Written in 1986, Bettie Sellers's book of poems speaks for ordinary women whose lives have been confronted with unfortunate circumstances. Writing in a narrative and lyrical style, Sellers brings life to new stories and songs based on the downtrodden women she has encountered.

Liza's Monday and Other Poems (Community Enrichment)

Literature & Fiction

Sellers, Bettie

Poetry

Appalachian State University

Mountains Have Come Closer is a collection of poems by Jim Wayne Miller which draw on his life experiences growing up and living in Appalachia. Miller was awarded the Thomas Wolfe Award for the book in 1980.

The Mountains Have Come Closer

Miller, Jim Wayne

Over a period of forty years, Ben Fisher collected stories illustrating the humor of the Southern Highlander. English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish immigrants to the Appalachian region of North Carolina brought with them a rugged individualism and a sense of humor and dignity which have been characteristic of the sturdy yeoman farmer. Most mountain preachers and many of the old time mountaineers had a real talent for telling stories. While the "tall tale" is a staple of mountain storytelling, more often the tales relate to something that happened, not something just dreamed up. Mountain humor, like all folk humor, typically arises out of a life situation. Fisher's work, edited by his wife Sally following his passing, relates many of the stories and tales that he had heard over the course of his life.

Mountain Preacher Stories: Laughter Among the Trumpets

Humor & Entertainment

Fisher, Ben C.

Humor

The proceedings from the 1986 Appalachian Studies Conference includes contributions by Carl Ross; Ron Eller; Howard Dorgan; Ricky Cox; Becky Eller; Sally Bruce; Bennie Sinclair; Paul Salstrom; Dennis Soden; Parks Lanier; John McLaughlin; Betsy Covington; and Charles Watkins.

Contemporary Appalachia: In Search of a Usable Past

History

Americas

Critical Essays in Appalachian Life and Culture

This volume of the Journal of Appalachian Studies Association includes contributions by Elizabeth C. Fine; Archie Green; Kate Black and Marc A. Rhorer; Susan Eike Spalding; Linda Plaut and Lyn Wolz; Kathleen Curtis Wilson; Donald Edward Davis; Tom Costa; Robert Weise; Mary LaLone; Kim Gillespie; Anita Puckett; Pam B. Cole; Shaunna L. Scott; Sally Ward Maggard; and Richard Blaustein.

Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association: Appalachia and the Politics of Culture (Journal of the Appalachian Studies Association 1995)

Published in 1985, the Blue Ridge Parkway: Agent of Transition is a compilation of papers presented at the conference. Intended to be a celebration of the Parkway, the conference was a way for people to come together and examine the road's impact on the region and its people. Promoting unity and the idea of regional cooperation, the conference and its organizers invited a variety of speakers including landscape architects and civil engineers to talk about the parkway's natural impact on the environment, construction, and employment for thousands of mountain people. The parkway's 469 miles provide unparalleled views of the Blue Ridge and a look into the culture and traditions of the Southern mountaineer.

Blue Ridge Parkway: Agent of Transition

The first novelist from North Carolina to become an influential voice in American literature, Thomas Wolfe was an imaginative and persuasive fictional writer. Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, Thomas Wolfe is best known for his vivid portrayal of life in the mountains during the twentieth century. Published in 1999, Thomas Wolfe: A Writer's Life explores Wolfe's life and career spanning from 1900 until his early death in 1938. The author, Ted Mitchell, was a historic site interpreter at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site in Asheville. An earlier edition of this work was published by the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site without the interpretation of Mitchell.

Thomas Wolfe: A Writer's Life

Biographies & Memoirs

Mitchell, Ted

Arts & Literature

Published in 1982, The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible tells the colorful history of a remarkable American cultural institution. Opened by native Virginian Robert Porterfield in 1933, the Barter Theatre offered the people of Abingdon, Virginia, and the surrounding area entertainment and a much-needed escape from their Depression-era working lives. It became the State Theatre of Virginia in 1946 and it is where the likes of Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, Patricia Neal, Ned Beatty, and Hume Cronyn got their starts. Mark Dawidziak, a journalist from New York who spent much of his twenties in Appalachia and grew to admire the theater, tells the improbable story of the Barter Theatre, which remains one of the last year-round professional resident repertory theaters in the country.

The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible

Dawidziak, Mark

A fictional account of an actual family whose Scotch-Irish ancestors immigrated to western North Carolina in the early nineteenth century, Only When They're Littleis an authentic tale of Kate Pickens Day's family life near Asheville, North Carolina. Published in 1985, this book combats the stereotype of the impoverished mountain people by presenting a new narrative. A middle class family living in a fictional town near Asheville named "Tarpley," the book centers on an energetic and well educated woman named Cora Barker. Devoted to helping each of her family members excel in their chosen activity, this book is filled with drama, hardship, and the importance of being a good person.

Only When They're Little: The Story of an Appalachian Family

Day, Kate Pickens

United States

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