern grit lit, sometimes called grit fiction — and the two traditions are easy to conflate. Both are set in rural America, both are unflinching about poverty and violence, and many of the same writers get claimed by both. Whether the distinction between them is meaningful or just a marketing category is a question worth asking.

We put it to Chris Helvey — a founding member of the Bluegrass Writers Coalition, editor of Trajectory Journal, and the author of more than a dozen novels, whose chapbook Another Way of Coming Home is part of ABC’s Made In Appalachia series.

Is “Appalachian noir” a real and distinct genre, or a marketing category?

Appalachian noir is absolutely a real and distinct genre, and needs to be treated as serious literary territory. Gritty realism and unrestrained violence know no boundaries — they can be found across America at any time. Certainly, they are not limited to the back alleys of Chicago and New York. In fact, they have a special and unique home in the small towns and mountains of Appalachia. I frequently write novels with a noir flavor, including one I am working on now — The Yellow Hat — which tells the story of a badly scarred WWII veteran who returns to his Appalachian home only to find that several of his childhood friends are ready to brutalize, even kill, a young Black man who has crossed the social line they have drawn.

Where do you see the line between Appalachian noir and Southern grit lit? What does Appalachia specifically bring to crime fiction that the broader Southern tradition doesn’t?

Southern grit lit and Appalachian noir are first cousins, sharing many of the same writing techniques and styles and covering much of the same territory. It is the mountains and the people who live there that provide a certain unique flavor to Appalachia and Appalachian noir. Having spent many formative years in the hills and mountains of Kentucky, I recognize how a poor, rugged mountain man differs from a wealthy Deep South plantation owner. This distinction comes alive in two of my works set in Appalachia: my novel Afghan Love Potion and my chapbook Another Way of Coming Home, the latter of which was published by Appalachia Book Company.

Does noir, with its unflinching look at violence and desperation, risk repeating Appalachia’s long history of extraction narratives — the outsider peering in? How do you think about that tension when you’re writing?

While Appalachian noir can be written by either an insider revealing personal insights or an outsider looking in and observing, in my mind the insider has certain experiences, knowledge, and insights that no outsider, even one who has done significant research, can ever quite match. A person who has lived in a region such as Appalachia for a significant portion of their life carries experiences that lead to unique insights which can be effectively reflected in their writing. Having spent over a decade growing up in Whitley County, Kentucky, then working for years in eastern Kentucky, and having been a lifelong fan of noir fiction, I feel I bring valuable and unique insights to my Appalachian noir fiction.

Buy Another Way of Coming Home

Reading List

The Essential Appalachian Noir Canon (So Far)

If today’s essay piqued your curiosity, these are the books we’d recommend first.

• David Joy, Where All Light Tends to Go — The place to begin. A debut about a young man coming of age inside his family’s meth trade in Jackson County, North Carolina, written with the kind of moral seriousness that makes you feel the weight of every bad decision. Joy’s The Line That Held Us is equally essential.

• Chris Offutt, Country Dark — The leanest eastern Kentucky entry point. A Korean War veteran trying to hold his family together, with violence that feels inevitable rather than sensational. The Killing Hills, the first in his Mick Hardin series, is more genre-forward and equally good.

• Ron Rash, The World Made Straight — Set in the mountains of western North Carolina, Rash's novel links a contemporary marijuana operation to the long shadow of the Civil War-era Shelton Laurel Massacre. Crime is only the surface story; beneath it lies a meditation on inherited violence, memory, and the ways history continues to shape Appalachian communities.

• Wes Browne, They All Fall the Same — Winner of the 2025 Weatherford Award for Fiction, set in Jackson County, Kentucky. A strong recent entry from a practicing attorney who knows this world from the inside.

• Wiley Cash, A Land More Kind Than Home — Set in western North Carolina, spare, morally serious, rooted in the specificity of place. Belongs in the same company as Offutt and Joy.

Then Read

• Sheldon Lee Compton Especially his short fiction. Few writers capture eastern Kentucky with the compression and psychological darkness that Compton achieves.

• Chris McGinley — Coal Black and Once These Hills McGinley deserves to be read alongside Offutt and Joy. His work explores the collision of family loyalty, economic hardship, and violence with an authenticity that feels distinctly Appalachian.

• Chris Helvey — Another Way of Coming Home A compact introduction to Helvey’s vision of Appalachian noir. His fiction is rooted in firsthand knowledge of eastern Kentucky and reflects many of the themes discussed in this issue.

At the Edges of the Genre

These books aren’t quite Appalachian noir, but readers interested in the tradition will likely enjoy them.

• Mesha Maren — Sugar Run

• Amy Greene — Bloodroot

• Silas House — Clay’s Quilt

• Breece D’J Pancake (short stories)

All titles above are available through Bookshop.org. Purchases made through ABC’s Bookshop page support Appalachia Book Company directly.

Around Appalachia - Mark Your Calendars

Upcoming Events

Happy Hour at Tumbling Creek Cider Company — July 31, 2026

Heading to Virginia Highlands Festival’s Writers & Readers Day in Abingdon? Come find us afterward. Appalachia Book Company will be gathering informally at Tumbling Creek Cider Company from 4:30–6:00 PM — no agenda, no tickets, just good people and good cider. Whether you’re a reader, a writer, or just curious about what we do, you’re welcome at our table. We’ll have chapbooks to give away, but drinks are on your own tab. This is an unofficial gathering, unaffiliated with Virginia Highlands Festival.

Appalachian Literary Arts Festival — August 30, 2026

Find us at the Rowan County Arts Center Publisher & Vendor Market in Morehead, Kentucky. Appalachia Book Company will be tabling on the RCAC lawn from 10:00 AM–5:30 PM alongside publishers and vendors. Stop by to browse our books and chapbooks, meet the team, and pick up something made in Appalachia. The full festival weekend includes panels, keynotes, workshops, and live music. Full lineup at appalachianliteraryartsfestival.com.

WANA Annual Conference — October 16–17, 2026

The Writers Association of Northern Appalachia holds its annual conference this fall at Wheeling Park in Wheeling, West Virginia — a 406-acre park with a newly renovated conference center. The program includes more than 25 sessions on craft, publishing, and professional development, plus a new environmental writing track, an open mic at Esoterica, and a keynote from Amy Jo Burns, whose latest novel Wait for Me is a New York Times bestseller. Early bird registration is open now through August 15, with rates starting at $135 for WANA members and $25 for students.

Register at writersassociationofnorthernappalachia.org

Today, Appalachia Book Company releases The Storied Song — four original radio plays, each one built from a ballad that came out of these mountains. Tom Dula. The Wreck of the Old 97. The Farmer’s Curst Wife. Lord Bateman. Stories that have been sung, passed down, and reshaped by every voice that’s carried them.

We asked four Appalachian playwrights to take those ballads apart and put them back together as something new. What they made is funny, heartbreaking, and unmistakably from here.

Listen to The Storied Song on Spotify

The people behind The Storied Song are worth knowing. The plays were directed by Michael McNulty and performed by a cast of writers and actors whose roots run deep in this region. William Ritter sings the ballads that thread each episode together. Before you listen — or after — we’d love for you to spend a few minutes with the voices that made this possible.

[Meet the cast and creative team →]

All four episodes are available now on Spotify. You can listen in any order, but we think you’ll want to hear them all.

Listen to The Storied Song on Spotify

Thank you for being part of what makes this work possible.

The Storied Song is a podcast from Appalachia Book Company that adapts traditional Appalachian ballads into original audio dramas, paired with live performances of the ballads themselves. Each episode takes a song you may already know and asks what lives inside it — the full story, the complicated people, the history the chorus leaves out.

In this introductory episode, narrator and ballad singer William Ritter tells you how this project works and what to listen for.

Narrator — William Ritter

Production Team
Director — Michael McNulty | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick

Written by Natalie Axton.

"Lord Bateman" is among the oldest ballads in this collection, first documented on a nineteenth-century broadside published in Glasgow, Scotland, and rooted in a folk tale that had already spawned related ballads in Norway, Italy, and Spain. Jean Ritchie recorded it for her classic Folkways album British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains in 1960. Unlike most traditional ballads, it ends happily — which makes the stakes of this episode all the more present. The happiness is not guaranteed. It has to be chosen.

Ida Esmaeili sets this episode at Lord Bateman's wedding to someone else, flashing back through the years in Bateman and the Turkish Lady's own voices. This version is spare and sharp — a story about what it costs to wait, and what it costs when the person you waited for has already moved on.

A love story, a reckoning, and a song that refuses to let either of them off the hook.

Cast
Lord Bateman — Holden Howard
Turkish Lady — Tayler Bolling
Narrator — Ashlyn Mullins

Production Team
Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick

"Lord Bateman" radio play is written by Ida Esmaeili. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

That's the story within the ballad. It's been sung across the British Isles and through Appalachia for more than a century, and most versions play it for laughs: a woman so mean, even Hell won't have her.

Cecil Sharp documented the ballad's popularity in World War I-era Appalachia, and a 1929 recording by the husband-wife duo Bill and Belle Reed from Johnson City, Tennessee — one of relatively few 78 RPM releases from that era to be included on the influential Anthology of American Folk Music — helped carry it forward into the urban folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. The song has been in these mountains a long time. It has earned its place.

Playwright Diana Jean Skeen isn't interested in leaving it as a punchline. In her version, the wife is addicted to opioids, the farmer is barely holding on, and their daughter — Baby Girl — has grown up holding everything together. When the Devil finally shows up at the door, nobody is all that surprised. But Hell has a way of clarifying things. This episode asks what it takes to actually face yourself — and whether the people we write off as impossible might just be people who've been hurt too long.

Cast
Farmer — Holden Howard
Farmer's Wife — Tayler Bolling
Baby Girl — Ashlyn Mullins
Devil/Construction Worker — Jess Mullins Fullen
TV News Anchor/Rob — Holden Howard
TV News Reporter/Sheila — Celeste Holmes
Demons — Celeste Holmes, Holden Howard

Production Team
Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick

"The Farmer's Curst Wife" radio play is written by Diana Jean Skeen. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

This episode brings the story behind the ballad into close focus. Playwright Jess Wells writes these characters as fully human — reckless, lovesick, furious, and sorry too late. Tom wasn't simply a killer, and Laura wasn't simply a victim. Ann wasn't simply a villain. They were people caught in something none of them could see clearly enough to stop.

The syphilis at the center of the story likely originated with Pauline Foster, who brought the disease into the household. Tom contracted it from Pauline and spread it to Ann and Laura — meaning Ann's accusation against Laura was almost certainly wrong. Ann ultimately directed authorities to Laura's grave, which is what sealed Tom's fate. He had already fled across the Tennessee border and was working under an assumed name when he was recognized and turned in. The ballad traveled far from those facts. Frank Proffitt performed it for folklorist Frank Warner in 1938; Alan Lomax heard Warner's version and published his own arrangement, which became the source for the Kingston Trio's recording — a number one hit in 1958. The true story stayed in Wilkes County. This episode brings it back.

Cast
Tom — Jess Mullins Fullen
Laura — Celeste Holmes
Ann — Tayler Bolling
Pauline — Ashlyn Mullins
Random Woman — Jess Mullins Fullen
Random Man — Holden Howard

Production Team
Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick

"Tom Dula" radio play written by Jess Wells. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

The ballad that followed made him famous in death in ways he never was in life. It also got his name wrong, his marital status wrong, and a few other things besides.

Broady may have been ordered by the railroad company to make up for lost time — and the company docked engineers' pay for every thirty minutes they ran behind, which tells you something about what they expected. The song that memorialized him became its own kind of wreck. Henry Whitter recorded the first version in 1923; Vernon Dalhart's recording the following year became the first million-selling record in country music history. Then came the lawsuits. Multiple parties claimed authorship, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Court ultimately awarded ownership to RCA Victor. A man died doing his job. His story became a hit record. The hit record became a legal battle. In this episode, Ann Gillespie puts Broady in conversation with a Singer who has carried his story for generations — and who knows it better, in some ways, than he does. What does it mean to be remembered? What do we owe the people our songs preserve?

A meditation on memory, speed, and the strange afterlife of a man who just wanted to do his job.

Cast
Engineer — Holden Howard
Singer — Celeste Holmes

Production Team
Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick

"The Nightmare of the Old 97" radio play is written by Ann Gillespie. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

Welcome to our new subscribers — we’re glad you’re here. Made In Appalachia is brought to you by Appalachia Book Company, an independent literary publisher based in far eastern Kentucky.

In the early 1900s, a Kentucky woman named Katherine Jackson French set out into the hills of eastern Kentucky to collect the old ballads — the murder songs, the love songs, the disaster songs — before they were lost. She was the second woman to earn a PhD from Columbia University — the first from south of the Mason-Dixon Line — and she saw these songs for what they were: women’s work, living and breathing, not relics of somewhere else.

She shaped what she collected into a manuscript and tried to publish it through Berea College. The book never came out. For nearly a hundred years, her name disappeared from the story.

In the meantime, an Englishman named Cecil Sharp arrived in Appalachia and became the name everyone knows. Sharp was looking for something specific — evidence of a living connection to English folk tradition. He found it, organized it, and published it. His framework became the lens through which the outside world understood Appalachian music for generations.

What kept French’s work from the world wasn’t simple neglect. It was professional rivalries, a field shaped by gender prejudice, and a publishing process that simply refused to follow through — all of it playing out over decades in what scholars now call the Ballad Wars.

French was looking for something different than Sharp was. Where he saw Appalachian ballads as evidence of a surviving English folk tradition — songs that proved a connection to the Old World — French saw them as women’s work. Songs carried in memory, passed between mothers and daughters, sung while hands were busy. Not relics of somewhere else, but a living practice that belonged to the people who sang them.

Think about what it would have meant for this region if her version of the story had been the one that traveled. A different framework. A different set of questions. Women at the center of it, not the margins.

French’s letters to Berea’s president are still in the archives — I read them myself in February. In them, she asks carefully, persistently, whether he intends to publish her work. And if not, could he please return the manuscript to her. She trusted him with something she’d spent years building, and she never got it back.

Elizabeth DiSavino, a musicologist who has spent years recovering French’s story, finally did what French couldn’t. Her book, Katherine Jackson French: Kentucky’s Forgotten Ballad Collector (University Press of Kentucky), includes the first-ever publication of French’s English-Scottish Ballads from the Hills of Kentucky — over a century after it should have appeared. It won the 2020 Kentucky History Award. I spoke with DiSavino in 2021, when we were just beginning work on The Storied Song, ABC’s ballad podcast. It was a fortuitous connection, and meant that I started thinking about ballads with the story of their collection in mind. Since then, I return to the idea of conduits, that there are people and cultural institutions that connect the past to the present. How we do that matters.

NEWS FROM ABC

The Storied Song is coming this month!

This June, Appalachia Book Company is releasing The Storied Song — a four-episode audio drama podcast adapting Appalachian ballads into radio plays. Each episode takes a different ballad and treats it as what it always was: a story. Tom Dula. The Wreck of the Old 97. The Farmer’s Curst Wife. Lord Bateman.

The plays were written by Jess Wells, Anne Gillespie, Diana Jean Skeen, and Ida Esmaeili, and recorded live at the Appalachian Center for the Arts in Pikeville, Kentucky. William Ritter sings the ballads. The series is directed by Michael McNulty of UVA–Wise and Pro-Art Association.

We’ll send a dedicated email when all four episodes drop on Spotify.

READING LIST

Get to know Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballad novels

If the Katherine Jackson French story has you thinking about how ballads carry history — and how different the story looks depending on who’s telling it — there’s a novelist who has spent thirty years working that same territory.

Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballad series, set in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, uses the old songs as the bones of her fiction. Each novel takes a piece of Appalachian history — a murder, a ghost, a community in crisis — and layers it against a contemporary story, the past and present running alongside each other until they collide. Two of them, The Ballad of Frankie Silver and She Walks These Hills, were New York Times bestsellers. The Ballad of Tom Dooley — yes, that Tom Dooley — tells the true story behind the most famous mountain ballad of all.

McCrumb grew up frustrated that the American South was primarily represented by plantation culture. The mountain people — their songs, their land, their long memories — were the story she wanted to tell. Twelve novels later, she’s still at it.

A few places to start — find the full list on our Bookshop.org page:

• If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (1990) — the first in the series; a New York Times Notable Book

• She Walks These Hills (1994) — widely considered the heart of the series

• The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1998) — a true Appalachian murder case, told from both sides of a century

• The Ballad of Tom Dooley (2011) — McCrumb reconstructs the real events behind the song, asking the question the ballad never answers: who actually killed Laura Foster?

We’ve compiled a list of McCrumb’s ballad books and more here. When you purchase through our Bookshop.org list, a portion of every sale comes back to support ABC’s work. Thank you.

PLANNING A VISIT THIS SUMMER? Here are some notable festivals to consider.

Virginia Highlands Festival

July 24–August 2 · Abingdon, Virginia · vahighlandsfestival.com

Now in its 77th year, the Virginia Highlands Festival is one of the Mountain South’s most expansive summer gatherings — ten days of music, arts, food, and literary programming in the heart of Southwest Virginia. For readers and writers, the headliner is Writers & Readers Day on Friday, July 31, featuring a keynote by Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, along with a full day of workshops on memoir, fiction, songwriting, and drama ($40 registration). Running the full festival: Read Local, a daily showcase of regional authors signing and selling books, and a Friends of the Library book sale at the Washington County Public Library — including a $5 bag day on August 2.

Appalachian String Band Music Festival (Clifftop)

July 29–August 2 · Clifftop, West Virginia · wvculture.org

The old-time music faithful have been gathering at Camp Washington Carver in the West Virginia highlands every summer since 1990. Five days of contests, concerts, workshops, square dances, and camping — the kind of event where the best music happens in the campsites after midnight. If you’ve never been, this is the year.

Appalachian Literary Arts Festival

August 28–30 · Morehead, Kentucky · appalachianliteraryartsfestival.com

Come meet the ABC team at this new event!

Brand new this year, hosted by Coffee Tree Books and the Rowan County Arts Center in Morehead. Three days of readings, workshops, panels, a book fair, music, and community arts events, with workshops from Bernard Clay (poetry), Gwenda Bond (fiction), Mandi Fugate Sheffel (nonfiction), and Willie Carver (cross-genre). It’s a new literary festival, and it’s starting right here in eastern Kentucky. We’ll be there!

When librarian Talmadge Strong innocently misunderstands his neighbors’ crude joke, he’s mortified—but that’s just the beginning of his confusion. As a mysterious fever takes hold and strange encounters multiply at the Mount Airy Library, Talmadge finds himself slipping between reality and myth, between the stacks of books and the forests of ancient legend. A chance meeting with “The Author” forces him to confront an impossible question: who do you want to be?

Told with surreal wit and playful erudition, The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy is a fever dream of a story from writer Steph Rantz. Rantz weaves together local folklore, literary references, and contemporary life to create a dizzying meditation on identity, desire, and the thin boundaries between fiction and reality. With 25 years of experience working in a historical library collection, Rantz brings insider knowledge to this darkly comic tale of transformation.

The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy is a work of short fiction. 36 pages.

Purchase at Appalachia Book Company.

Steph Rantz was born in Mississippi but has lived most of his life in North Carolina. He is currently an ALM candidate in Harvard’s Creative Writing and Literature program, as well as a member of the Yale Writers Workshops of 2023 & 2024. He has works in Miracle Monocle, Prime Number Magazine and O. Henry Festival Stories. Two of his one-act plays were performed in Raleigh, NC. He has worked for 25 years in a historical collection for a municipal library

.

I recently reconnected with a college friend who has spent decades writing and teaching literature in his hometown in New Jersey. His newest book of poetry is out, and like so many writers today, he’s been asked to promote it on social media.

We laughed about it a little. Not because social media is beneath him, but because of the absurdity of the ask. Most writers already have a full life: a job, a family, obligations that don’t pause for the muse. The writing happens in the margins — early mornings, late nights, stolen weekends. You carve out the time, guard it jealously, and try to do something worthwhile with it. And then, on top of all that, you’re supposed to be your own publicist too.

It’s a lot. And it’s something most of us in this community know firsthand.

Here at ABC, we don't have a fix for the day job or the social media feed. But we do know some places where writers can go to remember what the work actually feels like. I hope the list below is of some help.

—Natalie

Rooms for Writers: Retreats and Residencies in Appalachia

If you know of a retreat, residency, or writing program in the region that belongs on this list, hit reply and tell us, or comment on this post.

Troublesome Creek Writers’ Retreat | Hindman, KY — Happening This Week

March 24–26, 2026 | Hindman Settlement School | Facilitated by Silas House

If you’re looking for a last-minute reason to get to Hindman, this is it. The Troublesome Creek Writers’ Retreat is happening this weekend, facilitated by Silas House — New York Times bestselling novelist, former Kentucky Poet Laureate, and this summer’s keynote at the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop. The retreat is kept small, between 15 and 20 participants, with time for facilitated discussion, independent writing, and community. Lodging and meals on the Hindman campus are included.

Too late for this session? Hindman runs Troublesome Creek retreats each spring and fall. Details at hindman.org.

Appalachian Writers’ Workshop | Hindman, KY

July 26–31, 2026 | Hindman Settlement School

Now in its 49th year, the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop is the premier literary gathering of the Mountain South — a week-long residency open to published and unpublished writers alike. Structured workshops, special topic sessions, and readings by award-winning faculty. This year’s keynote is Silas House (yes, him again — the man keeps showing up where the work is). Faculty also includes poet Kari Gunter-Seymour, whose new collection Dirt Songs appears in our reading list this issue. Tuition is $450; campus housing available for an additional $225.

Details and application: hindman.org/workshop

Rooted by Words Writing Retreat | Irvine, KY

September 17–20, 2026 | Snug Hollow Farm Bed & Breakfast | Application deadline: May 1, 2026

This one isn’t widely advertised yet, so consider this a heads-up. Rooted by Words is hosting a small writing retreat at Snug Hollow Farm, nestled in the Appalachian foothills between Berea and Irvine, Kentucky. The farm is internationally renowned — previous writer guests include Crystal Wilkinson (Kentucky Poet Laureate) and Gwen Rubio, author of the Oprah Book Club selection Icy Sparks.

The retreat combines quiet writing time with group sessions, community-building, and one-on-one mentoring. Participants may submit up to five pages in advance for individual feedback. Space is limited to 20 participants. Cost is $900, covering three nights of lodging, three breakfasts, three dinners, and one-on-one mentoring.

Apply by May 1. Send applications or questions to sherry.robinson725@gmail.com.

Arthurdale Heritage Writers Residency | Arthurdale, WV

Applications open March 30 – May 31, 2026 | Residency: August 23–30, 2026

Established at Arthurdale Heritage — the site of the nation’s first New Deal homestead community, championed by Eleanor Roosevelt — this week-long residency supports emerging and mid-career writers working toward more nuanced narratives about Appalachia. Writers stay in a historic cottage on a rural homestead and receive a $250 stipend. Writers who attend will also teach a one-hour workshop and give a public reading on August 28.

Eligibility: applicants must have been born in Appalachia or made their home there, and must be an emerging or mid-career writer who does not yet have a published book. Selections will be announced by July 1. Questions: mary.l@arthurdaleheritage.org.

Details: arthurdaleheritage.org

Azule Art Residency | Hot Springs, NC

Rolling applications | Western North Carolina, 50 miles from Asheville

Azule is an art residency in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, open to writers as well as artists of all disciplines. The house itself — built over decades by artist-builder Camille Shafer — is an ever-evolving work of art: carved wood, stained glass, mosaics, a sky bridge. Up to three artists in residence at a time. Fees charged by the week or month. No structured programming; you bring your project and your focus.

Details and application: azule.org

Porches Writing Retreat | Norwood, VA

Rolling, open year-round | James River Valley, Virginia Blue Ridge foothills

An 1854 farmhouse on the James River, half an hour from the Appalachian Trail. Private rooms with original heart-pine floors, hand-blown glass windows, and views of wooded river bluffs. Communal kitchen; writers provide their own meals. Rates start at $70 per night for stays of a week or more, $75 for shorter stays; a private cottage is also available. Open on a first-come, first-served basis — no application required, just book a room.

Details and booking: porcheswritingretreat.com

Wildacres Residency | Little Switzerland, NC

Rolling weekly residencies, April–October | Blue Ridge Mountains | Free

Free one-week residencies in self-catering cabins on the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. No internet in the cabins. Open to all artistic disciplines. One artist at a time; about 70 artists hosted per year. A good option for writers who want solitude without structure. Applications close October 15 annually — plan ahead.

Details: wildacres.org

An ABC Author to Know: Kelly Ward

Kelly Ward has been part of the Appalachia Book Company family since 2022, when we published her prose chapbook Rapture. A Kentucky writer born and raised in east-central Kentucky, Kelly received her MFA from West Virginia University, where her story “Rhapsodic” was nominated and selected as a prose winner of the 2025 AWP Intro Journals Project. Her work has appeared in Reed Magazine, Altered Reality Magazine, Anti-Heroin Chic, and midsummer magazine.

Kelly’s writing is rooted, as she is, in east-central Kentucky. Generations of her family come from the hills there, and she says she’s never felt like she belonged anywhere else. Her characters reflect that groundedness — and the weight that comes with it. She describes them as people who “carry the weight of generational trauma, descended from families who have been whittled down by poverty, environmental destruction, and socio-economic judgment,” and who connect more deeply to the natural world around them than to the wider world beyond the hills.

The story that became her chapbook Rapture came to her on a rainy August day in 2021, while she was housesitting a friend’s cabin near the Red River Gorge. The days were peaceful, she says — but when night fell and the cabin and woods were surrounded by full dark, she began to wonder what it would be like to live in that kind of constant darkness. That question became the story.

She is currently at work on a novel she’s been building for years, one that began as her graduate thesis. It’s a story she can’t quit until she gets it right — about navigating a new world and life with loneliness branded into your skin, and about what it means to love and live for yourself while honoring your roots.

When we asked about her reading life, Kelly’s list ranged widely and said a lot about her sensibility as a writer. She loves Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love, Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men, and Silas House’s All These Ghosts. For Appalachian literature specifically, she points to Every Bone a Prayer by Noah Ashley Blooms — who happens to be the editor of These Dreaming Hills — along with House’s Clay’s Quilt and Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God.

Kelly’s advice to readers? Request Appalachian books from your public library — no matter how new, obscure, or hard to find.

Follow Kelly at @justagirlfreak on Instagram or visit her at kellyward.carrd.co.

Rapture by Kelly Ward

Book Shelf

Recommended by Jacob Stump, Contributing Editor and ABC Reader-at-Large

Degrees of Elevation: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia, edited by Charles Dodd White and Page Seay | Bottom Dog Press, 2010

A deep cut worth tracking down. Jacob picked up this anthology recently and every story hit home in a different way. He singles out “Country Boys,” by Rusty Barnes — a compact, unsettling story about a town boy drawn into risky territory by his country girlfriend and her brothers, who play loose with the law. The cultural divide between town and county life in Appalachia is alive on every page. “I grew up a country boy out in the county,” Jacob writes, “and this story shines a light on dynamics I recognize — the kind that demand a little self-reflection after the last line.” A standout piece in a fearless collection.

Dirt Songs by Kari Gunter-Seymour | EastOver Press

A new collection of poetry that offers an insider’s lens into Appalachian culture: identity, poverty, generational struggle, and the region’s complicated relationship with the rest of the country. Gunter-Seymour is also on faculty at this summer’s Appalachian Writers’ Workshop at Hindman.

Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future, edited by Zane McNeill and Rebecca Scott | University Press of Kentucky

An edited volume of essays that takes on environmental destruction in Appalachia while mapping out alternative futures. Vital and timely.

These Tangled Threads by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Bethany House

A poignant novel of friendship, artistry, restoration, and second chances, set in the shadow of the 1920s Biltmore Estate.

No Son of Mine: A Memoir by Jonathan Corcoran | University Press of Kentucky

A memoir that traces a messy estrangement from his mother through lost geographies — the trees, mountains, and streams that were once his birthright, as well as the lost relationships with friends and family and the sense of home that were stripped away when she said he was no longer her son.

Deep Ruts by Julie Rae Powers | Platanus Editions

A collection of photographs that explores the deep roots of religion, a deer in a rut, and the ruts of the mind in which our ways of thinking and values carve into our daily lives.

These Dreaming Hills is ABC’s forthcoming anthology of speculative fiction — science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism — set in and inspired by Central Appalachia. Edited by Noah Ashley Blooms and publishing fall 2026, the collection reimagines this region’s landscapes, histories, and futures through speculative lenses.

We want cover art that does the same.

Think: a mountain hollow that might be another planet. A figure that could be an ancestor or a visitor. Something unmistakably Appalachian and unmistakably strange.

We welcome painting, drawing, digital illustration, photography, collage, and mixed media. We’re especially drawn to layered, atmospheric work — art that asks the viewer to lean in.

Selected artist receives $500 and full credit on the book and all promotional materials.

We strongly encourage submissions from artists with a personal connection to Central Appalachia.

Submission deadline: May 15, 2026

Learn more and submit: https://appalachiabookcompany.submittable.com/.../these...

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Bluegrass Writers Coalition Conference of Writers | Frankfort, KY

April 11, 2026 | Capital Plaza Hotel

BWC’s fifth annual Conference of Writers, with Kentucky Poet Laureate Kathleen Driskell as keynote. Details at bluegrasswriterscoalition.com.

Appalachian Literary Arts & Storytelling Festival — Call for Participation | Nelsonville, OH October 3–4, 2026 | Proposal deadline: May 15, 2026

The second annual ALAS Festival is accepting proposals from presenters, performers, panelists, workshop leaders, organizations, and exhibitors. The festival celebrates Appalachian storytelling in all its forms — literature, music, photography, performance, and more. Proposals may take any form that engages the tradition. Submit to alasfestival1024@gmail.com with a topic, format, abstract, participant bios, and any equipment needs. Notifications by June 30. Full guidelines at alasfestival.com.

Appalachian Writers’ Workshop | Hindman, KY

July 26–31, 2026 | Hindman Settlement School

Keynote: Silas House. Faculty includes Kari Gunter-Seymour. See full listing above. Details at hindman.org/workshop.

This year marks five years of Appalachia Book Company. Five years of reading submissions, publishing chapbooks, and asking ourselves the same question over and over: what makes writing Appalachian?

ABC publishes writers with a connection to central Appalachia—and that connection can look a lot of different ways. Maybe you grew up here. Maybe you moved here, spent time here, or chose to set a story in our region. We want to be inclusive.

But I’ve also learned something in those five years of reading: when the connection is there, you feel it. It shows up in the details. The dialect—not just the vocabulary, but the music of it. The landscape—not just described, but felt. The history—not just referenced, but understood as something that shapes people, that lives in them.

Details like that can’t be faked. They come from paying attention. From listening. From time spent in a place, or with its people, or in the pages of those who came before.

That’s what I look for when I read. Not a setting or a stereotype, but a sense that the writer knows something true about this place—and has found a way to put it on the page.

After five years, I have my own answers. But I’m curious about yours.

A reader survey can be found at the bottom of this newsletter—we’d love to know what you think makes writing Appalachian, and what you want to see from us next.

Appreciate you.

—Natalie

Catching Up

We’ve been quiet the past few months, and a lot of you are new to our project. Here’s a look at what we’ve got going on.

Appalachia, there is a future, and we’re gonna show you how writers see it.

When we started putting together These Dreaming Hills—our anthology of Appalachian speculative fiction—we wanted stories that asked: What if? What comes next? What’s been here all along that we haven’t seen?

We’re thrilled to announce that Noah Ashley Blooms is taking over as editor. If you’ve read Every Bone a Prayer, you know Blooms understands how to write Appalachia with both grit and tenderness. We’re in good hands.

Writers who submitted work for consideration will hear from the editorial team by the end of this month.

‘The Storied Song’ is coming this March!

On a September evening last fall, a small crowd gathered at the Appalachian Center for the Arts. The lights dimmed. A narrator’s voice filled the room, and for the next few hours, old ballads—the kind passed down through generations, sung on porches and at kitchen tables—came back to life in a new form.

That was the live recording of The Storied Song, our podcast series that transforms traditional Appalachian ballads into radio plays. Playwrights Jess Wells, Anne Gillespie, Diana Jean Skeen, and Ida Esmaeili each took a different ballad and cracked it open, finding the story inside the song. William Ritter narrated. Michael McNulty directed. Rosa Bott designed the sound. Samuel O’Sullivan engineered it all.

We’re in post-production now, and we can’t wait to share it with in March. More soon.

New Made In Appalachia prose chapbook available now!

A Librarian Walks Into a Story

For thirty years, author Steph Rantz carried a story around with him. He’d started writing it, set it aside, picked it up again. And again. Then came quarantine, and a short story class, and Jorge Luis Borges.

“I put all my love for libraries and books into the story,” Steph says.

The result is The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy, the newest chapbook in our Made In Appalachia series. It follows Talmadge Strong, a librarian at the Mount Airy Library, as a mysterious fever blurs the line between the stacks and ancient myth. Reality slips. Legend seeps in.

Steph has worked in a historical library for 25 years. Questions about nearby Mount Airy—and its fictional twin, Mayberry—were part of the job. “Surry County lore and history,” he says, “have just been built into my DNA.”

He’s also just been named a finalist for the 2026 Saints and Sinners Short Story prize. Congratulations, Steph.

Read The Real Satyrs of Mt. Airy →

Writers: Made In Appalachia is open for fiction and nonfiction submissions.

You have until March 1 to get your stories in. Submit via Submittable.

Get a Free Chapbook!

We’ve been asking ourselves what makes writing Appalachian for five years. Now we want to ask you. What draws you to these stories? What are we missing? What would make this newsletter something you look forward to?

Take our short survey, and we’ll send you a free chapbook from our catalog as a thank you.

Take the survey →

When Jack announces he has “beaver fever” and needs to find a woman, his sister Suzie reluctantly agrees to be his wingman for a night out in Wheeling, West Virginia. What follows is a darkly comic tour through dive bars and failed pickup attempts, while Suzie grapples with her own complicated relationship to the declining Rust Belt town she never wanted to return to. A chance encounter with Mike, the local brewmaster, offers a glimmer of possibility—but can anyone really escape the gravitational pull of home?

Told with sharp wit and unflinching honesty, Beaver Fever is a story about the places that shape us from writer Robert Long Foreman. Foreman draws on his own experience growing up in Wheeling to create a portrait that’s both brutally realistic and deeply compassionate, capturing the complex feelings we have toward the places we’re from.

Beaver Fever is a work of short fiction. 32 pages.

Purchase on Appalachia Book Company website.

We've got something pretty special coming up that we'd love to share with you! After working on this project since 2021, we're finally ready to record, live, ‘The Storied Song’—our podcast that takes old Appalachian ballads and turns them into radio plays with live music.

Two nights, two ways to dive in:

Ballad Workshop with William Ritter

Date: Thursday, September 25th
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Appalachian Center for the Arts, 218 2nd Street, Pikeville, KY

Come hang out with renowned ballad singer William Ritter and learn about the stories that make up ballads. It's a chance to really dig into how these ballads have been passed down through families and changed over time – plus you'll get some great context for Friday night's show.

Live Podcast Recording

Date: Friday, September 26th
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Appalachian Center for the Arts, 218 2nd Street, Pikeville, KY

This is where the magic happens! You'll get to watch us record four episodes with radio plays based on "Tom Dula," "Lord Bateman," "The Farmer's Curst Wife," and "The Wreck of the Old 97." Think old-time radio meets mountain storytelling—it's going to be a lot of fun.

The team bringing these stories to life:

Director: Michael McNulty
Sound Design: Rosa Bott

Audio Engineer: Samuel O’Sullivan
Featured Ballad Singer and Narrator: William Ritter

Playwrights: Idea Esmaeili, Ann Gillespie, Diana Jean Skeen, and Jess Wells

Cast:

• Jess Mullins Fullen as Tom (Tom Dula), Devil/Construction Worker (The Farmer's Curst Wife), Random Woman

• Celeste Holmes as Laura (Tom Dula), Singer (The Wreck Of The Old 97), Demons/TV News Anchor Sheila (The Farmer's Curst Wife)

• Tayler Bolling as Ann (Tom Dula), Turkish Lady (Lord Bateman), Farmer's Wife (The Farmer's Curst Wife)

• Ashlyn Mullins as Pauline (Tom Dula), Narrator (Lord Bateman), Baby Girl (The Farmer's Curst Wife)

• Holden Howard as Engineer (The Wreck Of The Old 97), Lord Bateman, Farmer/Demons/TV News Anchor Rob (The Farmer's Curst Wife), Random Man

Current students and graduates of UVA's College at Wise

What's ‘The Storied Song’ all about?

You might be wondering why a book publisher is getting into podcasts and ballads – it's a fair question! We've been working on this since 2021 because we realized that these old ballads are really just another form of Appalachian literature. They're stories that have been passed down through families for generations, told and retold, changing a little each time but keeping their heart.

At Appalachia Book Company, we're all about preserving and sharing the authentic voices of this region. These ballads are some of our oldest stories – they're like novels compressed into songs, full of drama, real characters, and the kind of human truths that make great literature. By turning them into radio plays, we're just giving them a new way to reach people while honoring where they came from.

These songs have survived because they tell stories that still matter – love, loss, betrayal, and all the complicated stuff that makes us human. We want families to rediscover their own ballad traditions and maybe remember the people who first taught them these songs. It's all part of making sure mountain stories keep getting told in authentic voices.

Thanks to Our Sponsors

This project wouldn't be possible without the support of some wonderful organizations who believe in preserving and sharing Appalachian stories. Huge thanks to the Berea College Appalachian Fund, Kentucky Humanities, and the Gilliam Family Foundation for making The Storied Song possible.

Special thanks to our presenting partner, the Appalachian Center for the Arts, for hosting both events and helping us bring this project to life in such a beautiful venue.

Admission & Reservations

FREE for both events! While admission is free, reservations are recommended.

Reserve your seats: https://us.patronbase.com/_AppalachianCenterForTheArts/Productions/199/Performances

Hope to see you there – it's going to be something really special, and we'd love to have you be part of it!

For more info, check out: www.appalachiabook.co/the-storied-song

Best,

Natalie Axton
Director of Programs
Appalachia Book Company

Can't make it? No worries – the episode will be available on all the usual podcast places after we record it.

Have you heard Jean Ritchie?

Five-year-old Jean Ritchie knew she wasn't supposed to touch her father's dulcimer. Balis Ritchie had made it clear—none of his fourteen children were to lay a finger on the precious instrument that hung on the wall of their four-room log cabin in Viper, Kentucky. But when the house grew quiet and her parents were busy with chores, Jean would sneak the dulcimer down and pick out "Go Tell Aunt Rhody," teaching herself to play in stolen moments.

By the time her father decided she was old enough for formal lessons, Jean was already accomplished enough that he declared her "a natural born musician." What Balis didn't realize was that music—like the ballads themselves—has a way of finding its path from one generation to the next, even when actively restricted.

This was 1927, and the Ritchie family possessed something more valuable than they knew: a repertoire of over 300 ballads that had traveled from Scotland and Ireland to take root in the Cumberland Mountains. Every evening after supper, the family would gather on their porch for what they called "singing the moon up"—sitting on swings and rocking chairs, sharing songs until the moon crested over the high peaks surrounding their hollow.

Jean Ritchie would grow up to systematically document these family treasures, writing down 300 songs she had learned "from her mother's knee" and becoming one of the most important preservers of Appalachian ballad tradition. But it all started with a curious child and a forbidden dulcimer, proving that the best stories—and the songs that carry them—always find a way to survive.

Appalachia Book Company is currently developing a podcast series, “Blood Roots,” that presents balladry through radio plays and original music recordings. The four-episode podcast will be recorded in front of a live audience in Pikeville, KY on Sept. 26th.

Ballads are story songs

What makes ballads special isn't just their melodies—it's that they're fundamentally about story. These songs are humanity's news reports, therapy sessions, and cautionary tales all rolled into one. They tell us very human stories: how pride can kill, how love goes wrong, how ordinary people face extraordinary choices. Whether based on true events or ancient folklore, ballads capture the kind of stories that people need to tell—and retell.

Which of these stories do you know?

Barbara Allen: The story of a young woman whose pride becomes her downfall—and his. When sweet William dies of unrequited love, Barbara finally realizes what she's lost, but it's too late for both of them.

Pretty Polly: Willie courts young Polly with promises of marriage, then leads her deep into the woods where he's already dug her grave. A chilling story of betrayal that asks: how well do we really know the people we trust?

Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender: Thomas loves fair Ellender, but his mother insists he marry another girl, for her wealth. The wedding becomes a bloodbath when all three discover that love and money make a deadly combination.

John Henry: The ultimate story of man versus machine—a steel-driving man races a steam drill to prove human worth isn't obsolete. He wins the race but dies with his hammer in his hand, asking what progress really costs.

Omie Wise: When Naomi Wise trusted Jonathan Lewis and met him by the river in 1808, she thought they were eloping. Instead, he drowned her. The real murder became a song that's still sung, proving some stories demand to be remembered.

A conversation with William Ritter

We spoke with William Ritter, a Mitchell County native and traditional musician, about the enduring power and relevance of Appalachian ballads. William finds his calling in the traditional music and foodways of Mitchell County, North Carolina, where he grew up surrounded by the cultural richness of the mountains. As a fiddler, ballad singer, and seed-saver, William believes deeply that these old ways of living hold essential wisdom for building strong, resilient communities today.

Q: Why do you think Appalachian ballads remain culturally important in our communities today?

A: These old songs connect us to the people that came before us, they reveal our ancestors’ “hopes, fears, and dreams.” There’s more that they have to offer us than just being historically significant relics. These were songs people sang and shared in difficult and trying times. In the aftermath of Hell-ene, we found that these songs could capture and communicate feelings that words and photographs and videos just couldn’t. I know an excellent photographer that was demoralized about his medium because no picture he took could match what it is like to be in the devastation. A “thousand words” was not enough. In Marshall, NC, which was halfway obliterated by the French Broad river, an artist and entrepreneur named Josh Copus owns this amazing restaurant and hotel called Zadie’s Market. He said the only thing that came close to capturing the swirl of emotions and feelings and thoughts he was carrying, was when Sheila Kay Adams sat down in his devastated building and sang one of these old songs. These are often songs of tragedy, but also resilience and defiance in the face of brutal realities. Many people criticize the content of ballads that feature violence against women, for example, but the songs don’t condone violence, they describe it. Very often the women in ballads have agency or push back against the norms of their society and time.

Q: When someone is listening to an Appalachian ballad for the first time, what should they be paying attention to? What are the key elements that make these songs distinctive?

A: First of all, I suggest that listeners close their eyes, or zone out doing something crafty–maybe crochet for example. Really try to follow the story. Don’t look at the performer. Let the narrative play in your mind like a movie. I have heard some of these songs hundreds of times and I still find something new in the lyrics all the time. Often the songs can be fragmentary, so you have to fill in the blanks a bit. To answer the second question, the key element is that ballads are a narrative story. A non-ballad folksong just throws a bunch of verses that may or may not be related together–they may hint at a story. The Ballad just *tells* you the tale. There’s different kinds of ballads, or genres of ballads, but they are united in that they are a narration set to a melody.

Q: You've learned from master tradition bearers like Bobby McMillon and documented musical families in your region. What have these ballad practitioners taught you about storytelling and human experience?

A: Well one reason I am always encouraging people to learn from living breathing singers (or whatever tradition you are interested in), because that experience can shape your life in so many meaningful ways outside of just learning a craft. From Bobby in particular, I learned that the song is more important than accurately singing a piece *just* the way you learned it. He would gently and respectfully tweak song songs–based on his long admiration and knowledge of the genre. Not unlike someone that restores an old rusted out antique car. Some folks look for this purity that’s never really been there. It’s more important that these songs *run* again, even if you need to borrow a verse from another version of the song, or make a rhyme work again. The songs are a living thing, not some artifact. I’m not suggesting just anyone do that though, restoration work takes experience, knowledge, and talent. For example, don’t go fixing up a violin without finding someone that can give you advice and guidance–look at a lot of violin making books, make relationships with folks who do that kind of thing, and your work will be so much better than if you are making it up as you go.

Q: How do you see the relationship between the musical elements of a ballad—the melody, the rhythm—and the story being told?

A: Well, it’s not often the case, but I generally really want a compelling melody when I am committing to learning a song. For instance, there’s a ballad, one of my very favorites called “Fair Annie of Roch Royal.” I love it, but I have put off learning a version of it because it’s been very difficult to find a text with a melody, and many that I have found just don’t match the hope and heartbreak and resolution of that song. I finally have found an excellent text and tune from a woman in West Virginia called Allie Nuzum recorded in the 40s. Most of the melodies I have encountered were really “sing-songy” and just not emotionally appropriate, in my mind. Granted that’s just my opinion, and I don’t know how many ballad singers are that picky about tunes.

Q: For someone interested in exploring Appalachian ballads more deeply, where would you recommend they start?

A: I don’t know who to attribute this phrase to, but sometimes in the field of folklore you’ll hear people talk about “learning from warm hands.” That means learning a tradition from a living person. There’s an incredible wealth of documented and recorded material in private and university collections, or the Library of Congress, and it is amazing these days what you can pull up on Youtube. That’s all wonderful and helpful and important, but I firmly believe that being in community with people that are carrying on these traditions is vital. I understand that not everyone lives in an area where there are still folks carrying on ballad singing (though you may be able to track down folks who knew ballad singers or are related to them and I think it’s important to be in community with them as well). That said, a good place to start would be going to an immersive music-instruction week focused on ballad singing or highlighting ballad singing. Examples of this would be Augusta Heritage Week, the John C. Campbell Folk School, Swannanoa Gathering, to name a few (scholarships are available). My little ballad singing community is in talks about hosting our own ballad focused weekend camp in WNC. I would also offer a word of caution with a lot of the literature associated with ballad singing, since many of the books you will encounter are dated and many of the conclusions of the collectors and folklorists can be problematic or misleading.

Q: What do you think these ballads can teach us about our own lives and communities?

A: Ballads are a mirror into the norms of the societies that created and carried these songs, and I think it’s an important reminder of how far we have come in personal rights and freedoms. Those rights were hard-won. Singing these songs can show us, dear “trad wives” that we don’t want to go backwards.

Q: Can you recommend any ballad events for readers to attend?

A: Outside of the music camps I mentioned earlier, there’s a ballad swap every second Wednesday at Zadie’s Market restaurant in Marshall, NC. It features singers from a family with perhaps the oldest documented and continuous English language ballad singing tradition. There’s also the Lunsford Festival @ Mars Hill University every year that features a lot of ballad singing. We also have ballad singing at the Happy Valley Jamboree, a festival I run Labor Day Weekend. It’s free to attend and there’s a small fee to camp. Beautiful spot on the river and is also the site of the grave of Laura Foster, who was murdered, according to the ballad and the courts, by Tom Dula.

Listen for yourself

Ted Olson, producer of the Grammy-nominated "Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition" and professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University, has provided us with a curated list of essential ballad recordings. These selections showcase both the historical depth and contemporary vitality of this tradition.

Contemporary Tradition Bearers

• Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition - Various Artists (Great Smoky Mountains Association)
  This album celebrates Appalachia's rich legacy of songs that tell stories, a tradition traceable to the British Isles, featuring 32 new recordings of traditional ballads by leading UK- and American-roots music luminaries, including Rosanne Cash, Doyle Lawson, Archie Fisher, Alice Gerrard, Sheila Kay Adams, Martin Simpson and others

• My Dearest Dear - Sheila Kay Adams [digital album]
  A powerful collection from one of the most important contemporary carriers of the Appalachian ballad tradition

• Rain and Snow - Elizabeth LaPrelle (Old 97 Records)
  A young artist's interpretation showing how the ballad tradition continues to inspire new generations

Appalachian Family Traditions

• Ballads from Her Appalachian Family Tradition - Jean Ritchie (Smithsonian Folkways)
  The legendary Kentucky singer presents ballads passed down through her family, offering an intimate glimpse into how these songs live within mountain families

• Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains - Doug and Jack Wallin (Smithsonian Folkways)
  Two brothers from Madison County share their family's musical heritage, demonstrating the living tradition of ballad singing in western North Carolina

Scholarly Collections

• Classic American Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways - Various Artists (Smithsonian Folkways)
  An expertly curated anthology that traces the development of ballads in American folk tradition

Connections to Origins

• Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry - Martin Simpson and Thomm Jutz (Topic)
  A tribute to two important North Carolina ballad singers, highlighting specific traditional repertoires

• Classic Scots Ballads - Ewan MacColl with Peggy Seeger (Essential Media Group)
  Essential listening for understanding the Scottish roots of many Appalachian ballads

• Ballads: Murder, Intrigue, Love, Discord - Ewan MacColl (Topic Records)
  MacColl's masterful interpretations reveal the dramatic power and narrative complexity of traditional ballads

What's your connection to ballad tradition? Did your family sing these old songs? Do you have a favorite ballad or recording we should know about? Drop us a line at hello@appalachiabook.co and tell us more.

Mark your calendars!

Lenoir, NC - Happy Valley Jamboree, August 29-31.

Berea, KY - Appalachian Writers’ Conference, September 2 -4.

Pikeville, KY - “Blood Roots” live recording, September 26th.

Thanks for diving into the world of Appalachian ballads with us! Next month we'll be exploring something completely different. And be sure to like us on Facebook to get the latest about our work!

Here’s to staying humble.

“An empty can rattles the loudest.” That’s one of my favorite sayings. It’s a succinct and distinctly Appalachian way of observing that it’s usually the people with nothing to say who seem to talk the most.

So I’ll keep it brief.

2024 was a great year for Appalachia Book Company. We published three chapbooks in our Made In Appalachia series; completed a professional development program in fundraising; partnered with Eastern Kentucky University to bring on editorial interns; raised $16,000 for our podcast on Appalachian balladry. We received more submissions than ever before.

Read Our 2024 Annual Report

Good things are happening this year, too. We’ve been awarded an inaugural literary arts grant from South Arts to publish a speculative fiction anthology. Yep, that will be a collection of sci-fi, fantasy and horror all set in Appalachia. We’ve contracted authors for some fascinating chapbooks, and we’ll be recording our podcast live at the Appalachian Center for the Arts on July 27th.

Appalachia Book Co. launched this newsletter to support our chapbook series and to provide readers a place to discover the history and doings of Appalachian literary culture. We have forthcoming issues on rural writing, environmental literature, mountain men and more coming soon. Promise. Meantime, I want you to know that we couldn’t do our work without supporters like you.

Thank you.

Support Appalachia Book Co.

Our mission at Appalachia Book Co. is to preserve and continue the literary tradition of central and rural Appalachia, and to curate a modern interpretation of our region’s history. We produce the prose chapbook series, Made In Appalachia, as well as special books and literary events.

This year we’re once again participating in Kentucky Gives Day on Tuesday, May 13th. Kentucky Gives Day directly supports our efforts to build essential literary infrastructure in underserved communities, challenge stereotypes while strengthening cultural identity, and provide educational and professional development pathways that help retain creative talent within Appalachia. By donating, you become part of a community dedicated to preserving and promoting authentic Appalachian narratives for generations to come.

Help Us Tell More Appalachian Stories

To donate, simply click here or visit https://www.kygives.org/organizations/appalachia-book-company.

Thank you for your continued support of Appalachia Book Company. Together, we're building a stronger literary foundation for our communities.

Sincerely,

Natalie Axton

Director of Programs

Do you know the Mothman?

Fifty-eight years ago today in the sleepy town of Point Pleasant, WV, a legend was born. That was the night several couples witnessed a strange moth-like creature chasing after their cars. According to Folklife Magazine:

Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette were driving together on State Route 62 near the abandoned National Guard Armory building and power plant when they saw a menacing figure standing six to seven feet tall. In the headlights, giant eyes shone bright red. Panic set in. Roger, the car’s driver, sped away toward town.

But the creature followed. According to these first eyewitness accounts, the “thing” rose up like a helicopter. Though a “clumsy runner” as they saw at the power plant, it excelled in gliding, easily keeping pace, even as the car reached a hundred miles per hour.

Journalist Mary Hyre of the Athens Ohio Register duly covered the incident. More sightings, stories, nonfiction books, and even a film starring Richard Gere followed. Mothman hasn’t been reported in West Virginia for some time, however, in 2019 there were sightings of the winged creature in Chicago.

Mothman is one of the best known cryptids in America. Cryptids are creatures occuring in stories and legends, and that people believe exist or say they have seen, but have never been proven to exist.

There are a lot of cryptids claiming Appalachian roots. Perhaps it’s the region’s dense forests, rugged terrain, and isolated communities that have contributed to the development of these cryptid legends. Some, like Mothman, are believed to be connected to local tragedies or disasters. Others, like Sasquatch, take advantage of the region's abundant hiding spots.

Cryptozoology Breakdown:

• Mothman: A large humanoid with wings and glowing red eyes, thought to be a warning sign of impending disasters.

• Sasquatch (Bigfoot): A large, hairy humanoid that roams the dense Appalachian forests.

• Flatwoods Monster: A tall creature with a red, glowing face and metallic or armored body, first reported in 1952.

• Wampus Beast: A shape-shifting half-woman, half-cat or -dog creature that brings bad luck.

• Snallygaster: A half-bird, half-reptile monster that preys on livestock and people.

• Sheepsquatch: A shaggy, white, bipedal creature with sharp teeth and glowing red eyes.

While the existence of these cryptids remains — ahem — debated, their legends continue to captivate locals and visitors alike, adding to the folklore and cultural identity of Appalachia. Indeed, Mothman might be responsible for the cryptid comeback of the past twenty years.

Mothman is well-known to Appalachians. And the myth of Mothman snowballed into a phenomenon boosting Point Pleasant into a tourist attraction. The third weekend of September sees the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant. Visitors can take in the Mothman Museum, cosplay, street eats, and more.

How about the eerie side of Appalachian history?

If you’re a fan of the Appalachian supernatural, be sure to check out the Old Gods of Appalachia podcast, if you haven’t already. This entertaining series is a Lovecraftian horror anthology mythologizing true events that happened in central Appalachia. For ex., the Old Number Seven Mine disaster in Barlo, KY. The podcast’s creative team is based in Johnson City, TN, and they tour regularly.

Like your speculative fiction set in the hills?

There’s something about a holler that gets the imaginative juices flowing. Check out these recent and forthcoming titles from publishers around the country.

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister. Counterpoint, Oct. 2024

Synopsis: Kiron, Va., resident Bennie Mattox is on a quest to hold the White Rock mining company responsible for decades of disappearances from its Kire Mountain coal mines. In her search for evidence, she comes upon a woman lying half-drowned in a mine slough—Motheater, a witch bound to the region, who joins up with Bennie to protect both town and mountain.

Smothermoss by Alisa Alering. Tin House Books, July 2024

Synopsis: In 1980s Appalachia, life isn’t easy for Sheila. She endures relentless taunting and bullying at the hands of her classmates; she takes care of her great-aunt, the garden and home, and the rabbits; and forages for mushrooms in the forest, all while her mother works long, back-breaking shifts at the nearby state asylum. But it’s her peculiar little sister, Angie, who worries her the most. Angie is obsessed with nuclear war, Rambo, zombies, a Russian invasion of their community, and the ominous, tarot-like cards that she creates that somehow speak to her. When a pair of female hikers are brutally murdered on the nearby Appalachian trail, Sheila and Angie find themselves inexorably drawn into the hunt for the killer. As the ever-present threat of violence looms larger, the mountain might be the only thing that can save them from the darkness consuming their home and their community.

Motheater by Linda H. Codega. Erewhon, Jan. 2025

Synopsis: For generations, the Haddesley family has made a grim exchange: the life of the family patriarch for the delivery of a bog wife, a supernatural woman constructed of plants who will carry on the family line. But when five dysfunctional siblings gather to deliver their father to the ancestral West Virginia cranberry bog, they wait in vain for the wife’s appearance. The broken covenant sends the baffled, frightened family into further disarray.

You, from Below by Em J Parsley. Split Lip, Feb. 2025

Synopsis: This novella from writing professor and Kentucky resident Parsley tracks the lone survivor of an Appalachian holler town that disappears into the earth. Determined to find answers, the unnamed narrator heads up a nearby mountain, bearing an envelope they know they must deliver—but to whom? On their journey, they meet a beekeeper, an immortal woman, and a schoolteacher from a town left empty by the Rapture.

Mark your calendars:

Wise, VA: The University of Virginia’s College at Wise Theater Division presents 9 to 5 The Musical November 21st–23rd at 7 p.m. and November 24th at 2 p.m. on campus in the Gilliam Center for the Arts Black Box Theater.

Penned, the literary contest from Kentucky Monthly, is open for submissions. The max word count is 1200, and the deadline is Decemeber 11.

Hindman, KY: The Oak Ledge Writing Residency contest is an opportunity for three winners to receive a free residency at the Oak Ledge cottage at the Hindman Settlement School. Enter now through December 1.

Hey there! Just wanted to let you know about some exciting changes to our newsletter, "Made in Appalachia." We're shifting gears a bit – instead of updates about our internal happenings at Appalachia Book Co, we'll be focusing on what we're truly passionate about: the incredible work happening across our mountain communities.

Each month, we'll share what's catching our eye in the region's cultural scene, from the latest books hitting shelves to the festivals and events that bring our communities together. We're especially excited to spotlight other publishers and cultural organizations doing amazing work in Appalachia. Think of it as your monthly guide to the creative spirit of the mountain South – whether you've lived here your whole life or are just getting to know our corner of the world.

Want to take this journey with us? We'd love to have you along. You can use this form to submit your news.

—Natalie

Dir. of Programs, Appalachia Book Co.

“Why Every Appalachian Writer Is an Environmentalist”

From BookRiot: Kendra Winchester of Read Appalachia writes about environmental disaster in Appalachia and the many books Appalachians have written about it.

I’m already seeing Appalachian people roll up their sleeves and get to work. We don’t know what recovery will look like, but we’re going to fight for it.

How to help victims of Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene, now the deadliest hurricane to make US landfall since Katrina, has devasted parts of Appalachia. Our team in far eastern Kentucky wasn’t severely impacted. Our hearts break for the communities, families, and Appalachians impacted by this disaster.

For those looking to help or get assistance, visit https://asphome.org/helpafterhelene/ to donate or volunteer for assisting recovery and https://appvoices.org/helene-relief/ to find shelters, and area specific relief.

We’ll have more to share from our partner organizations in the coming months.

Coming Soon: Of Love and Water by Elizabeth Burton

The next chapbook in our Made In Appalachia series is a work of fiction about a young Kentucky woman living in far western China. Told in a masterful braiding of past and present, Of Love and Water is a story of renewal from writer Elizabeth Burton. 

Burton brings her personal experience of living in western China to the story, sharing glimpses of Uyghur culture and language. As she explains: 

The story was born from my fascination with the Silk Road region and its rich tapestry of cultures, as well as my personal experiences with horses in Kentucky. During my time in Kashgar, I often felt as foreign as Grace, the protagonist, allowing me to infuse the narrative with authentic details and emotions drawn from my own journey of adaptation and self-discovery in an unfamiliar land. I wondered what might happen if a character from Appalachia with a complicated past ended up in the Xinjiang Province of China. How might she react? How might she change? Grace is the result.

Of Love and Water is coming soon and will be available exclusively via our website.

Your thoughts on Mountain Dew?

And in case you haven’t noticed, Mountain Dew has changed its logo, bringing back the word ‘Mountain’ in the logotype after a 15 year hiatus.

According to writer Sarah Baird:

“Mountain Dew” is a centuries-old mountain slang term for moonshine, which Tennessee-bred creators Barney and Ally Hartman found fitting because their bubbly elixir was initially crafted as a mixer for whiskey in the early 1930s. It was hot potato’d around through several bottling companies before eventually being sold to Pepsi in 1964, and nationally marketed.

Read her Eater essay about the internalized shame of drinking Mountain Dew outside Appalachia. (Baird has a book about rural grocers, Shelf Stable, due out from University of Kentucky Press in 2025.)

Is Mountain Dew a deeply ingrained part of Appalachian culture? Does the phrase “Mountain Dew mouth” fill you with shame? Pride? Tell us your thoughts.

Mark your calendars:

Red Fox Storytelling Festival. Saturday, Oct. 26 6-8pm in Pound, VA. Sponsored by Appalshop. Hike up to Killing Rock for the story of the Killing Rock Massacre and a bonfire.

Kentucky Book Festival. Saturday, Nov. 2nd in Lexington, KY. A program of Kentucky Humanities, the 43rd annual festival will be held at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington, KY.

At Appalachia Book Company, our mission is to preserve and continue the literary culture of central Appalachia. We’re a nonprofit literary publisher based in far eastern Kentucky. Support from individuals like you is crucial to our success. If you can, please consider supporting our work.

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When Grace encounters the little horse at the market, she feels a connection. She’s come to western China to teach English — as far away from Kentucky as she possibly can get — but something about the horse reminds her of home, and she knows she has to help it. Adopting the horse stirs memories of her former life, and the man she left behind.

Told in a masterful braiding of past and present, Of Love and Water is a story of renewal from writer Elizabeth Burton. Burton brings her personal experience of living in western China to the story, sharing glimpses of Uyghur culture and language. Of Love and Water is a work of short fiction. 32 pages.

Purchase at Appalachia Book Co..

Another Way of Coming Home follows the troubled Harley Upton, a drug addict on the run after committing a crime that landed him on the local news—and on the Bartlett County police department’s radar. His search for a hideout leads to an encounter with a woman from his past, with severe consequences for both of them.

Told close in to Harley Upton’s own point of view, Another Way of Coming Home steeps readers in the rich beauty of the Appalachian land while reminding them that no man is safe from the justice of the mountains. Another Way of Coming Home is a work of short fiction. 24 pages.

Purchase at Appalachia Book Co.

'Rapture' chronicles the end of the world as witnessed by a wise-beyond-her-years teenager named Sarah. From a holler in far eastern Kentucky, Sarah and her brother Micah are forced to create a new normal under mysterious and scary circumstances. While they cope with the slow end of the world in different ways, Sarah reflects on what made life worth living in the first place. 45 pages.

Purchase at Appalachia Boo Co.