New book provides personal accounts of mountaintop-removal mining

A new book due out April 17 by Kentucky writers Silas House and Jason Howard provides testimonies from individuals on the front lines of the fight to stop mountaintop-removal strip mining for coal. Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal takes a hard look at the controversial practice and the people and landscapes it affects.

"House and Howard’s book includes interviews of 12 diverse people, ranging from activists known across Appalachia, such as Jean Ritchie and Kathy Mattea, to less well-known individuals who are fighting within their communities, such as Larry Bush and Judy Bonds," reports The Corbin Times-Tribune. "Each account is prefaced with a biographical essay that establishes the interview settings and the subjects’ connections to their region."

The two men, who met at the Hindman Settlement School's Appalachian Writers Workshop, both come from coal families. A fact that House says they both proudly admit. But House, who now teaches at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., adds that he got involved in the campaign against mountaintop removal in 2005 when another Kentucky writer, Wendell Berry, invited all Kentucky writers to tour mountaintop removal sites. It was an experience which House says changed his life. "Once you’ve seen it up close like that, and had people look you right in the eye and tell you their stories about the way it is destroying their lives," he said, "you can’t turn away." (Read more)