Host Kendra Winchester talks to Neema Avashia and Sarah Lemon about their experience carving out the time to write.

Things Mentioned

• Lemon’s Substack, The Devil’s Cut

Books Mentioned

GUESTS
Neema Avashia
Website | Instagram | Twitter / X

Sarah Nicole Lemon
Website | Instagram
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In the latest installment of our minisode series, Poetry Corner,  Kendra Winchester is joined by special guest upfromsumdirt.

Books Mentioned

• The Second Stop Is Jupiter by upfromsumdirt
• Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
• Quilting: Poems 1987-1990 by Lucille Clifton
• Let the Dead In by Saida Agostini

upfromsumdirt, Ron Davis, is an autodidactic poet and award-winning visual artist based in Lexington, Kentucky. He is the author of two previous poetry collections, Deifying a Total Darkness and To Emit Teal, and is currently storyboarding a graphic novel based on his poetry. He has also published works in anthologies and periodicals including The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; Anthology of Appalachian Writers; Hayden's Ferry Review; and more. He received the Kentucky Al Smith Award in Art in 2010 and the Southeastern Libraries Association Award for Excellence in Original Artwork in 2022. His artwork is featured in the NAACP Image Award-winning poetry collection, Perfect Black by Crystal Wilkinson and A is for Affrilachia by Frank X Walker. He was inducted as a member into the Affrilachian Poets in 2022.

Website | Instagram

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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


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In a special episode of the podcast, Kendra interviews Julie Rae Powers about their new photography book, Deep Ruts.

Julie Rae Powers received their MFA in Photography from The Ohio State University and their BFA in Photography from James Madison University. Their photographic and written work has focused on family history, coal, Appalachia, the queer “female” gaze, the butch body, and queer chosen families. Their work is collected by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan, have been awarded the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in 2016 and 2020 and was selected in Critical Mass’ Top 200 for 2021. Julie Rae is a part of Y’all Means All: Queering Appalachian Voices edited by Z. Zane McNeil. Soft Lightning Studio, an inclusive photo book publisher created and ran by Julie Rae published The Home We Know by Ben Willis which was featured in the Washington Post and is collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library. Additionally, they are the author and editor of a forthcoming collection of Queer Appalachian photographers. For their day job they work as an Instructional Designer.

Website | Instagram

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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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To kick off Season 2 of Read Appalachia, host Kendra Winchester talks to special guests Erica Abrams Locklear and Crystal Wilkinson.

You can find the full show notes here.

Things Mentioned

• Chefs Mentioned
  • John Fleer, Rhubarb
  • William Dissen, The Marketplace
  • Ashleigh Shanti, Good Hot Fish
  • Sean Brock, Audrey
  • Travis Milton, Hickory

Books Mentioned

GUEST INFO

Erica Abrams Locklear

Crystal Wilkinson
Website | Twitter | Instagram
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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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Contact
For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


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In Read Appalachia’s season finale, Kendra Winchester is joined by Mandi Fugate Sheffel, the owner of the bookstore Read Spotted Newt, which is located in Hazard, Kentucky.

Things Mentioned

• Read Spotted Newt Website
• Support the Read Spotted Newt on Bookshop.org
• Storygraph

Books Mentioned

All affiliate links for this episode go to support the Read Spotted Newt.

Guest Info

Mandi Fugate Sheffel was born and raised in Red Fox, Ky. A graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, she found her passion for writing and storytelling at the Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School. Her personal essays and opinion pieces can be found in Still: The Journal, Lexington-Herald Leader, and the Courier Journal. Her forthcoming personal essay collection, The Nature of Pain, will be released in 2025 through The University Press of Kentucky. She currently owns and operates, Read Spotted Newt, an independent bookstore in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky.

Website | Instagram

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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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Contact
For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


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This month’s episode is about short stories! Host Kendra Winchester talks to special guests Halle Hill and George Singleton.

Things Mentioned

• Short Story Advent Calendar
• Hub City Press

Books Mentioned

Guest Info

Halle Hill is from East Tennessee and lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A graduate of Maryville College and the M.F.A. Writing program at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), she is the winner of the 2021 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize and was a finalist for the 2021 ASME Award for Fiction. Her short stories have been published in Joyland, New Limestone Review, Southwest Review, and Oxford American, where she won the 2020 Debut Fiction Prize. Good Women is her first book. 

X | Instagram | Website

George Singleton has published ten collections of stories, two novels, a book of writing advice, and a collection of essays. His stories have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Story, One Story, Playboy, the Georgia Review, Zoetrope, Subtropics, and elsewhere. His personal essays have appeared in Garden and Gun, Bark, Best American Food Writing, Oxford American, and elsewhere He’s received a Pushcart, and a Guggenheim fellowship. A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, he lives in South Carolina.

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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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Contact
For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


Music by Olexy from Pixabay

Host Kendra Winchester is joined by Nathan Shuherk (@schizophrenicreads) to chat about regional American literature and the commonalities between the Midwest and Appalachia.

Things Mentioned

• Schizophrenic Reads: The Podcast

Books Mentioned

Guest Info

Nathan Shuherk (@schizophrenicreads) is a book influencer that focuses on nonfiction books. He lives in Indianapolis with his partner, 3 cats, and too many books.

 TikTok | Twitter | Instagram

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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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Contact
For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


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In the latest installment of our minisode series, Poetry Corner,  Kendra Winchester is joined by special guest Denton Loving.

Books Mentioned

• Tamp by Denton Loving
• Valediction: Poems and Prose by Linda Parsons
• Ring of Earth by William Woolfitt
• Outside the Frame by Catherine Pritchard Childress 
• The Act of Contrition & Other Stories by Joseph Bathanti
• And Dogs to Chase Them by Ray Trotter
• Asides: Occasional Essays by George Singleton

Guest Info
Denton Loving: Website | X

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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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Contact
For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


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For September’s theme, we’re discussing rural literature for young people. Host Kendra Winchester is joined by special guests Dr. Chea Parton and Nora Shalaway Carpenter.

Things Mentioned

• Literacy In Place
• Reading Rural YAL podcast
• Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural YA Literature
• Read Appalachia / Literacy in Place Collaboration 

Books Mentioned

GUEST INFO

Chea Parton
X | Instagram | Website

Nora Shalaway Carpenter
X | Instagram | Website

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You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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Contact
For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


Music by Olexy from Pixabay

In the latest installment of our minisode series, Poetry Corner,  Kendra Winchester is joined by special guest Marlanda Dekine.

Books Mentioned

• Thresh & Hold by Marlanda Dekine
• Motherworld: A Devotional for the Alter-Life by Destiny Hemphill
• River Hymns by Tyree Daye
• Cardinal by Tyree Daye
• Gossypiin by Ra Malika Imhotep
• Rice by Nikki Finney

Guest Info

Marlanda Dekine
Twitter | Instagram | Website
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Show Your Love for Read Appalachia!

You can support Read Appalachia by heading over to our merch store, tipping us over on Ko-fi, or by sharing the podcast with a friend! For more ways to support the show, head over to our Support page.

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Contact
For feedback or to just say “hi,” you can reach us at readappalachia[at]gmail.com


Music by Olexy from Pixabay