Appalachian Literature

Appalachian Literature
in
Otterbein's Library

Appalachian Literature: Criticism, Stories & Films

Appalachian Novelists:
Agee, James. A Death in the Family. PZ4 .A265 De
This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. It is partly autobiographical about a happy
Tennessee family and what happens when the father is killed in an auto accident.

Alther, Lisa. Kinflicks. PZ4 .A4674 Ki3
The central figure of this novel is Ginny Babcock, a character often compared to
Holden Caulfield. The story is set in Tennessee, but she flees north, and later returns
when her mother is dying.
---. Other Women. PZ4 .A4674 Ot 1985
A doctor's wife undergoes psychotherapy to discover herself.

Arnow, Harriet. The Dollmaker. PZ4 .A756 Do 1972
A classic story of Gertie Nevels’ family set in Detroit during World War II .

Ball, Bo. Appalachian Patterns: Stories by Bo Ball. PZ4 .B189 Ap 1988
Short stories set in the Western part of Virginia during the 1930’s and 1940s.

Berry, Wendell.
---. Hannah Coulter: A Novel. PZ4.B4779 Ha 2004
---. Jayber Crow: A Novel. PZ4.B51 Ja 2000
---. The Memory of Old Jack. PZ4.B4779 Me 1999
---. A Place on Earth. PZ4 .B51 Pl 1983
---. Remembering: A Novel. PZ4 .B51 Re 1988
---. The Wheel. PS3552 .E75 W45 1982
---. The Wild Birds: Six stories of the Port William Membership. PZ4 .B51 Wi 1986

Caldwell, Wyne. Catalooche. PZ4 .C34275 Ca 2007

Caldwell, a native of North Carolina set this novel in the Cataloochee Valley and covering the period from the Civil War to 1828. Three families and four generations are brought to life in what Kirkus Reviews called "a lovely and gently captivating first novel.

Chappell, Fred. I Am One of You Forever. PZ4 .C475 Ia 1985
A North Carolina author writes of a boy growing up in the 1940s.

Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. PZ4 .F843 Co 1997 & (audio book)
PZ4 .F843 Co 1997 An epic tale of a Civil War deserter making his way home to Cold Mountain in North Carolina.

Giardina, Denise. Storming Heaven: A Novel. PZ4 .G365 St 1988
Centered around the Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921, in Annadel, West Virginia. The U.S. Army was called in to break up the 10,000 unemployed, protesting miners.

Godwin, Gail. The Finishing School. PZ4 .G576 Fi

A psychological novel about Justin Stokes, a 40-year-old actress with flashbacks of her life and move from Virginia to upstate New York.
---. The Odd Woman. PZ4 .G576 Od 1980
Odd in this case refers to someone not paired with another person. Jane Clifford is a 32-year-old teacher of literature at a Midwestern college.
---. A Southern Family. PZ4 ,G576 So 1987
Set in fictional Mountain City, North Carolina, this novel delves into family reactions and relationships after the suicide of a young father.

House, Silas. Clay's Quilt: A Novel. PZ4 .H6873 Cl 2001

A first novel set in a small Kentucky mining town about a young coal miner, orphaned at four, and the residents of the community who become his family. Appalachian music, religion and culture are warmly depicted.

---. The Coal Tattoo. PZ4 .H6873 Co 2005
House's third novel about the same family; Clay of Clay's Quilt appears as a baby at the end of this novel. Roger Cunningham in The Journal of Appalachian Studies as a novel of character.

Hyman, Mac. No Time for Sergeants. PZ4 .H996 No

A comic novel about army life and a country "bumpkin" that was turned into a movie with Andy Griffith, and later a stage play and TV show.

Lumpkin, Grace. To Make My Bread. PS3523 .U54 T6 1995
A novel about the industrialization of the Appalachian South, told through a story of the McClure family who left the rural hills to work in the textile mills. Regarded as one of the lost novels of the '30s, it was originally reviewed by the New Republic as the best of books about the 1929 Gastonia, N.C. strike. Lumpkin was born in Georgia and her family later moved to South Carolina and she eventually lived and worked in New York City. She worked with communists, but later in the '50s returned to her conservative roots and testified before the U.S. Senate about the dangers of communism.

Lyon, George Ella. With a Hammer for My Heart. PZ4 .L9894 Wi 1997
A novel set in Kentucky of a girl about to leave for college and an old man who lives in a book-filled bus.

Marshall, Catherine. Christy. PZ4 .M3669 Ch
The story of Marshall’s mother who served in a mission in 1912 in Cutter Gap, Ky. at
the age of 19.

Marlette, Doug. The Bridge. PZ4.M3754 Br 2002
The author was a Pulitzer Prize winner cartoonist *Kudzu" from North Carolina. His first novel told a story loosely based on his family's participation in the cotton mill strike of 1934 in which his own grandmother had been bayonetted by the National Guard.

Mason, Bobbie Ann. Feather Crowns. PZ4 .M386 Fe 1993
Imagine the McCaughey family, but set the story in Kentucky at the turn on the
century with the first quintuplets to be born in the United States.
---. In Country.       PZ4 .M386 In
A coming of age tale set in Kentucky, about a 17-year old whose father was killed in Vietnam.
---. Love Life: Stories.    PZ4 .M386 Lo 1989
Stories of the struggles of contemporary working class people.
---. Nancy Culpepper. PZ4 .M37749 Na 2006
One of Mason's characters from a 1980s short story reappears now as the central figure in a series of stories that construct a novel about the difficulty of leaving Appalachia and feeling at home in the North.
---. Shiloh and Other Stories. PZ4 .M392 S5 1982
A collection of stories about contemporary Kentucky people and changing social conditions.
---. Spence & Lila.    PZ4 .M386 Sp 1988
A married couple in Kentucky as Lila undergoes surgery for Breast Cancer.
---. Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail. PZ4 .M386 Zi 2002
Short stories about middle-aged women faced with caring for children, and parents and still independent and determined.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Orchard Keeper. PZ4 .M1227 Or 1982
A novel about the coming of age of a young man in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, a bootlegger and an aged orchard keeper, whose lives are intertwined.
---. The Road. PZ4.M3233 Ro 2006
A father and his son are walking towards a mountain path somewhere in the Tennessee - Georgia region. It is already fall and they know they can't survive another winter in the mountains. There is no sun; the end times are here.
---. Suttree. PZ4.M1227 Su
A grim and violent novel set Knoxville, TN in the ‘50s about a loner who has fled his heritage and is drawn into the city’s subculture of the unemployed and hopeless.

McCrumb, Sharyn. Her Ballad Series:
---.The Ballad of Frankie Silver. PZ4 .M1296 Ba 1998
---. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O. PZ4 .M132 If 1991
---. The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. PZ4 .M1296 Ha 1993
---. The Rosewood Casket. PZ4 .N132 Ro1997 and
(Audio book) PZ4 .M132 Ro 1996a
---. She Walks These Hills. PZ4. M132 Sh 1995 & (Audio book)
---. She Walks These Hills Danish. Kvinden der Hjemsøgte disse Bjerge.
PZ4. M132 Kv 1998 Archives
---. She Walks These Hills. French, Le Fantôme des Collines.
PZ4. M132 Fa 1998 Archives
---. She Walks These Hills. German, Schatten über den Bergen.
PZ4. M132 Sch 1995 Archives
---. She Walks These Hills. Japanese, Okawo Samayou Onna.
PZ4 M132 Sh 1996 Archives
---. The Songcatcher: A Ballad Novel PZ4 M132 So 2001

---. Foggy Mountain Breakdown. PZ4 .M132 Fo 1998

A book of short stories.

McCrumb's Elizabeth McPherson Series:
---. If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him. PZ4 .M132 Id 1996
---. Lovely in Her Bones.    PZ4 .M132 Lo 1990
---. MacPherson's Lament. PZ4 .M132 Ma 1993
---. Missing Susan.   PZ4 .M132 Mi 1991
---. Sick of Shadows.   PZ4.M132 Si 1989
---. The Windsor Knot.    PZ4 .M132 Wi 1992

Videos of McCrumb's Vist:

An Evening of Readings with Sharyn McCrumb and Sweetwater. (video, 90 min.)
F217 .A65 M139 1999 c.2

---. Mountains of the Heart. (video, 60 min.)
F217 .A65 M138 1998
Sharyn McCrumb's convocation address, October 28, 1998 in which she discusses her writing and how the culture of the Appalachian region where she grew up influenced the development of the characters she created in her Ballad series.

McWhirter, Millie. Hushed Were the Hills. PZ4 .M1784 Hu

Set in the 1930's and written in the voice of an eight-year-old girl whose widowed mother takes her and her sister along as the mother begins a job as teacher in the hills of Tennessee.

Miller, Jim Wayne. Newfound. PZ4 .M617 N3 1996

A coming of age novel by a North Carolina born author who was a primary influence in
Appalachian studies and literature.

Morgan, Robert.
Morgan was born in the mountains of North Carolina and his hardworking characters are drawn from his experiences and from family stories handed down from his Welsh ancestors.
-----. The Blue Valley. PZ 4 .M6732 Bl 1989
---. Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage. PZ4 .M6732 Ga 1999

---. The Mountains Won't Remember Us. PZ4 .M6732 Mo 1992

Norman, Guerney. Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories. PZ4 .N8464 Ki
Short stories of a young boy’s growth toward manhood set in Eastern Kentucky
after World War II.

Pancake, Ann. Strange as this Weather Has Been. PZ4 .P3455 St 2007
A first novel, set in West Virginia about the "destrution of land and people in the Appalachian coalfields."

Phillips, Jayne Ann. Shelter. PZ4 .P5583 Sh 1994
A terrifying novel set in a summer camp in West Virginia in the '60s.

Roberts, Elizabeth Madox. Great Meadow. PZ3 .R54145 G4
A tale of early pioneer life in Kentucky and of the Scotch-Irish who pushed beyond the
Appalachians. The New Republic said “her prose…retains the pristine freshness of the Elizabethan song.

Smith, Lee.

---. Cakewalk. PZ4.S64738 Ca 1983 (stories)

---. The Devil's Dream. PZ4.S64738 De 1993
Concerns country musicians.

---. Fancy Strut. PZ4 .S651 Fan 1987
A novel set in Alabama during preparations for Sesquicentennial Week.
---. Fair and Tender Ladies. PZ4 .S651 Fa 1988
A novel, written in the form of letters, that tell the life story of Ivy Rowe.

---. The Last Girls: A Novel. PZ4.S64738 La 2003
College classmates recreating a trip down the Mississippi.
---. On Agate Hill: A Novel. PZ4 .S64738 On 2007
Historical fiction about a modern-day woman, who finds the diaries of Molly Petre, a Civil-War orphan and others, that reconstruct her life.
---. Oral History. PZ4 .S651 Or 1993
The story of the Cantrell family, folklore and a haunted house.

---. Saving Grace. PZ4.S64738 Sa 1995
Themes of religion and a preacher's daughter.

Still, James. River of Earth. PZ3 .S8566 Ri 1978.
One of the classics of Appalachian literature, told through the eyes of a young boy.
---. Run for the Elbertas. PZ3 .S8577 Ru 1980
Stories of the Kentucky mountains during the 1920's.

Stuart, Jesse. His Novels:
---. The Beatinest Boy. Juvenile JF St92b
---. Come Back to the Farm.    PZ3 .S9306 Cn
---. Daughter of the Legend.    PZ3. S9306 Dau
---. The Good Spirit of Laurel Ridge.    PZ3 .S9306 Go
---. Hie To the Hunters.    PZ3 .S9306 Hi
---. The Land Beyond the River.   PZ3 . S9306 Lan
---. Mr. Gallion's School.    PZ3 .S9306 Mi
---. My Land Has a Voice. PZ3.S9306 My

Wilkinson, Crystal. Blackberries, Blackberries. PZ4.W55269 Bl 2000
Short stories of Black women in rural Kentucky which defy stereotypes.

---. Water Street. PS3573 .I44 W3 2005

Wilkinson grew up in rural Kentucky, and this book of short stories was listed as a finalist for both the UKs Orange Prize for Fiction as well as the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award for Fiction. The characters in the thirteen stories, as described by Wilson-Young in the Arkansas Review, speak a universal language - the language of an American people confused about their identity.

Wright, Harold Bell. The Shepherd of the Hills. PZ3 .W9324 1907

Wright was an extremely popular novelist between 1895 and 1926. This novel concerns a disillusioned minister from Chicago who becomes the Shepherd of many people in the Ozarks. It is a romance based on values of hardwork, love and patriotism intermixed with religious values.

Appalachian Poets:
Awiakta, Marilou. Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet.
PS3570 .H64237 A64 1995
Poetry by an Appalachian Cherokee raised near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, about the the effects of technology and the atomic bomb on humanity.

Baber, Bob Henry, George Ella Lyon and Gurney Norman. Old Wounds, New Words: Poems from the Appalachian Poetry Project. PS554 .043 1994.
Poems collected during the ’80’s.

Berry, Wendell. Collected Poems. PS3552 .E75 1985
---. The Country of Marriage. PS3552.E75 C64 1975
--- Given: New Poems. PS3552.E75 G58 2005
---. A Part. PS3552 .E75 P3 - Nature poems about Kentucky.

Carson, Jo. Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet. PS3553 .A7674 S76 1991 c.2
49 poems inspired by listening to conversations Appalachian Tennessee.

Chappell, Fred. First and Last Words. PS3553 .H298 F57 1989
Poetry by a winner of the Bollingen Prize.

Finney, Nikky. Rice. PS3556 .I53 R53 1995
Poetry of a founding member of the Afrolachian Poets and an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Kentucky.

Giovanni, Nikki. Black Feeling Black Talk. PS3557 .I55 B6 1970
---. Gemini.    PS35557 .I55 Z5 1976
---. My House.    PS3557 .I55 M9 1983
---. Racism 101.    PS3557 .I55 Z47 1994
---. Sacred Cows…and Other Edibles. PS3557 .I55 S24 1989
---. Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni. PS3557 .I55 A6 1996
---. Spin a Soft Black Song.   J811 .54 G439s
---. Those Who Ride the Night Winds.   PS3557 .I55 T5 1983
---. Vacation Time: Poems for Children. PS3557 .I55 V3
---. The Women and the Men.   PS3557 .I55 W6 1975

Goode, James B. Up from the Mines. PS3557 .054 U6 1993

Goode's grandfather was a miner who died of Black Lung disease and wrote poems that give voice to Appalachian coal miners. The book also includes 50 photographs by Malcolm J. Wilson.

Miller, Jim Wayne. Dialogue with a Dead Man. PS3563 .I4127 D5
---. The Mountains Have Come Closer. PS3563 .I4127 M64
---. Nostalgia for 70. PS3563 .I4127 N69 1986a
---. Vein of Words. PS3563 .I4127 V4
Poetry by an award winning, North Carolina born poet.

Mitchell, Felicia. Her Words: Diverse Voices in Contemporary Appalachian Poetry.

PS554 .H47 2002
Contains poetry as well as criticism for 20 poets.

Powell, Lynn. The Zones of Paradise. PS3566 .083255 .Z66 2003

---. Old & New Testaments. PS3566 .083255 O43 1995
Powell won the Brittingham Prize in Poetry in 1995.

Smith, Effie Waller Smith. The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith.
PS3537 .M36 1991
An African American poet (1879-1960) who wrote of the Cumberland Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky.

Stuart, Jesse. "The poet laureate of Kentucky."

---. Album of Destiny. PS3537 .T92516 A7

---. Hold April: New Poems. PS3537 .T92516 H6 1962
---. Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow. PS3537.T92516 M3 1934
---. The World of Jesse Stuart; Selected Poems. PS3537 .T92516 A6 1975

Williams, Jonathan. Blues & Roots, Rue & Bluets: A Garland for the Southern Appalachians. PS3545 .I52966 B64 1985
Poetry that captures the language and spirit of the people he listened to as he hiked
the Appalachian Trail.

Appalachian Literature: Criticism, Stories & Films:

Abramson, Rudy and Jean Haskell, eds. Encyclopedia of Appalachia.
Ref F106 .E53 2006
A multidisciplinary encyclopedia of all things Appalachian that includes biographies of significant Appalachian authors.

Ballard, Sandra L. and Patricia L. Hudson, eds. Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia. PS554 .L57 2003

A collection of poetry, stories and excerpts from larger works.Biographies and a bibliography is included for each author.

Berry, Wendell.
A Kentucky native and writer of novels, essays and poetry.
---. The Art of the Common-Place: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry.
S441 .B47 2002
---. "A Bad Big Idea." in The Case Against Free Trade: GATT, NAFTA, and the Globalization of Corporate Power. 158-162. HF1746 .C37 1993
---. "Christianity and the Survival of Creation." in Sacred Trusts: Essays on Stewardship and Responsibility. 38-54. GF80 .S23 1993
---. Citizenship Papers. HD1761 .B468 2003
---. Farming: A Hand Book. PS3552 .E75 F3 Copy 2
---. The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural. HD1415 .B47
---. "The Making of a Marginal Farm." in American Lives. 677-685 CT211 .A48 1994
---. Recollected Essays. 1965-1980. E169 .12 .B3962 1981
---. Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays. HN59.2 .B47 1994
---. Standing by Words: Essays. PS3552.E75 S7 2005
---. The Unsettling of America. HD1761 .B47 1996

Clark, Billy C. Sourwood Tales: Stories by Billly C. Clark. PZ4 .C5992 So 1968
A Kentucky native's stories of the "town" of Sourwood near Sourwood Mountain. At least one of the stories is set in Catlettsville in Eastern Kentucky, where Clark was born.

Dyer, Joyce. Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers. PS286 .A6 B57
Brief biographies and photos of 35 women authors from the Southern Highlands.

Emblidge, David, ed. The Appalachian Trail Reader. F106 .A63 996Z
Contains trail diaries, historical and personal essays, and poems of the Appalachian Trail.

Higgs, Robert J., Ambrose N. Manning, and Jim Wayne Miller. Appalachia Inside Out: Conflict and Change. PS554 .A65 1995 v. 1
Short readings on the history, heroes, people, feuds and sense of place in the hills.

---. Culture and Custom. PS554 .A65 1995 v.2
More readings about family, community, religion, folklore, sports, humor, education,
and identity and the future.

In Ya Blood (video) PN1997 .I6 1971
A dramatic film about the decision faced by all Appalachian youth – whether to say in the mountains or leave in search of a better life.

Marshall, Ian. Story Line: Exploring the Literature of the Appalachian Trail.
PS286 .A6 M37 1998
Ecofeminism, community, Cherokee myths, Annie Dillard and a travel guide wrapped into one.

McKinney, Irene, ed. Backcountry: Contemporary Writing in West Virginia.
PS558 .W4 B33 2002

Poems and excerpts from stories and memoirs collected from writers connected by their attention to history and place in their writing.

Pancake, Breece D’J. The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake. PS3566 .A559 1983
Stories set in the mountain hollows of West Virginia, the only published work of this author who died at age 27, but wrote intimately about rugged mountain men who were often isolated and sad.

Sayles, John. Matewan. (video 142 min.) HD 5326 .W4 M38 1996
A fictional story about the unions and the coal mines in West Virginia during the 1920’s.

Schenkkan, Robert. The Kentucky Cycle. PS3569 .C4833 K46 1993
Nine short plays by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, set in Eastern Kentucky - three families & 200 years.

Stuart, Jesse.
A Kentucky born author who wrote novels, stories, autobiography and poetry about the Appalachian sense of family, community and language.
---. Dawn of Remembered Spring.   PS3537 .T92516 A6 1972 (stories & poems)
---. God’s Oddling: The Story of Mick Stuart, My Father.    PS3537 .T92516 G6
---. A Jesse Stuart Reader.  PS3537 .T92516 A6 1963
---. Plowshare in Heaven: Stories.   PZ3 .S9306 PL
---. Save Every Lamb.    PS3537 .T92516 S3 (stories)
---. The Thread that Runs So True.   PS3537 .T92516 Z5 (autobiographical novel)
---. The Year of My Rebirth.    RC682 .S8

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