Red Holler: Contemporary Appalachian Literature

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: John Branscum
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Published: 10/08/2013
Pages: 235
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781936747665


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/15/2013
Library Journal 09/01/2013 pg. 110

About the Author
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.