Category Archives: Uncategorized

New book takes on, and takes down, Appalachian Trump Country narratives and elegies

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Chelyen Davis

Starting in early 2016, we began to see a phenomenon that later became the Trump Country profile: national (and international) news reporters, parachuting into some Appalachian small town, churning out a think piece about the despair, the poverty, the addiction, … Continue reading →

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Hillbilly Elegy: Another generalization of Appalachia

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Chelyen Davis

All last fall I resisted reading J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. The bad reviews I saw from other Appalachians convinced me it would make me mad. In October, I went to a mayoral forum and the women behind me were talking … Continue reading →

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Identity crisis: without coal, who will we be?

Posted on December 13, 2016 by Chelyen Davis

I have been trying for the past month to figure out how to write about the presidential election and Appalachia’s role in it. As an ex-pat Appalachian, friends have asked me why my home region voted for Trump. I am … Continue reading →

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Appalachia this election year: So many stories, so little depth

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Chelyen Davis

The time has come upon us again when reporters for national publications descend upon the poorest parts of Appalachia like locusts to write stories about What is Wrong With the Poor Despairing Rural Hillbilly. This year it is couched as … Continue reading →

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Can I make peace with “hillbilly”?

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Chelyen Davis

A while back, a Facebook friend referred to someone he disliked as a hillbilly. The person was from the mountains and was being a bigot. Hillbilly was the only word for her he used, as if it summed up the … Continue reading →

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Expecting to leave

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Chelyen Davis

Earlier this week, WV Public Radio show Inside Appalachia posed a question on Twitter: did Appalachian ex-patriates regret leaving? Were they homesick? How did they alleviate that? My answer is probably obvious — I named my blog The Homesick Appalachian, … Continue reading →

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Old time is the best time

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Chelyen Davis

This week I’m going to camp. With my mother. Yes, I am a full-grown adult. We go to old-time music camp, her with her banjo and me with my fiddle. My sister and her banjo came with us last year … Continue reading →

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A coal miner’s granddaughter in the Baldwin-Felts house

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Chelyen Davis

If you asked my grandfather, he would probably say he loves God, his family and the UMWA, in that order. He spent his working years in the Virginia and West Virginia coalfields, as a miner and then driving a coal … Continue reading →

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Who should tell our stories?

Posted on April 8, 2015 by C Davis

There’s a story told about old-time musician Tommy Jarrell. In the 1970’s, when people from outside Appalachia discovered Appalachian old-time music and were beating a path to sit with the old men (and women) and hear them play and learn … Continue reading →

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Lynchings in Southwest Virginia

Posted on March 11, 2015 by C Davis

Recently, the New  York Times wrote about a new report (found here) from the Equal Justice Initiative, documenting nearly 4,000 racial lynchings of blacks across the southern states between 1877 and 1950.  According to a summary of the EJI report, … Continue reading →

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