Summary

This collection of over thirty pieces explores the connections between Appalachia’s stories, traditions, and modern events and the pathway to regional sustainability. The contributors—writers and scholars—consider what sustainability means in an Appalachian context and demonstrate how to utilize regional knowledge to achieve it, while offering specific actions for readers.

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Decentralist Fever

Chapter 1 – Appalachian Localism and the Back-to-the-Land Movement

Chapter 2 – Going “Guerilla” in the War on Poverty

Chapter 3 – From Heathcote to Hamlin

Chapter 4 – Appalachia’s Heirs

Chapter 5 – Trust in the Hills

Chapter 6 – Hooray for the Outsiders!

Chapter 7 – Our Struggle Is a Barometer

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index 

Author

Jessica M. Jones serves as full-time faculty at Kent State University, where she teaches creative writing, Native American literature and place-based composition. She comes from a long line of makers and musicians in Northern Appalachia and prefers to live life out of doors. She holds a master’s from the University of Montana with K-12 licensure and training in Montana Indian Education for All. Her poetry and essays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, and her chapbook, Bitterroot, can be found at Finishing Line Press.

Amanda E. Hayes teaches English and composition at Kent State University-Tuscarawas. Raised on a multigenerational family farm in Appalachian Ohio, she now researches and writes about regional traditions of literacy, storytelling, and education. Her works include The Politics of Appalachian Rhetoric and The Madison Women: Gender, Higher Education, and Literacy in Nineteenth-Century Appalachia.

Contributors: Greg Bealer, Luc Biscan-White, David Blackmore, Aysha Bodenhamer, Ivy Brashear, Matthew Calloway, Nicole Drewitz-Crockett, Christina Fisanick, Deborah Fleming, Amanda V. Garner, Karie Gunter-Seymour, Richard Hague, Amanda E. Hayes, Lockie Hunter, Jessica M. Jones, Kristen LeFevers, Sarah Long, Meghan Moore-Hubbard, Barbara Marie Minney, Jessica Radicic, Elizabeth Emmerth Rexroad, Barbara Sabol, Larry Smith, Patrice Stank, Taylor Nasim Stone, Paul Thomas, Elizabeth Tussey, and Betsy Weems.

Praise

“Wide Branches, Deep Roots is a joy to anyone who has known the truth all along—that sustainability and environmental stewardship in the Appalachian region is not just a passing fad, but an inherited practice since the region’s inception. Its impact will extend beyond the classroom to local historians, community organizers, and environmental activists who will find in it a mirror for their lived experiences accompanied with strong models of sustainable, place-based advocacy.”  –  Marti Wagnon, assistant professor of English in the School of Writing, Language, and Literature at Radford University