Writing Appalachia: One Year of Essays by Joshua Wilkey

This is an important and compelling book that deserves to be read alongside or instead of What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte and Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance. Like Catte, Wilkey teaches history, and his essays do provide historical background, more focused on issues than heroes. However, his approach is much more autobiographical than Catte’s. Like Vance he admits to the meanness of his grandmother and the addictions and abuse suffered by his mother. Actually, his story is even more harrowing than Vance’s in many ways, including the fact that his mother married seven times. Yet he never succumbs to any hint that he sees himself as singular or heroic for making it out of poverty and into the academic world. Read this book for background on issues like drugs and guns and poverty and for a very personal approach that will engage and ultimately uplift you. The book is a compilation of Wilkey’s blog posts on his website: This Appalachia Life that is distinguish