100 Days in Appalachia

‘In the Boat Together’: Post-Helene, Faith Communities Have Been Central to NC’s Long-Term Recovery

In the year since the storm devastated parts of western North Carolina, religious congregations have provided food, housing and supplies — as well as a shared sense of community.
100 Days in Appalachia

Five Years After It Became a National Park, There’s a Growing Divide In West Virginia’s New River Gorge

Many long-time West Virginians see the divide between their reality of the area — a community that still faces long-standing ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Documenting the Appalachian Intifada: A Review of ‘So Much to be Angry About’

Liberation movements around the world and throughout history have always created our own media: to tell our own stories, to teach our own people and to strengthen our movements and organizations. In ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Commentary: Poetry Gives Words to the Language of Survival for Appalachians

I live in Birmingham, Alabama, in the shadow of Red Mountain. As far as mountains go, it’s a bump on the landscape. From my front door, it would take maybe an hour and a half to walk up and over it ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Review: An Anthology of Appalachian Literature Walks on New Ground

A collection of essays, excerpts, songs and poems covers centuries of reflection on the Southern mountains. A native son traces the history of Appalachian literature through 745 pages of a recently ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘An Ecosystem of Dysfunction:’ West Virginia Still Has a Child Welfare Worker Shortage, and It’s Taking a Toll on Foster Kids and Families

This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Big Tech Comes to Tucker County, WV

Pamela Moe was reading the paper in late March when she spotted a public notice from a company she’d never heard of. Fundamental Data, a Virginia-based company, had applied for a permit from West ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Finding Solace in Stories: How Narrative Medicine Transformed an Appalachian Doctor’s Practice

In the 1990s when I started medical school, nobody warned me how my job was going to hurt me emotionally. Maybe it’s better they didn’t, as I might have been scared away. I must admit, there were a ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Commentary: A Key to Solving Appalachia’s Mental Health Crisis? Culturally-responsive Care.

When I entered adulthood and moved out of the house to attend college more than three hours away in Louisville, I made a commitment to myself that I would prioritize my mental health. Back home, ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Rural Tennessee is Losing More Hospitals Than Anywhere in the Country, But COVID-19 Isn’t Fully to Blame

This is the third story in Critical Condition, a three part series. Read more here. “I’m hopin’,” Andrea Haas says with conviction. The Remote Area Medical clinic has come to Jellico, Tennessee, in ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Photo Essay: Exploring Trans and Queer Identity through Appalachian, Christian Iconography

As a queer and gender-nonconforming person navigating life in a region deeply entrenched in Christianity, I find myself straddling two worlds. While I don’t hold any religious beliefs, I cannot deny ...