Seven-Second Meditation
Outside the window a red-headed house finch plucks seed down from the grass as if he is running late for the theater, rifling through the bureau drawers, tossing scarves over his shoulder, shells.
Balance
A frantic sound is coming from the laundry room. I drop the book I’m reading, race in, and open the aging pale-yellow washer that doesn’t know how to stop itself. I redistribute the clothes, shut the lid, and stand watch for a few minutes to make sure it stays balanced.…
Smart House
Maxine knows there’ll be trouble the minute she sees the black bear roaming her front yard, a shadow in the drab morning light. It’s small, a youngster, with a chest blaze, and it munches from an ash bush still laden with late fall berries. Thirty-six years on this earth, in…
Winter 2019 Editor’s Note
At a recent conference focused on Appalachia, a prospective contributor approached our magazine’s exhibit booth and began perusing a recent issue. She had submitted some work during our last reading period, she told a student worker, and she indicated her familiarity with some of our contributors. Then she proceeded to…
2018 Denny C. Plattner Awards
We are proud to announce the winners of the annual Denny C. Plattner Awards, which were established in 1995 by Kenneth and Elissa Plattner to honor their late son and his love of writing. The awards are given to the finest pieces of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry that appeared…
Interview: Filmmaker Sally Rubin
hillbilly, the new documentary film directed by Sally Rubin and Ashley York, is an examination of images and stereotypes about Appalachia and its people. The film works to combat stereotypes of Appalachia as a homogeneous region, using the 2016 presidential election as a window for examining how the region is…
Fall 2018 Editor’s Note
Each fall, Appalachian Heritage devotes a special section of the magazine to a featured author, and over the years we have celebrated some of the finest writers in the country. But this year is different. Instead of a single author, we have delved into our archives to present a collection…
Not All That Much
It wasn’t all that much, you might say, nothing to write home about, just a heavy green floor of ground cedar and springy peat littered with reindeer moss and lichened stones, here and there evidence of flying squirrels, muddy punctures in the cloth of the moss, and coyotes, their ropey,…
Letters to Asylum
1. August 17, 1960 Dear Sir: The fall rages on with no regard for grieving mothers. We are lonesome on this hill without her. Everybody cries. Soon we’ll have blood red leaves scattered across the pastures. Regarding my daughter, how is she getting along? It’s so hot the dogs’ tongues…
Fantasy Worlds
When I was in high school, my favorite actress was Katharine Hepburn. She wore those man-style trousers, and with her neatly coiffed hair she was the perfect mix of tomboy and girly girl. She had the most unusual voice; it was not so pleasing to the ear and very nasal.…