Untelling

UNTELLING 
ppl. adj.  /un-telling/ 
also untellin’, ontellin’, ontellin’dest, untellin’ist

According to the Dictionary of American Regional English, “untelling” is a word that continues to be spoken and written in the lexicon of midland and southern Appalachian dialects, as well as those of the Ozarks. It is used to describe an event or person as unpredictable, unknown, or even erratic, as in “It’s untelling what kind of weather we’ll get this summer” or “They’re the ‘ontellin’ist gossips.” As an Americanism, it was first documented over a century ago in 1916 but the origins of “ontelling” go back to Scots dialects, one of the key influences of Appalachian Englishes. “Untelling,” then, is befitting a publication grown from the roots of Hindman Settlement School’s literary heritage, seeded by writers who planted inspired pieces that would  continue to feed writers for generations.

One of those writers, Hindman’s own James Still, uses “untelling” in the groundbreaking Appalachian novel River of Earth (1940), writing “Alpha sets a store of love for him that’s ontelling.” Fifty years later, it appears again in Wolfpen Notebooks (1991): “I say it’s ontelling what a ton o’ coal will sell for. . . I figure the price will double or treble.”

Since Still and his contemporaries first taught at Hindman, thousands of writers, artists, and students (like me) have moved through the settlement school over the years, working with their literary mentors and walking the banks of Troublesome Creek. Influenced by Still and the writers after him who emerged to create the Appalachian literary canon, they have participated in the untelling of a trite narrative that began with local color literature and spread into mainstream popular culture,  and replaced that narrative with retellings of the region’s story in their individual, authentic ways.

This magazine promises to showcase those voices and their work in the spirit of wonder and unpredictability, just like the region itself. From angry waters that have revised the landscape, to movements that have changed legislation and lives, to dialects that hold fast to their histories, there is no shortage of inspiration along our 900 miles, millions of years old mountain corridor as well as in the Appalachian diaspora.

Much has been said in the making of our Appalachia, yet it is untelling what remains to be told.