Listen Here
“Listen Here is a virtual key to the treasury of writing on Appalachia by the women whose knowledge of the region stands out most prominently. Nowhere else can you find in one volume so much biographical and bibliographical information on more than a hundred creators of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama from the Southern mountains. This is a long-needed resource that will be indispensable from the day of its publication. I hope and expect it will become a primary reference that steers readers not only to the most famous women writers of Appalachia, but to the lesser-known ones as well.”
—John Egerton, author of Generations: An American Family
“This is the culmination of long dedication and a big vision and has been much anticipated. We all owe Sandy Ballard and Pat Hudson huge thanks for compiling such a compelling and necessary addition to our collective literature.”
—Jerry W. Williamson, Appalachian State University
“It is common knowledge that women have been instrumental in shaping genres and creating traditions in Appalachian writing for well over a century and a quarter, but when their contribution is viewed comprehensively, a collective genius, which is not to deny any individual genius, shines through, creating not merely surprise but a shock of recognition…of the range and quality of their writing. Remedies of all kinds form a substantial part of Appalachian folklore. Listen Here is also a remedy, not for aches and pains, but for oversight or indifference of much of our cultural and literary heritage. The store of jewels in our own house, we come to realize in reading it, is greater than many of us ever realized. The symbol for the selections here is a garden with diversity and beauty for many tastes. Here is the perfect illustration of the flowering of Appalachian writing where the blooming itself has not been late, but only the critical recognition of it.”
—Robert J. Higgs, East Tennessee State University
LISTEN HERE
Women Writing in Appalachia
EDITED BY SANDRA L. BALLARD AND PATRICIA L. HUDSON
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
Copyright © 2003 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-8131-9066-2 (pbk: alk. paper)
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
Because this page cannot legibly accommodate all the copyright notices, the notices appear at the end of the book as an extension of the copyright page.
CONTENTS
Chronology of Works
Acknowledgements
About the Editors
Introduction
SHEILA KAY ADAMS
The Easter Frock, from Come Go Home With Me
DOROTHY ALLISON
from Bastard Out of Carolina
LISA ALTHER
from Five Minutes in Heaven
MAGGIE ANDERSON
Ontological
Long Story
Sonnet for Her Labor
A Place with Promise
ANNE W. ARMSTRONG
from This Day and Time
HARRIETTE SIMPSON ARNOW
from Hunter's Horn
from Seedtime on the Cumberland
The First Ride
SYLVIA TRENT AUXIER
Neighbors
When Grandmother Wept
Cicada's Song
Someday in a Wood
The Stair
MARILOU AWIAKTA
Women Die Like Trees
When Earth Becomes an “It”
Anorexia Bulimia Speaks from the Grave
A Time to Reweave, from Selu
A Time to Study Law, from Selu
Out of Ashes Peace Will Rise
ARTIE ANN BATES
Belinda, Our Tremendous Gift
FRANCES COURTENAY BAYLOR
from Behind the Blue Ridge
SUE ELLEN BRIDGERS
from Sara Will
FLORENCE COPE BUSH
from Dorie: Woman of the Mountains
KATHRYN STRIPLING BYER
Wildwood Flower
Bittersweet
Lineage
Easter
Mountain Time
CANDIE CARAWAN
from Sing for Freedom
JO CARSON
40, from Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet
49, from Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet
from Maybe, The Last of the ‘Waltz Across Texas’ and Other Stories
from Daytrips
REBECCA CAUDILL
from My Appalachia
LILLIE D. CHAFFIN
Second Christmas
Spending the Night
Discipline
The Glad Gardener
LOLETTA CLOUSE
from Wilder
ANN COBB
The Boy
Hospitality
The Widow Man
Kivers
LISA COFFMAN
In Envy of Migration
Maps
About the Pelvis
Tick
AMY TIPTON CORTNER
The Hillbilly Vampire
The Vampire Ethnographer
No Minority
LOU V.P. CRABTREE
Homer-Snake, from Sweet Hollow
Sister
Sports Widow
OLIVE TILFORD DARGAN [FIELDING BURKE]
from Call Home the Heart
DORIS DAVENPORT
Country
for Dr. Josefina Garcia & the “Tissue Committee”
zora neale
REBECCA HARDING DAVIS
from Life in the Iron Mills
ANN DEAGON
Giving the Sun
The Hole
Twins
Poetics South
In a Time of Drought
Broadside
ANGELYN DEBORD
from Praise House
ANNIE DILLARD
from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
HILDA DOWNER
This is what history is
A woman is segmented as an ant
Every open space fills with sky
MURIEL MILLER DRESSLER
Appalachia
Elegy For Jody
WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE
from Fiddling His Way to Fame, The Heart of Old Hickory
WILMA DYKEMAN
from Return the Innocent Earth
from The French Broad
SARAH BARNWELL ELLIOTT
from The Durket Sperret
SIDNEY SAYLOR FARR
from More than Moonshine
Granny Brock
Mountains Fill Up the Night
Appalachia, Where are your Hills?
NIKKY FINNEY
from Queen Ida's Hair-Doing House of Waves, Heartwood
Irons At Her Feet
LUCY FURMAN
from Sight to the Blind
DENISE GIARDINA
from The Unquiet Earth
JANICE HOLT GILES
from Hannah Fowler
NIKKI GIOVANNI
Griots, from Racism 101
Knoxville, Tennessee
Revolutionary Dreams
A Poem Off Center
GAIL GODWIN
from A Southern Family
CONNIE JORDAN GREEN
from The War at Home
VIRGINIA HAMILTON
from M. C. Higgins the Great
PAULETTA HANSEL
Writing Lessons (I.)
She
Writing Lessons (II.)
To her mother, lying in state
CORRA HARRIS
from A Circuit Rider's Wife
MILDRED HAUN
from The Hawk's Done Gone
ELLESA CLAY HIGH
from Past Titan Rock
MARY BOZEMAN HODGES
Ms. Ida Mae, from Tough Customers and Other Stories
GLORIA HOUSTON
from My Great-Aunt Arizona
LEE HOWARD
Momma's Letter
The Last Unmined Vein
MARY JOHNSTON
from The Long Roll
MARY HARRIS “MOTHER” JONES
from The Autobiography of Mother Jones
JANE WILSON JOYCE
Life and Art in East Tennessee
Hooked Album Quilt, 1870
MAY JUSTUS
Weather Rhymes
EDITH SUMMERS KELLEY
from Weeds
LEATHA KENDRICK
from No Place Like Home
The Familiar Level
Refusing a Spinal
BARBARA KINGSOLVER
from The Bean Trees
from Prodigal Summer
LISA KOGER
from Extended Learning, Farlanburg Stories
CATHERINE LANDIS
from Some Days There's Pie
LILY MAY LEDFORD
from Coon Creek Girl
GRACE LUMPKIN
from To Make My Bread
GEORGE ELLA LYON
from With A Hammer for My Heart
Where I'm From
Rings
Salvation
Growing Light
LINDA PARSONS MARION
Mulberries
To My Daughter Going Off to College
Welcome to the Other Side
Good Luck Charm
CATHERINE MARSHALL
from Christy
BELINDA ANN MASON
The Gifts of the Spirit
KATHY L. MAY
Rain
Saved
Ascension
TRUDA WILLIAMS MCCOY
from The McCoys
SHARYN MCCRUMB
from The Songcatcher
JEANNE MCDONALD
from Up the Hill toward Home
KAREN SALYER MCELMURRAY
from Mother of the Disappeared: An Appalachian Birth Mother's Journey
LLEWELLYN MCKERNAN
Many Waters
For My Grandmother Who Knows How
The Hollow
Mother Milking
Music
IRENE MCKINNEY
Twilight in West Virginia: Six O'Clock Mine Report
Deep Mining
Sunday Morning, 1950
The Only Portrait of Emily Dickinson
Visiting My Gravesite: Talbott Churchyard, West Virginia
LOUISE MCNEILL
The Other Woman
Aubade to Fear (Heavy with Child)
Hill Daughter
Arrow Grasses by Greenbrier River
from The Milkweed Ladies
JANE MERCHANT
Lanterns and Lamps
First Plowing in the Hills
EMMA BELL MILES
from The Spirit of the Mountains
HEATHER ROSS MILLER
from The Edge of the Woods
Seventh Grades
Breadstuff
JANICE TOWNLEY MOORE
All Those Nights
Under The Earth
The Way Back
MARIJO MOORE
Story is a Woman
Solidarity in the Night
Ahlawe Usv’ Tsigesvgi
Rumors, from Red Woman With Backward Eyes
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
from In the Tennessee Mountains
ELAINE FOWLER PALENCIA
Briers, from Brier Country: Stories from the Blue Valley
JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS
from Machine Dreams
from Motherkind
LYNN POWELL
Nativity
Echocardiogram
The Calling
BARBARA PRESNELL
In the Kitchen We String Beans
Clarissa and the Second Coming
When You Lose a Child
Snake Dreams
RITA SIMS QUILLEN
July 18, 1966
Woman Writer
I Used To Be A Teacup
Discovered
How Do You Remember Him?
JEAN RITCHIE
from Singing Family of the Cumberlands
ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS
from The Time of Man
ANNE NEWPORT ROYALL
from Sketches of History, Life, and Manners, in the United States
CYNTHIA RYLANT
from Missing May
BETTIE SELLERS
Pink
Mornings, Sheba Combs Her Hair
Liza's Monday
The Morning of the Red-Tailed Hawk
All On A Summer's Afternoon
Legacy For Rachel
MARY LEE SETTLE
from Addie
from The Killing Ground
ANNE SHELBY
Why I Write
Fat Sestina
Spellcheck
MURIEL EARLEY SHEPPARD
from Cabins in the Laurel
BETSY SHOLL
Appalachian Winter
ELLEN HARVEY SHOWELL
from Our Mountain
BENNIE LEE SINCLAIR
Homecoming
Kathy
My Father. His Rabbits.
Backwoods Haiku
VERNA MAE SLONE
from What My Heart Wants to Tell
BARBARA SMITH
Bad News
And This Is The Way To Be Poor
The Language of Poetry
EFFIE WALLER SMITH
Memories of Home
LEE SMITH
from Saving Grace
JANE STUART
Cycles from Transparencies
Where Stuarts Lie
Roots
Composition
ADRIANA TRIGIANI
from Big Stone Gap
DANA WILDSMITH
Economy
New Poor
A Dry Spring
Our Bodies Remember
Force
SYLVIA WILKINSON
from Shadow of the Mountain
MEREDITH SUE WILLIS
My Boy Elroy, from In the Mountains of America
LEIGH ALLISON WILSON
from The Raising, From the Bottom Up
MARY ELIZABETH WITHERSPOON
from The Morning Cool
More Women Writing in Appalachia
A Selected Bibliography
Index of Titles and Authors
Permissions
CHRONOLOGY OF WORKS
ANNE NEWPORT ROYALL
from Sketches of History, Life, and Manners…(1826)
REBECCA HARDING DAVIS
from Life in the Iron Mills (1861)
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
from In the Tennessee Mountains (1884)
FRANCES COURTENAY BAYLOR
from Behind the Blue Ridge (1887)
WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE
from The Heart of Old Hickory (1895)
SARAH BARNWELL ELLIOTT
from The Durket Sperret (1898)
EMMA BELL MILES
from The Spirit of the Mountains (1905)
CORRA HARRIS
from A Circuit Rider's Wife (1910)
MARY JOHNSTON
from The Long Roll (1911)
LUCY FURMAN
from Sight to the Blind (1914)
ANN COBB
from Kinfolks: Kentucky Mountain Rhymes (1922)
EDITH SUMMERS KELLEY
from Weeds (1923)
MARY HARRIS “MOTHER” JONES
from The Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925)
ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS
from The Time of Man (1926)
ANNE W. ARMSTRONG
from This Day and Time (1930)
OLIVE TILFORD DARGAN [FIELDING BURKE]
from Call Home the Heart (1932)
GRACE LUMPKIN
from To Make My Bread (1932)
MURIEL EARLEY SHEPPARD
from Cabins in the Laurel (1935)
MILDRED HAUN
from The Hawk's Done Gone (1940)
HARRIETTE SIMPSON ARNOW
from Hunter's Horn (1949)
SYLVIA TRENT AUXIER
from Love-Vine (1953)
JANE MERCHANT
from The Greatest of These (1954)
WILMA DYKEMAN
from The French Broad (1955)
JEAN RITCHIE
from Singing Family of the Cumberlands (1955)
JANICE HOLT GILES
from Hannah Fowler (1956)
HARRIETTE SIMPSON ARNOW
from Seedtime on the Cumberland (1960)
HEATHER ROSS MILLER
from The Edge of the Woods (1964)
REBECCA CAUDILL
from My Appalachia: A Reminiscence (1966)
MAY JUSTUS
from The Complete Peddler's Pack (1966)
CATHERINE MARSHALL
from Christy (1967)
JANE STUART
from Eyes of the Mole (1967)
SYLVIA TRENT AUXIER
from With Thorn and Stone: New and Selected Poems (1968)
MARY HARRIS “MOTHER” JONES
from The Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925)
BENNIE LEE SINCLAIR
from Little Chicago Suite (1971)
LOUISE MCNEILL
from Paradox Hill (1972)
MARY ELIZABETH WITHERSPOON
from The Morning Cool (1972)
WILMA DYKEMAN
from Return the Innocent Earth (1973)
JANE STUART
from White Barn (1973)
LILLIE D. CHAFFIN
from 8th Day, 13th Moon (1974)
ANN DEAGON
from Poetics South (1974)
ANNIE DILLARD
from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974)
VIRGINIA HAMILTON
from M.C. Higgins the Great (1974)
ANN DEAGON
from Women and Children First (1976)
TRUDA WILLIAMS MCCOY
from The McCoys (1976)
MURIEL MILLER DRESSLER
from Appalachia (1977)
SYLVIA WILKINSON
from Shadow of the Mountain (1977)
MARILOU AWIAKTA