Out of the Mountains — 2010 · 
Appalachian Stories
“Appalachian stories need not feature ‘a granny woman’ and be set in the past. Out of the Mountains: Appalachian Stories by West Virginia native Meredith Sue Willis is a collection to prove the point. It's (twelve) stories are set in the milieu of the 21st century and explore current issues familiar not to just Appalachians but to contemporary readers everywhere. Her timely stories ring true and are often humorous.… She is one of the true voices of Appalachia in print today.”
West Virginia Book Festival: The Blog
“(Willis’s) characters possess a conversational familiarity, and the reader feels absorbed into the small community that is both distinctly Appalachian and markedly universal. This finely crafted collection is worth reading twice to discover all its intricacies and connections.”
Booklist
“I love this collection because it is not just about the rich, full heritage of the Appalachian past, but about how contemporary people from the mountains deal with moving out or moving on.… The stories from Out of the Mountainsmake me wish I knew these people; I probably do.”
Roberta Schultz — “Around Cincinnati,” WVXU
Meredith Sue Willis’s Out of the Mountains is a collection of thirteen short stories set in contemporary Appalachia. Firmly grounded in place, the stories voyage out into the conflicting cultural identities that native Appalachians experience as they balance mainstream and mountain identities.
Willis’s stories explore the complex negotiations between longtime natives of the region and its newcomers and the rifts that develop within families over current issues such as mountaintop removal and homophobia. Always, however, the situations depicted in these stories are explored in the service of a deeper understanding of the people involved, and of the place. This is not the mythic version of Appalachia, but the Appalachia of the twenty-first century.
Meredith Sue Willis is the author of more than fifteen books, including novels for adults and children, collections of short stories, and nonfiction about the art of writing, most recently Ten Strategies to Write Your Novel. She teaches novel writing at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.
www.meredithsuewillis.com
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Downloads & Links
- Cover
- Literature and the Web (blog by Meredith Sue Willis)
- West Virginia Book Festival Blog (May 27, 2010 post)
- Shouts & Hollers blog mention of Meredith Sue Willis workshop
- Coverage of Meredith Sue Willis Reading in Maplewood Patch news blog
- In this Light blog post on Out of the Mountains cover image
- GoodReads review, Feb. 2012
- Story: "On the Road with C. T. Savage"
- Table of Contents
Description
| 9780821443316 | |
| Paperback | 9780821419205 |
| Hardcover | 9780821419199 |
180 pages · 6 × 9 in.
Reviews
- Georgia Review, Fall; 2011
- Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 2; Winter 2012
- “Around Cincinnati,” WVXU-NPR; May 15, 2011
- Valerie Nieman v. 3.0 blog; Feb. 14, 2011
- Appalachian Heritage; Winter 2011
- New Pages; Jan. 19, 2011
- Midwest Book Review, “Diane’s Bookshelf”; Jan. 2011
- The Advocate (Baton Rouge); Jan. 16, 2011
- Midwest Book Review, “Wisconsin Bookwatch”; Dec. 2010
- West Virginia Book Festival: The Blog; Dec. 3, 2010
- SirReadaLot.org; Nov. 2010
- In This Light blog; Oct. 10, 2010
- Readin blog; Oct. 10, 2010
- Booklist; September 15, 2010
- CityBeat (Cincinnati); Aug. 11, 2010
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