ISSUED: 22 June 2021
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities is hosting a reading of its latest “Anthology of Appalachian Writers” on Sunday, July 18, at 5 p.m. at Four Seasons Books, 116 West German St., Shepherdstown. The event is free and open to the public.
Several local writers who are published in the 2021 “Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Dorothy Allison, Volume XIII” will be featured readers at this first unveiling of the book, including Rebecca Calloway, a graduate student in the Shepherd’s M.A. in Appalachian studies program, and Pat Donohoe, a former teacher, Presbyterian minister, and writer living in Shepherdstown.
Calloway will read from her piece “Transforming Trauma on the Appalachian Trail” about the first woman to solo hike the entire Appalachian Trail, Granny Gatewood. Donohoe will close the program with her story about sisters, “Closet Wars.”
Other works to be read by one of the editors will include several diversity and pandemic poems anthologized in the volume. Managing editor Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt touts this anthology volume as one of the best coming from the Center of Appalachian Studies and Communities.
“This year’s volume of the anthology includes writers from across the country, some best-selling authors, poet laureates, and Weatherford Award winners, all connected in some way to the work of Dorothy Allison, last year’s Shepherd Writer-in-Residence and One Book, One West Virginia common reading author,” Shurbutt said.
The Dorothy Allison anthology volume centers on the themes of social justice and inclusion, as does Allison’s writing. Allison’s award-winning “Bastard Out of Carolina” and her 2020 One Book, One West Virginia Selection “Cavedweller” were both inspirations for the range of stories, poems, essays, and photography that went into the 2021 anthology.
The “Anthology of Appalachian Writers” is supported by the West Virginia Humanities Council, the West Virginia Center for the Book, and the Shepherd University Foundation. The series was created by the Shepherd’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities.
For more information, contact Shurbutt at sshurbut@shepherd.edu.
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