Voicing Appalachia: Poetry as Exploration of Liminal Appalachian Identities

Appalachian literature by definition is an exclusionary genre from, for, inspired by, and/or protectant of a particular geographic region and/or self-identified people(s) therein. All these qualifiers imply that “Appalachian literature” is no one thing, but a genre under which all Appalachians could hope to find a mirror, or at least some rippling reflection, of themselves. In a performative reading of five to eight poems, I will confront my multiplicity of Appalachian identities, as well as engage with a poetics of witness model of inquiry in which I, the poet-as-witness, bring attention to various truths to educate and enlighten an audience. In adulthood, I began seeing how inherently harmful some Appalachian literature was in its attempt to streamline the Appalachian experience into something easily consumable. Operating as a queer person from an economically strapped yet stable home, far from coal country and privileged enough to stay out of poverty, I did not know that such juxtapositions between Appalachian literature and me did not necessitate a distinction of being “still” Appalachian. I would like to explore how queerness, lack of religious belief and alternative spiritualities, and subtle economic differences are silenced in both Appalachian discourse and how Appalachians are depicted in literature. Engaging with the weight of conforming performances within a cis-heterosexual, Protestant Christian, poor Appalachia reveals this “reality” is divorced from many Appalachian people’s lived experiences. My poems will make meaning through the liminality of different and differing Appalachian identities.