Why You Should Start Reading Regional American Literature

When I moved from central Appalachia to the South 14 years in the past, I struggled with intense tradition shock. As I navigated beginning faculty and residing in a dorm for the primary time, I additionally discovered myself utterly overwhelmed by how completely different Southern tradition was from the place I grew up. The individuals at espresso retailers would begin speaking to me seemingly at random. I’d be buying at Target and a whole stranger would stroll as much as me and begin asking me about my selection of shampoo. Women would look me useless within the eye as they stated “Bless your heart,” which I may inform was really some form of insult.

Eventually, I made a decision to remain in South Carolina after graduating, and whereas I attempted for years to regulate to my new residence, it wasn’t till I started studying Southern literature that I lastly began to really perceive the area. Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones makes the Mississippi delta area come alive on the web page as we watch her characters put together for hurricane Katrina. Attica Locke’s Bluebird, Bluebird took me on a street journey throughout Texas. And some books gave me a chook’s eye view, like John T. Edge’s The Potlikker Papers, which took me on  a tour of the South’s many cuisines. As I learn, every new e-book strengthened that the South shouldn’t be a monolith. It’s a fancy, numerous area that you possibly can research on your complete life and by no means actually perceive it. Ever since first diving into Southern literature, I’ve all the time discovered pleasure in making an attempt anyway and studying no matter books from the area that I can get my arms on.

Reading books in regards to the area I lived in has helped me really feel extra at residence, however after I’d learn dozens and dozens of Southern books, I started to consider the place I grew up in Appalachia.  Appalachia and the South overlap, and each nonetheless preserve their very own distinctive cultures and histories. Silas House’s Appalachian Trilogy portrays the identical Eastern Kentucky household as they transfer by means of the a long time of the twentieth century. Crystal Wilkinson’s The Birds of Opulence facilities round completely different generations of Black girls residing inside the similar neighborhood. Leah Hampton’s quick story assortment F*ckface: and Other Stories options characters from throughout southern and central Appalachia. These books, and others like them, are a gorgeous mix of Southern Appalachian tradition. 

If you head up into the Appalachian parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, you’ll discover Brian Broome’s Punch Me Up to the Gods, a memoir about Broome’s childhood and early maturity rising up as a homosexual Black boy in Appalachian Ohio and transferring to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ohio writer Donald Ray Polluck writes about households in a small city in his quick story assortment Knockemstiff. Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies examines concepts round Black girls’s sexuality and coming-of-age. Each writer writes about Appalachia as they understand it greatest, giving us glimpses into completely different elements of the area. These books comprise universals that anybody can join with and relate to, and readers who name these areas residence can lastly see themselves within the pages of a e-book.

Growing up, I didn’t have the chance to learn books about the place I used to be from. I all the time examine distant main cities or utterly completely different international locations. I keep in mind getting so excited once I simply noticed the identify of a close-by city in no matter e-book I used to be studying.  But up to now decade, I’ve been making up for misplaced time. I’ve come to like the various vary of tales from Appalachia and the South. Now when guests stroll into my lounge, they’re greeted by bookshelves lined in Appalachian and Southern literature from all types of various genres. What’s extra, my TBR cart is overflowing with model new-to-me tales simply ready for me to select them up and begin studying. 

Regions like Appalachia and the South comprise a wealth of literature simply ready for brand spanking new readers to search out them. That’s why it’s essential to help regional authors, indie presses, and indie bookstores, all of whom champion these sorts of books. Everyone ought to have the chance to learn books about the place they’re from and discover elements of the nation they might by no means be capable to go to. That’s the enjoyment of studying.