LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia
LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia

Author: Jeff Mann

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This collection, the first of its kind, gathers original and previously published fiction and poetry from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer authors from Appalachia. Like much Appalachian literature, these works are pervaded with an attachment to family and the mountain landscape, yet balancing queer and Appalachian identities is an undertaking fraught with conflict. This collection confronts the problematic and complex intersections of place, family, sexuality, gender, and religion with which LGBTQ Appalachians often grapple. With works by established writers such as Dorothy Allison, Silas House, Ann Pancake, Fenton Johnson, and Nickole Brown and emerging writers such as Savannah Sipple, Rahul Mehta, Mesha Maren, and Jonathan Corcoran, this collection celebrates a literary canon made up of writers who give voice to what it means to be Appalachian and LGBTQ.

Loving Mountains, Loving Men
Loving Mountains, Loving Men

Author: Jeff Mann

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Published: 2023-08-22

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0821426044

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Gay man chronicles his relationship to his native Appalachian culture and society. Appalachians are known for their love of place, yet many LGBTQ+ people from the mountains flee to urban areas in search of community and broader acceptance. Jeff Mann tells his story as one who left and then returned, who insists on claiming and celebrating both regional and sexual identities. In memoir and poetry, Mann describes his life as an openly gay man who has remained true to his mountain roots. Mann recounts his upbringing in Hinton, a small town in southern West Virginia, as well as his realization of his homosexuality, his early encounters with homophobia, his coterie of supportive lesbian friends, and his initial attempts to escape his native region in hopes of finding a freer life in urban gay communities. Mann depicts his difficult search for a romantic relationship, the family members who have given him the strength to defy convention, his anger against religious intolerance and the violence of homophobia, and his love for the rich folk culture of the Highland South. His character and values shaped by the mountains, Mann has reconciled his sexuality with both traditional definitions of Appalachian manhood and his own attachment to home and kin. Loving Mountains, Loving Men is a compelling, universal story of making peace with oneself and the wider world.

Another Appalachia
Another Appalachia

Author: Neema Avashia

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9781952271427

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Examines both the roots and the resonance of Neema Avashia's identity as a queer desi Appalachian woman. With lyric and narrative explorations of foodways, religion, sports, standards of beauty, social media, and gun culture"--

Writing Appalachia
Writing Appalachia

Author: Katherine Ledford

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2020-03-17

Total Pages: 777

ISBN-13: 0813178819

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Despite the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding Appalachia, the region has nurtured and inspired some of the nation's finest writers. Featuring dozens of authors born into or adopted by the region over the past two centuries, Writing Appalachia showcases for the first time the nuances and contradictions that place Appalachia at the heart of American history. This comprehensive anthology covers an exceedingly diverse range of subjects, genres, and time periods, beginning with early Native American oral traditions and concluding with twenty-first-century writers such as Wendell Berry, bell hooks, Silas House, Barbara Kingsolver, and Frank X Walker. Slave narratives, local color writing, folklore, work songs, modernist prose—each piece explores unique Appalachian struggles, questions, and values. The collection also celebrates the significant contributions of women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community to the region's history and culture. Alongside Southern and Central Appalachian voices, the anthology features northern authors and selections that reflect the urban characteristics of the region. As one text gives way to the next, a more complete picture of Appalachia emerges—a landscape of contrasting visions and possibilities.

All the Gay Saints
All the Gay Saints

Author: Kayleb Rae Candrilli

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781947817128

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Whiting Award winner Kayleb Rae Candrilli's second full-length book, All the Gay Saints, is a collection of trans joy and resilience. Focused on love, partnership, and cultivating the landscape of one's own body, All the Gay Saints seeks happiness in a world saturated with transphobia and marred by climate change. Though this world is finite, these poems want you to live forever. They will unbarb your body if you let them."--Provided by publisher.

Storytelling in Queer Appalachia
Storytelling in Queer Appalachia

Author: Hillery Glasby

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781949199475

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Part I. The heart over the head: queer-affirming epistles and queerphobic challenges -- A letter to Appalachia / Amanda Hayes -- Challenging dominant Christianity's queerphobic rhetoric / Justin Ray Dutton -- Part II. Queer diaspora: existence and erasure in Appalachia -- A drowning in the foothills / Adam Denney -- A pedagogy of the flesh: deconstructing the "quare" Appalachian archetype / Matthew Thomas-Reid -- Pickin' and grinnin': quare hillbillies, counter rhetorics, and the recovery of home / Kim Gunter -- Part III. Both/and: intersectional understandings of Appalachian queers -- The crik is crooked: Appalachia as movable queer space / Lydia McDermott -- "Are y'all homos?": Mêtis as method for queer Appalachia / Caleb Pendygraft and Travis A. Rountree -- Queering trauma and resilience, Appalachian style! / delfin bautista -- Part IV. Queer media: radical acts of embodiment and resistance -- Working against the past: queering the Appalachian narrative / Tijah Bumgarner -- Writing the self: trans zine making in Appalachia / Savi Ettinger, Katie Manthey, Sonny Romano, and Cynthia Suryawan -- Queer Appalachia: a homespun praxis of rural resistance in Appalachian media / Gina Mamone and Sarah E. Meng.

Sweeter Voices Still
Sweeter Voices Still

Author: Ryan Schuessler

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2021-01-26

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1953368077

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“A collection of prose and poetry that aims to challenge clichés about LGBTQ+ life in the Midwest and Appalachia.” —The Buckeye Flame The middle of America―the Midwest, Appalachia, the Rust Belt, the Great Plains, the Upper South―is a queer place, and it always has been. The queer people of its cities, farms, and suburbs do not exist only to serve as “blue dots” within “red states.” Every story about a kid from Iowa who steps off the bus in Manhattan, ready to “finally” live, is a story about a kid who was already living in Iowa. Sweeter Voices Still is about that kid and has been written by people like them. This collection features queer voices you might recognize―established and successful writers and thinkers―and others you might not―people who don’t think of themselves as writers at all. You’ll find sex, love, and heartbreak and all the beings we meet along the way: trees, deer, cicadas, sturgeon. Most of all, you’ll find real people. If you’re seeking fully realized stories about the nuanced, joyous complexity of queer identity in the Midwest, Sweeter Voices Still is the book for you. “A marvelous ode to humanity and its passions [and] a reminder that LGBTQ individuals and communities (and those who exist outside the confines of the acronym) have always kept the Heartland beating.” ―Little Village Magazine Includes a foreword by Northwestern University professor Doug Kiel

Summer Sons
Summer Sons

Author: Lee Mandelo

Publisher: Tordotcom

Published: 2021-09-28

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1250790301

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Lee Mandelo's debut Summer Sons is a sweltering, queer Southern Gothic that crosses Appalachian street racing with academic intrigue, all haunted by a hungry ghost. Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him. As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble. And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

What You are Getting Wrong about Appalachia
What You are Getting Wrong about Appalachia

Author: Elizabeth Catte

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780998904146

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 2016, headlines declared Appalachia ground zero for America's "forgotten tribe" of white working class voters. Journalists flocked to the region to extract sympathetic profiles of families devastated by poverty, abandoned by establishment politics, and eager to consume cheap campaign promises. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia is a frank assessment of America's recent fascination with the people and problems of the region. The book analyzes trends in contemporary writing on Appalachia, presents a brief history of Appalachia with an eye toward unpacking Appalachian stereotypes, and provides examples of writing, art, and policy created by Appalachians as opposed to for Appalachians. The book offers a must-needed insider's perspective on the region.

The Prettiest Star
The Prettiest Star

Author: Carter Sickels

Publisher:

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9781938235832

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

EW's 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2020 - O Magazine's "31 LGBTQ Books That'll Change the Literary Landscape in 2020" - BookRiot's "Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of 2020" - Lambda Literary's "Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of May 2020" - Salon's "Best and boldest new must-read books for May" - BookPage's "19 can't-miss reads from independent publishers" - Garden & Gun's "Best Books of May" - Logo NewNowNext's "11 Queer Books We Can't Wait to Read This Spring" A stunning novel about the bounds of family and redemption, shines light on an overlooked part of the AIDs epidemic when men returned to their rural communities to die, by Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Award-winning author Carter Sickels. Small-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he's chosen to return to die. Set in 1986, a year after Rock Hudson's death brought the news of AIDS into living rooms and kitchens across America, Lambda Literary award-winning author Carter Sickels's second novel shines light on an overlooked part of the epidemic, those men who returned to the rural communities and families who'd rejected them. Six short years after Brian Jackson moved to New York City in search of freedom and acceptance, AIDS has claimed his lover, his friends, and his future. With nothing left in New York but memories of death, Brian decides to write his mother a letter asking to come back to the place, and family, he was once so desperate to escape. The Prettiest Star is told in a chorus of voices: Brian's mother Sharon; his fourteen-year-old sister, Jess, as she grapples with her brother's mysterious return; and the video diaries Brian makes to document his final summer. This is an urgent story about the politics and fragility of the body, of sex and shame. Above all, Carter Sickels's stunning novel explores the bounds of family and redemption. It is written at the far reaches of love and understanding, centering on the moments where those two forces stretch toward each other and sometimes touch.