Twenty-First-Century Appalachian Literature

Although Appalachia and its authors resist political definition and economic category, one can say that twenty-first century Appalachian writers attempt to define what changes and what endures in a rapidly globalizing world. As Pulitzer Prize finalist Maurice Manning has noted, at the core of Appalachian literature is a tension between an appreciation of the region and an “anxiety for legitimacy”; this observation reflects the challenges facing authors from a region still often seen as “other” by the broader American culture. Some contemporary Appalachian authors explore which traditions are worth preserving and which ones should fall by the wayside, while others consider how to preserve and expand their Appalachian identity, a process that they sometimes connect with preservation and innovation in literary style. In short, many twentieth-century Appalachian authors cultivate in their readers an appreciation of Appalachian perspectives from a self-aware otherness that is sometimes tradition tethered yet is willing to go far beyond received notions about the region.

Tony Earley

Tony Earley was born in San Antonio, Texas, and grew up in North Carolina near the Blue Ridge Mountains. He graduated from Warren Wilson College in 1983 and earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama. Since 1997 he has taught writing at Vanderbilt University....

Blake M. Hausman

Blake Hausman, an author, professor, and citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, was born in Michigan and grew up in North Carolina and Georgia. His mother is Cherokee and his father is Jewish. After earning a BA from the University of Georgia, Hausman earned an MA at Western Washington University and a PhD at the University of California–Berkeley, where he studied creative writing and Native American literatures....

Rose McLarney

Rose McLarney was reared near Asheville, North Carolina. From an early age, she had a keen love for the mountains, which she credits in part for her decision to attend Warren Wilson College for both her BA and MFA degrees, where she has also taught. McLarney is a professor of creative writing at Auburn University. She has published two collections of poems, ...

doris davenport

doris davenport, born and reared in northeast Georgia, continues to identify as an Appalachian despite living and working outside the region. She holds degrees from Paine College (BA), the State University of New York at Buffalo (MA), and the University of Southern California (PhD) and teaches at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama....

Jason Miller

Born John Anthony Miller in Long Island City, Queens, New York City, playwright and actor Jason Miller had deep connections to the anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania. The son of Irish American parents and grandson of a coal miner, Miller was reared in the Lackawana Valley. After earning a BA from the University of Scranton and studying theater at the Catholic University of America, Miller lived in New York City to pursue a career in acting and playwriting....

Breece D’J Pancake

Although Breece D’J Pancake published only a handful of short stories during his brief life, their mastery has secured him a high ranking in Appalachian literature. Born and reared in Milton, West Virginia, Pancake completed his BA degree in English education at Marshall University in 1974. He taught at two military high schools, Fort Union and Staunton, before studying creative writing at the University of Virginia. Pancake felt culturally at odds with the university’s traditionally elite student body, and while there, he cultivated a “mountain man” persona. (In truth, Pancake did enjoy hunting and fishing throughout his life.) Pancake’s unusual middle name was the result of a printer’s error at the ...

Jim Wayne Miller

Reared in western North Carolina on a farm in Buncombe County near his maternal and paternal grandparents, Jim Wayne Miller completed his undergraduate work at Berea College in 1958 and earned his doctorate in German literature at Vanderbilt University in 1965. Throughout his professional life, he taught German at Western Kentucky University....

Lynn Powell

Born and reared in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Lynn Powell often focuses her poetry on spirituality and its infusion into daily life. She attended Carson-Newman College, where she received her BA (1977), and she earned her MFA at Cornell University (1980). Powell has focused on bringing poetry into public schools, both during her work as a writer in the schools for the Tennessee Arts Commission and in her later role as the director of the Writers in the Schools program at Oberlin College....

Don Johnson

Poet Don Johnson was born and reared in Poca, West Virginia, a small town near a coal-fired energy plant. He earned a BA (1964) and MA (1966) from the University of Hawaii, where he played football, and a PhD (1972) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Johnson served as editor of ...