Participation Type
Experiential Presentation
Session Title
Appalachian Creative Writing from the Mountains, the Cityscapes, the Dissected Plateaus, and the Prairies
Session Abstract or Summary
Four creative writers from Appalachia will read creative nonfiction and fiction that explores and seeks to broaden what it means to be Appalachian, seeking dialogue and understanding between urban vs. rural, northern vs. southern, fundamentalist Christian vs. Catholic, and Ap-uh-latch-uh vs. Ap-uh-lay-shuh. These essays and short stories represent the specific experiences of Appalachians in rural Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Huntington, West Virginia; as well as the experiences of a displaced Appalachian in Stillwater, Oklahoma. These pieces also tackle the issues these regions often hold in common, including mental health, physical health, suicide, elder care, the opioid epidemic, and the environmental and economic dangers of a resource-based economy. Carrying on the tradition of Appalachian storytelling, these authors will share their narratives of grief after a twenty-two-year-old brother’s suicide, a complicated decision about an abortion, and recovery from a brain tumor. As in all Appalachian writing, the landscape looms in the background: the hills of West Virginia, the dissected plateaus of northern Pennsylvania, the streets of Pittsburgh, and, for the displaced Appalachian, the Oklahoma prairies.
Presentation #1 Title
An Infestation
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In "An Infestation," Sarah Beth Childers explores the hypnopompic hallucinations she began experiencing after she left Appalachia for Oklahoma, three years after her brother’s Joshua’s suicide. Experienced in a state between waking and sleeping, Sarah Beth’s hallucinations included a snake dropping from the ceiling into her bed and a writhing pile of creatures on her bedsheets that seemed to be a cross between maggots and rats. The essay tells the story of Joshua’s desperation to leave Appalachia for New York City, and it contrasts Sarah Beth’s voluntary displacement with the region’s native population, many of whom arrived via the Trail of Tears. This essay explores displacement and migration as both causes and cures for grief. Originally published in the Colorado Review, this essay is part of Smoo, Sarah Beth’s memoir-in-progress about Joshua’s life and suicide, her own and her family’s grief, and the particularly Appalachian problem of having a family too strong, too independent, and too Christian to seek treatment for mental illness.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Sarah Beth Childers is the author of the memoir-in-essays Shake Terribly the Earth: Stories from an Appalachian Family (Ohio University Press, 2013), and she is working on a memoir about her brother Joshua, who committed suicide in 2012. A West Virginia native, Sarah Beth lives with her cat and Boston terrier in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where she teaches creative nonfiction at Oklahoma State University.
Presentation #2 Title
This is Not a Mountain
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
In "This Is Not a Mountain," Matthew Ferrence writes of the strange exile of Northern Appalachia, a place where, among other things, a person grows up pronouncing Appalachia "wrong." By considering the metaphorical potential of geology as applied to both region and body, in this essay he writes through the curious notion of "reclaimed" strip mines, mountains that have been cared away, rebuilt, and considered restored, even though such places will never be what they once were. Instead, he offers the dynamics of erosion, particularly by the waterways that create Northern Appalachia's distinctive dendritic pattern, a process that has created the aspect of mountains in a part of the region that is, actually, a dissected plateau. By declaring erosion as an act of construction instead of destruction, Ferrence writes through the condition of his own post-brain tumor, Northern Appalachian life, re-orienting what makes the person and place and how a recognition of the shaping forces of time can help reorient notions of what counts as Appalachian.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Matthew Ferrence is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Allegheny College and the author of All-American Redneck (U Tennessee Press, 2014). His current project -- This Is Not a Mountain -- addresses the curious exile of being Northern Appalachian, of the metaphorical weight of being from a dissected plateau instead of a mountain, and of never-quite-recovering from the discovery of a brain tumor.
Presentation #3 Title
My Mother Has Postponed the Apocalypse
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
My Mother Has Postponed the Apocalypse is a memoir-in-essays that follows Rebecca's family and several other Huntington, West Virginia, families through loss, grief, and recovery. In 2012, Rebecca lost her little brother to suicide. Her mother began filling any extra space in her house with canned food, water purifiers, batteries, lanterns, and diapers, so she could barter with neighbors. She had happily read that the power grid was about to go out, and that in three years, her whole family would all be dead, joining Rebecca’s brother in heaven. But then, last year, things started looking up for Rebecca's family, and her mother announced without irony that the apocalypse had been postponed, giving her family permission to live in a world without her brother. Other essays in the collection explore the topics of murder, death from heroin overdose, genetic mental illness, and how Appalachians support each other in tragedy.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Rebecca Childers is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Marshall University and lives in Huntington, West Virginia to be near her sister, parents, and 90-year-old Grandpa. Her writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, and she is working on an essay collection titled My Mother Has Postponed the Apocalypse, focused on the joy and peace that Appalachians strive to find in the wake of tragedies such as suicide, opioid abuse, and poverty.
Presentation #4 Title
Two Gods
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lori D’Angelo’s short story “Two Gods” follows Alia, a young, devout Catholic, impoverished nursing home worker who gets pregnant after a one-night stand. Exploring the ways that religion can affect women’s physical and emotional health, the story portrays Alia’s experiences with fundamentalist Christian abortion protestors and a Catholic priest as she decides what to do about her pregnancy. Alia wrestles with the different versions of God that she sees reflected in the beliefs of the people around her. She also struggles with her own identity as a woman, trying to reconcile her image of herself as a “good girl” with her image of herself as the promiscuous Samaritan woman in the Bible that Jesus met at a well. As an Italian-American writer, Lori highlights the experiences and concerns of Roman Catholics in Pittsburgh, an urban region of Appalachia. Her stories focus on women’s sexuality, childbearing, and romantic and family relationships.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Lori D’Angelo‘s work has appeared in literary journals including The Bakery, Drunken Boat, Gargoyle, Gravel, Literary Mama, and Word Riot. She is a fellow at Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, a grant recipient from the Elizabeth George Foundation, and an alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Workshop.
Conference Subthemes
Environmental Sustainability, Health, Migration
An Infestation
In "An Infestation," Sarah Beth Childers explores the hypnopompic hallucinations she began experiencing after she left Appalachia for Oklahoma, three years after her brother’s Joshua’s suicide. Experienced in a state between waking and sleeping, Sarah Beth’s hallucinations included a snake dropping from the ceiling into her bed and a writhing pile of creatures on her bedsheets that seemed to be a cross between maggots and rats. The essay tells the story of Joshua’s desperation to leave Appalachia for New York City, and it contrasts Sarah Beth’s voluntary displacement with the region’s native population, many of whom arrived via the Trail of Tears. This essay explores displacement and migration as both causes and cures for grief. Originally published in the Colorado Review, this essay is part of Smoo, Sarah Beth’s memoir-in-progress about Joshua’s life and suicide, her own and her family’s grief, and the particularly Appalachian problem of having a family too strong, too independent, and too Christian to seek treatment for mental illness.
