Monthly Archives: August 2008

Happy Labor Day? Not in Appalachia

(or any­where else, real­ly). CHARLESTON — The por­tion of Appalachi­an states liv­ing in pover­ty last year increased by 114,000 peo­ple to 13.3 mil­lion, accord­ing to U.S. Cen­sus Bureau fig­ures released Tues­day. But it's all going swim­ming­ly, isn't it? That's what … Con­tin­ue read­ing

Posted in Appalachia, labor day, matt wray, not quite white, poverty | Leave a comment

Cotton Season by Jim Parks

William Pierce, Jr., grasped his hip with both hands and tugged with all his strength against the action of the auger that had caught his leg and was pulling his body to bloody pieces. Red Smith locked eyes with him … Con­tin­ue read­ing

Posted in Cotton Season, Fiction, Jim Parks | Leave a comment

To Which I Can Only Say "No Shit?"

Study: Men­tal Ill­ness More Com­mon In Appalachia. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est, I find, from page 18 of this mam­moth report: Bar­ri­ers to the use of treat­ment ser­vices include social stig­ma for those who seek care, lack oftrans­porta­tion, non-recog­ni­­tion of the root … Con­tin­ue read­ing

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What's Coming Around the Ding-Dang

There are a num­ber of peo­ple stop­ping by today to read yesterday's post, by the way. Hi. No one's say­ing much, though. If you were—ahem—interested in this sort of sub­ject mat­ter, as you seem to be, what kinds of dis­cus­sions … Con­tin­ue read­ing

Posted in coming soon, jayne pupek, tomato girl | 1 Comment

Old-Time Religion by Beverly A. Jackson

(orig­i­nal­ly appeared in Dead Mule) She loves him as only a Chris­t­ian wom­an­can love a man; cru­ci­fies him with love,bears wit­ness to love, kills him with devo­tion.She is called Jude. She singsJe­sus Loves Me with a pow­er thatpromis­es He'd darn-sight … Con­tin­ue read­ing

Posted in beverly a. jackson, old-time religion, poetry | 4 Comments

Approaching the Rural Theme

Sven Birk­erts, in one of his many books or essays—every one is worth your while, by the way; I've read them many times in some cases—makes a case that we haven't real­ly seen a rep­re­sen­ta­tive lit­er­ary nov­el (I'd expand this … Con­tin­ue read­ing

Posted in contemporary lit, postmodernism, rural lit, sven birkerts | 1 Comment

Have Some Chicken And Joe!

Night Train is my main baby, let's keep that straight. How­ev­er much it's 'my' jour­nal, I feel con­strained, by dint of the sto­ries and poems we've pub­lished in the past, and our sta­tus as a non-prof­it com­bined with our incor­po­ra­tion … Con­tin­ue read­ing

Posted in the beginning | 12 Comments