Red Holler: Contemporary Appalachian Literature - Paperback

by John Branscum (Editor), Wayne Thomas (Editor)

"Buy this book, it's a barn burner!"--Dorothy Allison

In an extraordinarily diverse anthology of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and graphic narratives by contemporary Appalachian writers, Red Holler takes us over and beyond the stock imagery of rural mountain communities. We travel into housing projects, forest-stripped ravines, and trailer parks, to explore vibrant hometown and migrant Appalachian cultures. Editors John E. Branscum and Wayne Thomas have assembled a collection spanning ten years and communities in locales ranging from Mississippi to New York, placing fresh new voices alongside widely known and celebrated authors. Drawing on Appalachian literature's roots in Native American myth, African American urban legend, and European folk culture, and embracing Appalachian urban fiction, the Southern Gothic, gritty no-holds-barred realism, and magical realism, the stories and poems of Red Holler elegantly cohere to perfectly depict what makes Appalachia so fascinating: its irreverent and outlaw challenges to mainstream notions of propriety and convention.

Author Biography

John E. Branscum grew up in the small-town trailer parks and inner-city housing projects of Kentucky, Arkansas, and California. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs pedagogy committee, and text editor for Black and Grey Magazine. He is the recipient of the national Ursula K. Le Guin Award for Imaginative Fiction, several Academy of American Poets awards, and has made appearances in Best American Non-required Reading, and Best American Horror.

Wayne Thomas is the author of plays, fiction, and essays. He teaches creative writing at Tusculum College, a small school located in the northeast Tennessee mountains. He is editor of The Tusculum Review.