On taking your time
The mountain South has rooms for writers. Here's where to find them.
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Writers’ Workshop is the premier literary gathering of the Mountain South — a week-long residency open to published and unpublished writers alike.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.
“I would love to see Appalachian stories given to teen readers and writers. We have to encourage and inspire the next generation of writers to continue telling our stories.”
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.
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.