Tag: Appalachian

  • Hemingway’s Superstitions

    Hemingway’s Superstitions

      [caption id="attachment_4645" align="aligncenter" width="836"] Hemingway[/caption]   Hemingway's love of cats is well-documented. It is said that he had nearly 60 cats at Finca, his Cuban home. Visit Key West and you are likely to encounter some of the six-toed descendants of Hemingway's cats. The[..]
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    29 05 , 2019 1 Comment
  • The Female Criminals in the Family

    The Female Criminals in the Family

    The boy, who is somewhat of an expert in tracking down records, sent me a copy of the 1930 Census last night. He included this note: Your Aunt Cil was a jailbird that day. It is hardly headline news to anyone that our family's ancestry[..]
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    15 01 , 2019 1 Comment
  • Our People

    Our People

      I just got off the phone with our son. Stephan is living in Columbus, Georgia, the town I grew up in. Of all the people I expected to live in Georgia, I never expected it to be our son. But as Mary Engelbreit so[..]
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    14 01 , 2019 1 Comment
  • About Hillbilly Elegy & Those Who Champion Us

    About Hillbilly Elegy & Those Who Champion Us

      [caption id="attachment_2870" align="aligncenter" width="919"] Photo by Sue Counts[/caption] I've been reading the book that everyone was talking about six months ago - Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. It has been touted as an insightful book about Appalachia and more specifically about the people who voted Donald[..]
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    06 03 , 2017 15 Comments
  • Fiddleheads: Giveaway

    Fiddleheads: Giveaway

      You may or may not have heard that I have a new book coming out later this year from Mercer University Press: BURDY. It is the sequel to MOTHER OF RAIN. You definitely will want to read MOTHER OF RAIN before reading BURDY. There will[..]
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    09 02 , 2015 12 Comments
  • Who My People Are

    Who My People Are

      My people are a superstitious bunch. We don't walk behind rocking chairs. We don't iron on Sundays. Lord, God forgive us quick if we break a mirror. Who can afford seven years of bad luck? My people know that if your nose is itching,[..]
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    12 11 , 2014 No Comments
  • Mothers & Mental Illness

    Mothers & Mental Illness

      My childhood girlfriend was institutionalized following the birth of her first-born. Here she was, ten years later, in the third-trimester of her second pregnancy, talking out of her head again. We were having one of our catch-up phone calls. She from her home in[..]
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    02 01 , 2014 No Comments
  • HEROES OF HOPE AND HEALING

    HEROES OF HOPE AND HEALING

    This was posted first at the Vietnam Memorial Wall Foundation blog.  By Karen Spears Zacharias Some people know them as the “Yellow Hatters”, the familiar park service volunteers dressed in bright yellow shirts and matching hats who stand ready at The Wall. Ready to help with a pencil[..]
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    01 11 , 2013 No Comments