Deep Belly of the Earth - Softcover

Whetstone, Stephanie

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798994820209

Publisher: Rabbit House Press, 2026

Synopsis

Ava Maynard leaves her small coal mining town in Eastern Kentucky to make a life for herself and her son, Joshua, in the city. Her husband, Collis, has been laid off from his job as a miner, but he won't leave the place they've always called home. When tragedy strikes, Ava is forced to return to the mountains to try to make sense of her family and the destruction in her hometown. She reluctantly slips back into her spot in this troubled world. At once comforted by the familiar beauty and grounding of the mountains and repulsed by the devastation of strip mining and drug culture, Ava relies on her deepest friendships and learns how to fight for the place she belongs to. 

About this title

About the Author

Stephanie Whetstone earned her BA at Duke and her MFA in Creative Writing from UNC-Greensboro, where she was Fiction Editor of the Greensboro Review. She has been a fellow at VCCA and Hambidge, and a Peter Taylor Scholar at the Sewanee Writer's Conference. Her fiction has appeared in Tulip Tree Review, Waccamaw, Waypoints, Drafthorse, the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, and Narrative. Her non-fiction received the North Carolina Writers' Network Rose Post award. A native of Kentucky, she now lives in Brooklyn.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rabbit House Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798994820209
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 292