Appalachian Review

Keats In Your Time of Pandemic

Summer 2020 ♦

Creative Nonfiction

You remember in Rome you stood in front of a facsimile of a remarkably narrow sleigh bed, a suggestion of the actual bed in which Keats died from consumption when he was twenty-five. What caught your attention were the ceiling carvings over the bed, and you studied them a long…

In Conversation: Karen Salyer McElmurray & Elaine Neil Orr

Elaine Neil Orr ♦

Blog ♦

Interview

Karen Salyer McElmurray grew up in both Eastern and Central Kentucky and her work in fiction and nonfiction is haunted by that between world of mountains and flatlands. Wanting Radiance, McElmurray’s third novel, addresses this space between as its protagonist seeks history and love and an authentic self. McElmurray’s debut novel, Strange Birds in…

Poems by Frank X Walker

Frank X Walker ♦

Spring 2020 ♦

Poetry

On Mother’s Day I’m going to pretend that mine ain’t dead, that she just got Corona. Because she was a nurse I know she’d be very serious about social distancing, hand washing, and the wearing of masks. So me and my siblings would probably plant ourselves six feet apart in…

Pile of Feathers

Bethany Holmstrom ♦

Spring 2020 ♦

Fiction

The pile of feathers was right in the middle of the dirt side-path, leading to the ruins of a tobacco shed. The feathers were clean, June noticed that first: as if freshly plucked, no hint of parasites or smell of decay. “Get away, Elvis.” The hound dog abandoned his tentative…

Where Have All the Safety Pins Gone?

Angela Jackson-Brown ♦

Summer 2020 ♦

Creative Nonfiction

2016 was the year of trauma. Prince died. Muhammad Ali died. Harper Lee died. The Pulse nightclub shooting occurred. Philando Castile was murdered by the police in front of his girlfriend and her four year old daughter. Donald Trump was elected president. Trauma. One trauma after another. My life has…

Secondhand Stories

Rebecca Hazelwood ♦

Spring 2020 ♦

Creative Nonfiction

Most summer Saturday nights of my childhood, I snuggled in the crook of Granny Gracie’s bare legs, just the two of us watching The Golden Girls on the big box TV in her living room, taking lessons from Blanche Devereaux. When Blanche mentioned being as jumpy as a virgin at…

Coming Soon: Our Spring Issue

Jason Kyle Howard ♦

Spring 2020 ♦

Due to the pandemic, our spring issue has been delayed but is now in the final stages of production and will be making its way to subscribers soon, followed shortly by the summer issue. Lots of fine work is inside, including a series of poems responding to our current moment…

In Conversation: Carter Sickels

Robert Gipe ♦

Spring 2020 ♦

Interview

In January, as he walked through the crowded streets of Park City, Utah, Carter Sickels’s year looked set. The film adaptation of his debut novel The Evening Hour had just premiered to critical buzz at the Sundance Film Festival. Praise was already rolling in for his second novel The Prettiest…

A Statement About Our Name

Jason Kyle Howard ♦

Blog ♦

When Appalachian Heritage was founded in 1973 by the poet Albert Stewart, it offered a haven for regional writers whose work had often been overlooked and dismissed by literary gatekeepers. Twelve years later, the publication found a permanent home at Berea College in a partnership that fused Stewart’s welcoming vision with…

Excerpt from ‘Even As We Breathe’, a novel by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle ♦

Fall 2019/Winter 2020 ♦

Fiction

About the place—when I take you there or when you find it on your own, just know that what the old folks say is true. This land is ours because of what is buried in the ground, not what words appear on a paper. But also know this: what is…