That’s where the single narrative becomes so dangerous. Because people don’t know the history of the region, and they don’t understand its problems. Yet many of those same people have a great number of preconceived notions they aren’t afraid to unleash.
As I sat down to write this book, I was faced with this strange tightrope act: I wanted to write a book about why Appalachia and its people ended up as they have, but I also needed to acknowledge its sometimes brutal and horrible history.
The things that have always sustained me, and carried me through the darkness, and given me a world with color: the writing, and the voices, and the stories. I’ve found my voice in the wilderness. I’ve found other voices in the wilderness.
After two hundreds years, the choice between the do-gooder who ends up stealing you money and the asshole who doesn’t care whether you live or die is pretty simple: I’ll take the asshole every time
Thanks to our friends at Indy WordLab, Brad had the chance to read excerpts from The Summer of Run + So Far Appalachia for the first time in a public setting. Check out the videos and pictures.
Thanks to my friends at Indy WordLab, I’m giving the first public reading of So Far Appalachia. This is my last run-through before the event: The Introduction and Chapter 1.
There’s a great complexity to why Appalachia has ended up in its current economic and cultural states. Economic and political forces pushed against the region without any centralized plan for its development
While So Far Appalachia uses my family, the Bakers, as the backdrop for its narrative, the story is really about the larger issues that impact how we experience life in America. The more I research the book and the more I write on the blog, the more focused that will become on the site.
I’m a little behind on my So Far Appalachia writing, but I’m happy to report that full writing operations on So Far Appalachia are about to commence. The reason for the initial delay was that my writing partner John Borland and I have just put the last touches on Dungeons & Dreamers: A story of […]
“The only way it’s ever going to change for us is if a poor person is elected president, and that isn’t going to happen.” How I See People Viewing Appalachia When elections roll around, I try to pay close attention to how people speak about Appalachia. I do that because I’m both interested in how […]
“Hello cousin Brad. Just letting you know that Dad died this morning. The last of that group of Bakers. Glad you got to visit. Love Connie.” I received the text at 9:33 pm last night as my wife and I sat on the couch watching television. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to think […]
The difference between Bob and I was just a matter of degree. Our lives had taken on eerily similar trajectories. Yet an objective observer would have likely said my life was empirically better. The difference between my cousin and I was this: I carried a deep-seated shame that he didn’t know.