To Belong Here: A New Generation of Queer, Trans, and Two-Spirit Appalachian Writers
To Belong Here delves into how queer, trans, and Two-Spirit Appalachian people make sense of life in the mountains. Featuring contributors whose identities across race, gender, and socioeconomic background make for a uniquely intersectional look at the area, this collection provides a nuanced understanding of Appalachia and what it means to represent it. Themes of erasure, environmentalism, violence, kinship, racism, Indigeneity, queer love, and trans liberation course through the volume and exemplify the writers' resilience in reconciling their complex and often contradictory connections to home.
A collective exploration of rejection and acceptance, To Belong Here calls for a more inclusive future in Appalachia—one where everyone can thrive.
Contributors:
Joy Cedar, hermelinda cortés, Lauren Garretson-Atkinson, Rae Garringer, Brandon Sun Eagle Jent, Lucien Darjeun Meadows, Rayna Momen, Jai Arun Ravine, G. Samantha Rosenthal, Carter Sickels, Pumpkin Starr, D. Stump, and Joe Tolbert, Jr.
“A superb and necessary collection. Imagine the suffering and suicide that might have been avoided had such a collection been available in the 1960s. I do imagine it. The movement from there to here enables me to keep faith.”
“A vital, provocative look at the gender expansiveness and the racialized experiences of BIPOC Appalachians in rural landscapes. This collection answers ‘What is home? Who belongs here?’ with a resounding song: all of us. Appalachia is not a monolith; this collection reminds us that even expats are not in exile, but can return home, can belong.”