Book Reviews+Storytelling
Featured
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Photo Essay, April 2025
Our readers share their images from the Smoky Mountains
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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.
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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.
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
David Cohen illustration
A Tractor Reborn for Christmas
The 1957 D-17 Allis-Chalmers tractor, faded by the sun and long unserviceable from languishing for years in the old machine shed, has recently been brought back to life by my cousin Gilbert.
Nov 27, 2024
The Smell of Wood Smoke
On winter mornings, the smell wood smoke in the air reminds me of my family’s wood stove. Our wood-fired cook stove stood in the dining room near the table. It was cast iron and had several cooking eyes, a water reservoir, and a baking oven.
Sep 24, 2024
