Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters edited by Dwight Billings and Ann E. Kingsolver

This is a collection of scholarly essays most of which are separated by a poem by bell hooks from her Appalachian Elegy. This innovation is one of the strongest features of this book, but sadly the Table of Contents ignores the poems until the very end. The authors of the essays include some of the strongest established and new academic voices in Appalachian Studies. In addition to her six poems, bell hooks  provides an essay. Others include John Gaventa, Emily Satterwhite, Barbara Ellen Smith, and Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt. Topics focus on how place intersects with art and music, gay life, politics, foodways, globalization, power, masculinity and home. The book ends with incisive brief essays by seven teachers on “Teaching Region.” "Overall, this book offers a provocative reexamination of Appalachia and place." – Choice. "Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters... highlights tensions within the field of Appalachian studies, particularly tensions rooted in the diverse political,