Unbroken Circle: Stories of Cultural Diversity in the South (Appalachian Writing) - Softcover

Offutt, Chris; Willis, Meredith Sue; White, Charles Dodd; Mann, Jeff; Argiri, Laura; Lippincott Et Al, Robbin; Napier, Okey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 093308773X ISBN 13: 9780933087736

Publisher: Bottom Dog Press, 2017

Synopsis

One of the goals of Unbroken Circle is to subvert stereotypes—to show that Southern people are not simple, shoeless rural white people.We are a people as varied as the Southern landscape, from the mountains of Appalachia to the deltas of Mississippi to the skyscrapers of Atlanta. We are black, white, Latino, Native American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and multiracial. We are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, atheist and agnostic. We are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, straight, and questioning. We are urban and rural, old and young,  poor and rich, and all points in between. We are all these things, plus more that don’t fit into neat categories. The voices in this collection represent some of the diverse voices of our region, just a few spoonfuls from the giant pot of gumbo that makes up our region.
When Larry Smith of Bottom Dog Press agreed to co-edit this anthology, we struggled with the title, but once he suggested The Unbroken Circle, the vision for this anthology materialized. “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” is a classic in the Southern songbook, sung at pickins and funerals alike and recorded by artists from the Carter Family to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to Mavis Staples. In the song, the speaker grieves the loss of his/her mother but takes comfort in the fact that the circle of love created by family will be “unbroken by and by.” In a country where politicians and pundits draw lines and build walls to separate people, it is especially fitting to embrace the circle, a shape symbolizing openness, wholeness, connectedness. One of the things that unites the pieces in this collection, both fiction and nonfiction, is the Southern love of stories. Each author, whether established or emerging, has created a distinct Southern voice which is nobody’s stereotype. In a time when many people have lost the ability to listen and empathize, we the authors and editors of this collection, invite you to pull up a chair, join our circle, and listen to our stories. —Julia Watts
The writing gathered here is the result of some deep questioning and brave sharing. Whether in personal nonfiction or projected storytelling, the writing witnesses life as it’s lived today. Character and voice are paramount, as are theme and style. These are real people caught in authentic situations and struggles for acceptance and caring. In a country where division and judgment are so prominent, they open the circle of acceptance. As Ram Dass declares, the circle is a wonderful image and concept, only keep it ever expanding. We thank these writers and welcome you reading it as part of our unbroken circle. —Larry Smith

About this title

About the Authors

Chris Offutt grew up in Haldeman, Kentucky, population 200, in the eastern hills. He has published 6 books set in Kentucky. He also wrote screenplays for True Blood, Weeds, and Treme. His work is included in many textbooks and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and The Pushcart Prize, 2017. His most recent book is My Father, the Pornographer, from Simon & Schuster.

Meredith Sue Willis was born and bred in West Virginia where both of her parents were school teachers. Her mother's father was a witness to the Monongah Mine explosion of 1907 in Monongah, West Virginia. Her father�s mother was a country store keeper in Wise County, Virginia. Willis has published more than twenty books of fiction and nonfiction and is a veteran writer-in-the schools. She presently teaches novel writing at New York University�s School of Professional Studies and volunteers with an anti-racist organization in the inner ring suburb of New Jersey where she lives.

Charles Dodd White is the author of the novels, A Shelter of Others and Lambs of Men, as well as the story collection, Sinners of Sanction County, published by Bottom Dog Press. He's also co-editor of the Appalachian anthologies, Degrees of Elevation and Appalachia Now, also published by Bottom Dog. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee where he teaches at Pellissippi State Community College and directs the annual James Agee Conference

Jeff Mann grew up in Hinton, West Virginia, and attended at West Virginia University. He has published five books of poetry: Bones Washed with Wine, On the Tongue, Ash, A Romantic Mann, and Rebels; two collections of essays, Edge and Binding the God; a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; five novels, Fog, Purgatory, Cub, Salvation, and Country; and three volumes of short fiction, A History of Barbed Wire, Desire and Devour, and Consent. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech.

Laura Argiri is the author of The God in Flight (Random House 1995, Penguin 1996, Lethe Press 2016) and Guilty Parties: Leighlah and Others, which includes �Cottage Industry.� Lethe Press will publish Guilty Parties in spring of 2017. The collection is about the fine gradations of bad behavior and its impact on both targets and perpetrators. Laura is a bicultural Southerner/New Englander who plans to become an expatriate soon

From the Back Cover

26 contemporary stories of cultural diversity from the South by 26 authors, edited by fiction writer-editors Julia Watts and Larry Smith

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

FEAST OF THE SUN

By Charles Dodd White



She hunts always at dawn, having followed the footpath between the tall chicory and wind jostled walls of river cane. Daylight is a perturbed omen in this first hour. Not the lusty blue of midday nor the burnt ooze of eventide. Instead, a gradual slide from granite to calcite, everything above her a kind of mineral reckoning. She covers ground, counts off her steps against a mental map, figures distance and the likely carry of the rifle?s report to her father?s trailer. He left for work long before she took his scoped Marlin and stepped into the woods, but she will not risk anything unforeseen. This is her secret, and to surrender it before its time would upend the great care she?d taken, profane her earned truth.



At her hip rides the small trophy purse, unclenched and open as a mouth. She had washed it clean after each hunt, but still the scent of blood lingers. As she walks deeper into the woods, her fingers play absently at the slack pouch lips. These same fingers, so light at the touch, would be enough to drag down what tenanted the sky, to kill with the absolute steadiness of hate.

She comes to the river ford, grounds the rifle butt in the sand and watches the water roll. The dam has not yet been let go and the current smooths itself over the rocky bed, clear and governed. At the bend of the river a fishing cabin above the water, but there is no one visible on the overhanging deck and the interior lights are not on. She raises the rifle above her head, like she?s seen soldiers do in her history book, and steps into the water. It needles her skin, but she warms to it quickly, moves along the flat stones, cautious of the slick edges, remembering the previous crossings and how she had once fallen in. The time the rifle had gone in too and she had scrambled after it before it was lost in the river?s quick shedding. She had turned back that morning without making it across, broken the weapon down to its bare components and salved them with a clean coat of gun oil to prevent rust.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bottom Dog Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 093308773X
• ISBN 13: 9780933087736
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Watts Julia, Smith Larry