10 Great Appalachian Books to Read After “Hillbilly Elegy”
If Trump VP pick J.D. Vance's memoir sparked your interest in Appalachian literature, read these books next
When J.D. Vance released his memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis in 2016, it came out to rave reviews and cutting criticism. Even as it hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and earned an adaptation into a Ron Howard-directed Netflix film starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close, the memoir billed as “the true story of what a social, regional and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck,” not everyone read it as truth.
A New Republic story called it "little more than a list of myths about welfare queens repackaged as a primer on the White working class.” In a review of the film adaptation, Vulture writer Sarah Jones wrote, "The book is poverty porn wrapped in a right-wing message about the cultural pathologies of the region.”
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But like every region and people, Vance's book is far from the only treatise on Appalachia, nor the best one. We've rounded up 10 more fantastic books set in or featuring Appalachia to read next.
'Appalachian Fall' by Jeff Young
The Appalachian region has long been America's coal hopper, but the collapse of the industry has been devastating for its residents, leaving them especially vulnerable to the opioid crisis, unemployment and environmental crisis.
In Appalachian Fall, a group of local reporters known as the Ohio Valley ReSource shares the on-the-ground impact all of that has had on the region and what that portends for all of our futures.
'Every Bone a Prayer' by Ashley Blooms
Ashley Blooms' haunting, lyrical novel set in an Appalachian holler feels as dreamlike as it does deeply, painfully real. It follows a little girl named Misty who, after a terrible encounter with a male neighbor, is struggling to re-capture her connection to her beloved nature — and herself. There's an element of magical realism, but it remains firmly grounded in the people and places that populate the story.
'Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America' by Beth Macy
In this monumental, definitive account of the opioid crisis that became a Hulu limited series, journalist Beth Macy takes us from the sterile labs and soulless marketing of big pharma to desperate patients in local doctor's offices, and across both state and class lines. It paints a bleak, chilling picture of where we are and how we got here, a must-read for anyone living through this moment in history.
'What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia' by Elizabeth Catte
The title of this one says it all: After Hillbilly Elegy and the 2016 election cycle set off a flurry of media attention in the region, this book came along to correct the record. It looks at what the media (and stereotypes bred from it) get wrong about Appalachia and serves as a primer on art, literature and policy coming out of the region.
'Sugar Run' by Mesha Maren
This gripping, heartwrenching debut follows Jodi McCarty, who gets out of prison and has to find her footing in the face of unexpected freedom. She meets and falls in love with Miranda, a young single mom who's down on her luck, and the two hope to find brighter horizons together. It's a propulsive story, told in gorgeous writing.
'Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place' by Neema Avashia
Author Neema Avashia has turned people's disbelief that queer, desi Appalachians exist into a memoir, and the literary landscape is better for it. Another Appalachia explores Avashia's identity through the lens of food, religion, sports, gun culture, social media and so much more, in a refreshing and thoughtful blend of humor, nostalgia and incisive reflection.
'Affrilachia: Poems' by Frank X Walker
As a proud Kentucky native, Walker first coined the term “Affrilachia” to illustrate the unique intersectional experience of Black Americans living in the rural and Appalachian South, and his book has become a classroom standard since its first publication in 2000. If you've never read any Affrilachian poetry (or prose, for that matter), start here.
'Any Other Place: Stories' by Michael Croley
In this tightly woven collection of 13 stories, author Michael Croley's prose carries us from rural Kentucky and Ohio to a village in South Korea, all the while revealing the depth of displacement their characters face, wherever they are. It's about the meaning of home, the struggle toward belonging and the deeply human mistakes (and consequences) that are commonalities to us all.
'Southernmost' by Silas House
After a devastating flood that washes away much of a Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp risks everything by offering shelter to two gay men. His wife can't see past her religious prejudice, his congregation shuns him after he preaches acceptance, and his young son Justin finds himself in the middle of a tumultuous custody battle. Asher flees to Key West with Justin, where they find a new perspective and a new way of living. A timely, tender take on rural LGBTQ+ lives.
'The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia' by Emma Copley Eisenberg
One June 1980 night in Pocahontas County, W.V., two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered while hitchhiking to a festival called the Rainbow Gathering. For over a decade following, no one was prosecuted for the crime — although the suspicion that was cast on local residents wormed its way into the community.
This captivating, complicated narrative looks at how the case turned neighbors against each other in an investigation whose long fingers reach generations.
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