Of mountains and men: New anthology surveys Appalachian nature writing

"Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene" cover
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE: A new anthology of nature writing, edited by Jessica Cory of Western Carolina University, explores humanity's relationships with Appalachia. Cover image courtesy of Cory

To write about nature has always meant to write about humanity’s place in it. The very first clay tablet of the oldest surviving written story, the Epic of Gilgamesh, speaks not only of gazelles eating grass and drinking at a watering hole but of the wild man Enkidu living among the animals and freeing them from a hunter’s snares.

More than 4,000 years later, a fundamental shift in that relationship is redefining the very meaning of the natural world. Greenhouse gas emissions, plastic pollution and nuclear testing have left an indelible global record of humankind’s activity on the earth; indeed, many scientists believe such phenomena signal the start of the next geological epoch: the Anthropocene.

Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene explores this new reality as it applies to Western North Carolina and the rest of the region. Jessica Cory, who edited the anthology, is a lecturer in the English department at Western Carolina University. She will speak about her work at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café in downtown Asheville on Thursday, July 25.

The scientific realities of climate breakdown and environmental degradation, says Cory, have caused Appalachia’s literary community to question basic assumptions about this primordial divide. “We have to start looking at what is nature at this point? What is the nonhuman world?” she maintains. “We’ve affected the air, which affects everything else. We’re really getting to the point where we have to look at things a little differently.”

Region at risk

Jessica Cory
WORDS OF THE WILD: Jessica Cory, who edited the anthology, says Appalachian authors are reconsidering the limits of nature and the nonhuman world through their work. Photo courtesy of Cory

Cory says her focus arose organically as she reviewed the scores of submissions for the anthology. Much of the work touched on the obvious human destruction of the landscape caused by natural gas fracking and mountaintop removal mining for coal, as well as on the growing climate crisis caused by the burning of those fossil fuels.

And while Cory emphasizes that these problems aren’t unique to Appalachia, she says that many writers identify the region “as a sacrifice zone for a lot of the energy conglomerates.” Accordingly, an entire section of the anthology is titled “Destroy.” It includes “Just Before Dawn,” a poem by Kathryn Stripling Byer, the late North Carolina poet laureate, that speaks to the ecological impacts of overdevelopment in the mountains:

“She hears the torrent of oncoming mud / from the neighbors so far uphill / she’s never laid eyes on them,” wrote Byer, who lived in Cullowhee in her later years. “She’d seen the logging trucks clearing / the slope of its timber / the ugly machines come to make way / for dwellings with such pretty names / they sounded like wildflowers / strewn on the hillside around her.”

Mountains Piled Upon Mountains balances that sense of grief with a call for humanity to create a healthier relationship with Appalachia: Other sections are titled “Protect,” “Evolve” and “Celebrate.” Asheville writer Wayne Caldwell’s poem “May Fourteenth,” which appears in the anthology’s “Preserve” section, acknowledges the challenges while maintaining hope in nature’s resilience:

“Redwings is scarce, and when’s / The last time you seen a green snake? / Chestnuts — gone, hemlocks — dyin, / It’s enough to make a strong man cry,” the poet notes. “But still: within a day or two / One side or t’other of the Ides of May / Blinkin yellow flashlights start their twilight glow. / Happened yesterday, right on time, / Though ever year there’s less that come.”

Parts of the whole

Thomas Berry and Thomas Rain Crowe
GREEN GUIDANCE: The late Catholic priest and environmental advocate Thomas Berry, left, poses with Thomas Rain Crowe at a 1998 Earth Day celebration in Asheville. Photo courtesy of Crowe

The anthology, says Cory, intentionally surveys the broad diversity of Appalachia, with authors based everywhere from New York all the way to Georgia. But writers with ties to WNC are still very well represented: UNC Asheville archivist Gene Hyde, Cowee-based Brent Martin and Asheville native Michael McFee all have work in the collection.

“Despite the fact that it is a book that looks at the entire region, I wanted the authors to be able to give a glimpse into their particular area,” Cory explains. “It provides a very regional look within this macrocosm of the region as a whole.”

Thomas Rain Crowe’s essay “In Praise of Wilderness: Getting What You Give Up,” for example, includes a litany of WNC authors and environmental groups. Crowe, who lives in Little Canada, N.C., says the area’s nature writing is united by a sense of urgency around climate change that lends itself to the anthology’s theme.

“People are thinking, ‘Us humans have really made a mess of things, and it’s all about us: If we don’t correct it, it’s not going to get fixed,’” says Crowe. The term Anthropocene, he says, “is being used by thoughtful people because it does place the blame where it lies. And we need to wake up and acknowledge that and move forward very quickly.”

Crowe also finds a unique spiritual core in WNC’s nature literature that he believes was inspired by the late Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest with a strong environmental focus. The Greensboro native spent much of his retirement writing and teaching in these mountains. Before his death in 2009, Berry advocated for what he called “The Great Work”: transitioning the human presence on the planet from ecologically destructive to mutually beneficial.

“Most of these people either knew Thomas or knew of him and his work,” notes Crowe. “If there is a center post for all of us, it may very well be Thomas Berry.”

Stories to tell

Besides essays and poetry, the anthology also includes numerous works of short fiction. Although Cory admits to feeling most challenged by these pieces — she’s formally trained as a poet and nonfiction writer, not a spinner of tales — she wanted to give readers another point of entry into the Appalachian Anthropocene.

“Not everybody is the weirdo that I am and just reads nonfiction and poetry,” Cory says with a laugh. “I did want to include fiction — even though you don’t think of nature writing as fictional work — because so many people come to the region and come to learn about it through fiction.”

Ellen Perry at Weaverville water wheel
TURNING A TALE: Weaverville native Ellen Perry uses fiction to explore how people are influenced by their connection to the land. Photo by Hugo Gutierrez, courtesy of Perry

Weaverville native Ellen Perry, who teaches humanities and literature at A-B Tech, represents WNC in this realm. Her piece “Joni and Jesus” uses the region’s seasonal changes as the backdrop for a meditation on aging, in the form of letters exchanged between a fictional sister and brother.

“The whole business with the Anthropocene is humans making an imprint on the land. But my story is about, in Appalachia particularly, the land making an impact on us,” Perry explains. Even a character living in perpetually warm California, she notes, doesn’t want to separate himself from his Appalachian roots and the feeling of fall in the mountains.

Although “Joni and Jesus” doesn’t directly reference humans’ environmental impacts, Perry says the climate crisis and other concerns have colored her creative choices. As an author, she feels increasingly called to base her plots in WNC and give her characters deep histories of interaction with the land.

This approach, she explains, gives her “more of a sense of purpose.” Writing about the region more intentionally “calls attention to the importance of the land and preservation and what it means scientifically, as well as in terms of the human spirit.”

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Daniel Walton
Daniel Walton is the former news editor of Mountain Xpress. His work has also appeared in Sierra, The Guardian, and Civil Eats, among other national and regional publications. Follow me @DanielWWalton

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

5 thoughts on “Of mountains and men: New anthology surveys Appalachian nature writing

  1. Curious

    How did Ms. Cory solicit submissions for her anthology? Did she invite the writers to participate?

    • Cory did invite some of the more well-known authors in the anthology to submit pieces, but there was also an open call for submissions, and much of that unsolicited work did make it into the book. She says she intentionally wanted to include authors with a diversity of experience, from emerging to well-established, in the collection.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.