Appalachian History

“The clouds were blowing away from a densely instarred sky; the moon was hardly more than a crescent and dipping low in the west, but he could see the sombre outline of the opposite mountain, and the white mists that shifted in a ghostly and elusive fashion along the summit. The night was still, save [...]

The work of Appalachian author James Still can be characterized as balancing a fully realized regional consciousness with a profound universality of theme.

“There are no second acts in American lives,” claimed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Clearly, he never anticipated the likes of Bonnie Heiskell Peters, Union County Tennessee Historian. Ms. Peters retired from her first act in intergovernmental relations for the TVA in 1990. Fortunately for us she hasn’t been content to rest on her laurels. Since [...]

Please welcome guest author Michael Rivers. Rivers is a southern writer of both fiction and non-fiction work. The following excerpt is from his forthcoming book ‘Appalachia Mountain Folklore,’ due out at the end of December, published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd, Atglen PA and available for pre-order now. Rivers’ previous books include ‘Verliege,’ ‘The Black Witch,’ [...]

But, strange as it seemed to him, there were minutes — sometimes half-hours — when, without his knowing why, the black burden seemed to lift itself again and he knew he was a living man and not a dead one. Slowly — slowly — for no reason that he knew of — he was “coming [...]