Appalachia Inside Out - Vol II

The two companion volumes of Appalachia Inside Out constitute the most comprehensive anthology of writings on Appalachia ever assembled. Representing the work of approximately two hundred authors—fiction writers, poets, scholars in disciplines such as history, literary criticism, and sociology—these books reveal the fascinating diversity of the region and lays to rest many of the reductive stereotypes long associated with it. These volumes reflect the recent proliferation of imaginative and critical writing about Appalachia—a proliferation that suggests nothing less than a renaissance of collective self-assessment. The selections are organized around a variety of themes and reveal both the radical changes the region has undergone as well as the persistence of certain defining features. What emerges in these pages is an Appalachia both familiar and strange: a mirror of lived life on the one hand and, on the other, a haunted realm of unimaginable loss and bewitching possibility.

Volume 2: Culture and Custom
Chapters - Family and Community; Religion and Worship; Folklore, Mythology, and Superstition; Dialect and Language; Sports and Play; Laughter and Humor; Education and Criticism; Regional Identity and the Future