A reading from our upcoming anthology: Wide Branches, Deep Roots: How
Appalachian Wisdom Can Help Us All in the Fight for a Sustainable Future

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In Appalachia, storytelling is integral to forming connections between place, history, and identity; it is also ultimately how we sustain these. We are editing an anthology of writings by Appalachian authors who address these issues while exploring how our stories can help create a healthy, sustainable world for future generations. This anthology, forthcoming from West Virginia University Press, is titled Wide Branches, Deep Roots: How Appalachian Wisdom Can Help Us All in the Fight for a Sustainable Future. For our presentation, we will read selections from our chapters, which tell the stories of how our family histories connect us with the land and give us a stake in its future.

 

BIOS:

Jessica Jones teaches creative writing, Native American literature and composition at Kent State University-Stark. She comes from a long line of makers and musicians in Northern Appalachia where trees and animals were among her first teachers. She holds a Masters from the University of Montana and her chapbook, Bitterroot (2018), can be found at Finishing Line Press.

 

Amanda Hayes teaches English and composition at Kent State University-Tuscarawas. A multi-generational Appalachian Ohioan, her first book, The Politics of Appalachian Rhetoric, won the Nancy Dasher Award in 2019 and was followed by The Madison Women: Gender, Higher Education, and Literacy in Nineteenth-Century Appalachia in 2024.