Book Reviews+Storytelling
Featured
-
Giving Mother Nature a Helping Hand
I pen this note on a brisk spring day. As the old saying goes, March came in like a lion. Only this year, the lion has no intention of being tamed into a lamb anytime soon.
-
Photo provided by GSMNP archives
With Pen in Hand
As the librarian archivist for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Michael Aday, along with his wife, Denise Aday, have put together a book from some of the 1.4 million documents in the Park’s archives.
-
David Cohen illustration.
A Fondness for Box Turtles
In the 1960s, my Marion, North Carolina, neighborhood had yards with flower beds and vegetable gardens, with cow pastures and woods nearby. One day my father called me from play and said, “Come here and see what I found in the backyard.”
Operation Eradicate the Invasives
I had looked at them long enough, threatened to get rid of them since the moment I first spied their wretched branches invading my sacred forest. For the last time I gazed through my sliding glass door with nothing but contempt and hostility.
Apr 1, 2025
Mules Save Mountaineers
Imagine, if you will, a nice piece of land, a manageable 50 or so acres that run from ridgeline to riverbank. A place where your people put down roots having fled “The Mother Country,” whether that country was Ireland, Scotland or England.
Apr 1, 2025
Photo Essay, February 2025
Our readers share their photos from around the Southern Appalachians.
Feb 1, 2025
The Beloved Banty Birds
It began in the springtime, as most of our clucking adventures do. My daughter, like most consumers, is drawn to the cutesy “farm-life” items: metal chicken lawn décor, farm-themed ornaments, and more pet toys than you can shake a stick at.
Feb 1, 2025
How Bookmobiles Came to North Carolina’s High Country
The library system in the high country counties of Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey still runs a bookmobile. Their long history doesn’t start with the first bookmobile. It actually starts with the first settlers to the mountains.
Nov 27, 2024
Travis Bumgardner illustration
An Appalachian Christmas Tree
In the way back woods of Appalachia circa 1978, everyone I knew had a special place where they procured a tree for the holidays. A place where perfection is cultivated.
Nov 27, 2024
Photo provided by GSMNP archives
