Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Roundtable
Session Title
Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: A Roundtable Discussion
Session Abstract or Summary
Combating Appalachian stereotypes is the work of anyone interested in setting the record straight for insiders, outsiders, and those who fall somewhere in between. Many writers, especially those from the region, have taken the charge, seeking to portray Appalachia more accurately, highlighting the good while never shirking the bad, showing much to love and also much to hate. I can think of no more honest reckoning with the region than Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray’s edited collection Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: Meditations on the Forbidden from Contemporary Appalachia (2015). This volume offers 32 essays by new and emerging authors alongside familiar, well-established ones like bell hooks, Silas House, Chris Offutt, Crystal Wilkinson, and Dorothy Allison. Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean explores how people with roots in Appalachia have been silenced when it comes to discussing a range of taboo topics, from sex to sexual orientation, from non-Christian religions to domestic abuse and environmental degradation. The essays in this collection are invaluable not only because they seek to set the record straight, but also because in depicting the region realistically, they inspire hope that reform is possible—reform that would surely wither on the vine if dissenting voices remained forever silent.
For this roundtable, I have assembled five scholars and writers, each of whom will offer their reactions to Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean. While two of the participants are in the collection, Silas House and Crystal Wilkinson, they will discuss the significance of the collection as a whole, rather than reading their own contributions. In addition to short reaction papers, I plan to leave plenty of time for discussing, amongst the participants and the audience, this important new collection about Appalachia.
Presentation #1 Title
Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: A Roundtable Discussion
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Combating Appalachian stereotypes is the work of anyone interested in setting the record straight for insiders, outsiders, and those who fall somewhere in between. Many writers, especially those from the region, have taken the charge, seeking to portray Appalachia more accurately, highlighting the good while never shirking the bad, showing much to love and also much to hate. I can think of no more honest reckoning with the region than Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray’s edited collection Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: Meditations on the Forbidden from Contemporary Appalachia (2015). This volume offers 32 essays by new and emerging authors alongside familiar, well-established ones like bell hooks, Silas House, Chris Offutt, Crystal Wilkinson, and Dorothy Allison. Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean explores how people with roots in Appalachia have been silenced when it comes to discussing a range of taboo topics, from sex to sexual orientation, from non-Christian religions to domestic abuse and environmental degradation. The essays in this collection are invaluable not only because they seek to set the record straight, but also because in depicting the region realistically, they inspire hope that reform is possible—reform that would surely wither on the vine if dissenting voices remained forever silent.
For this roundtable, I have assembled five scholars and writers, each of whom will offer their reactions to Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean. While two of the participants are in the collection, Silas House and Crystal Wilkinson, they will discuss the significance of the collection as a whole, rather than reading their own contributions. In addition to short reaction papers, I plan to leave plenty of time for discussing, amongst the participants and the audience, this important new collection about Appalachia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Zackary Vernon is an Assistant Professor of English at Appalachian State University. His teaching and writing focus on American literature, film, and environmental studies, and he has an abiding interest in the material and cultural histories of Appalachia and the American South. Vernon's research has appeared in a range of scholarly books and journals, and he is a co-editor of and contributor to Summoning the Dead: Critical Essays on Ron Rash (forthcoming with the University of South Carolina Press).
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Travis Rountree is a doctoral candidate at the University of Louisville with research interests and teaching competencies in space/place regional theories and pedagogies, community engagement, themed composition courses (Appalachian Studies and LGBTQ), New South Studies, public memory studies, ballads, and Appalachian History and Literature. His dissertation is on rhetorical depictions of the Hillsville, Virginia Courthouse Shootout of 1912. Specifically, he analyzes how the shootout was and continues to be depicted in the media, ballads, contemporary plays, public memory displays in the museums, and performances of gender.
Travis took his master’s degree in English from Appalachian State University with a teaching certificate in Appalachian Studies. His BA is from James Madison University with a minor in American Studies. He recently served on Bedford/St. Martin’s New Scholars Advisory board as well as finishing up his two-year tenure as the Assistant Director of Composition at U of L.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Meredith Doster is a doctoral candidate at Emory University in American Religious Cultures with research interests and teaching competencies in space/place theories and pedagogies, critical regionalism, spiritual voyeurism/media studies, women's religious narratives, and Appalachian Studies. Meredith's dissertation, "I Love to Tell the Story: The Burden of Appalachian Religion," traces the interplay between regional and national identity formation and assesses the cultural currency of American exceptionalism via the perceived deficits of one region's "religion."
Meredith earned a master's degree in Appalachian Studies from Appalachian State University and a bachelors degree in Music from Barnard College. In addition to her research and teaching, Meredith is pursuing a certificate in Digital Scholarship and Media Studies. Meredith has also served as editorial associate, assistant managing editor, and managing editor of the online, peer-reviewed journal Southern Spaces.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Crystal Wilkinson is the Appalachian Writer-in-Residence at Berea College's Loyal Jones Appalachian Center. A native of Casey County, Kentucky, Wilkinson is the author of several award-winning books, including Blackberries, Blackberries, Water Street, and Birds of Opulence. She is also a founding member of Affrilachian Poets.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #5
Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of five novels, three plays, and one book of creative nonfiction. His work often appears The New York Times and Salon and he has been published in magazines and journals such as Oxford American, Narrative, Blackbird, Newsday, and many others. He is the winner of the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Helen Lewis Award for Community Service, the E.B. White Award, the Lee Smith Award, and many others. He is a native of Eastern Kentucky and currently serves as the NEH Chair in Appalachian Studies at Berea College and on the fiction faculty of the Spalding University MFA in Creative Writing.
Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: A Roundtable Discussion
Combating Appalachian stereotypes is the work of anyone interested in setting the record straight for insiders, outsiders, and those who fall somewhere in between. Many writers, especially those from the region, have taken the charge, seeking to portray Appalachia more accurately, highlighting the good while never shirking the bad, showing much to love and also much to hate. I can think of no more honest reckoning with the region than Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray’s edited collection Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: Meditations on the Forbidden from Contemporary Appalachia (2015). This volume offers 32 essays by new and emerging authors alongside familiar, well-established ones like bell hooks, Silas House, Chris Offutt, Crystal Wilkinson, and Dorothy Allison. Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean explores how people with roots in Appalachia have been silenced when it comes to discussing a range of taboo topics, from sex to sexual orientation, from non-Christian religions to domestic abuse and environmental degradation. The essays in this collection are invaluable not only because they seek to set the record straight, but also because in depicting the region realistically, they inspire hope that reform is possible—reform that would surely wither on the vine if dissenting voices remained forever silent.
For this roundtable, I have assembled five scholars and writers, each of whom will offer their reactions to Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean. While two of the participants are in the collection, Silas House and Crystal Wilkinson, they will discuss the significance of the collection as a whole, rather than reading their own contributions. In addition to short reaction papers, I plan to leave plenty of time for discussing, amongst the participants and the audience, this important new collection about Appalachia.
