Appalachian South has new, online literary journal

Three Appalachian writers have launched a new online literary journal that will feature work created by or devoted to the Appalachian South. Silas House (right), Jason Howard and Marianne Worthington established Still: Literature of the Mountain South, which will be published in October, February and June, so readers could freely access excellent and contemporary writing of the region. House, a Kentuckian and author of Clay's Quilt and The Coal Tattoo, will serve as fiction editor from his base at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. Howard, co-author with House of Something's Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal, will edit non-fiction submissions. Worthington, a communication and journalism professor at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., will edit poetry submissions. (Photo by Curt Richter)

The journal's title is a multi-faceted reference to Appalachian culture, according to its Web site. "To be a writer is to learn how to be still," the site says, and the title also refers to the Appalachian-stereotyped moonshine still and the late James Still of Hindman, Ky., the poet and author who has been called the grandfather of Appalachian literature. The authors write: "As a culture, Appalachia has been told for decades that it is disappearing. We are still here, proud and strong as ever." (Read more)