Get On the Bus

The Affrilachi­an poets are off on anoth­er bus tour of Cen­tral and South­ern Appalachia, bring­ing poems every­where they go. Too bad they're not mak­ing the trip far­ther into Yan­kee territory.

The Affrilachi­an Poets: A His­to­ry of the Word

What’s In a Name?

In 1991, Frank X Walk­er learned he did not exist.

That year, a read­ing in Lex­ing­ton, Ken­tucky, fea­tured four authors from the blue­grass state and poet Nikky Finney. Dubbed “The Best of South­ern Writ­ing,” the read­ing changed the course of Walker’s life. The orig­i­nal title of the event, “The Best of Appalachi­an Writ­ing,” had been altered to accom­mo­date Finney, a South Car­oli­na native. Finney, who is African-Amer­i­can, was the sole voice of col­or in the lineup. 

There are so many good poets out there; I despair of ever catch­ing up. I know and enjoy the work of Frank X. Walk­er, Nik­ki Finney and Crys­tal Wilkin­son, and am look­ing for­ward to read­ing more of these poets when my stacks get less intimidating.

I should men­tion I learned of this through Travis Nichols' post on Har­ri­et, which is a love­ly place to find dis­course on all kinds of poems and poets. It seems strange to me that his post has exact­ly no com­ments, when most any­thing on any obscure or tired sub­ject gets a few experts in line to quib­ble or aug­ment. This post has been up for a few days, and no one's showed. Make of that what you will.