In early March, staff Rebecka Fugate, Sarah Insalaco, and Melissa Helton attended the annual Appalachian Studies Association Conference. This year ASA was hosted by Western Carolina University in Sylva, North Carolina, and was full of sessions, events, presentations, and performances that connect to Appalachian culture, history, education, art, current events, and more.
Melissa Helton lead two panel performances of writers reading their work from the forthcoming anthology Troublesome Rising: A Thousand-Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky, due out in September on the Settlement School’s publishing imprint Fireside Industries. Writers read selections of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and there was a lot of sadness, love, and support in the room as people remembered their experiences of the tragic July 2022 flash flooding that hit Knott County and surrounding communities.
Readers included Darnell Arnoult, Monic Ductan, Pauletta Hansel, Richard Hague, Jane Hicks, Patricia Hudson, Jim Minick, Tina Parker, Amy Le Ann Richardson, Jayne Waldrop, Julia Watts, Nickole Brown, Robert Gipe, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Amelia Kirby, Meredith McCarroll, Lisa Parker, Erin Reid, Carter Sickels, Doug Van Gundy, and Jesse Graves. Melissa Helton also read the work of Pam Hirschler, Amanda Jo Slone, and Marianne Worthington who could not attend at the last minute.
To learn more about Troublesome Rising and preorder, check out our online store.
