where the writers are
Appalachian Heritage, Berea College
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Bonnie gives an overview of the book:

The Appalachian Heritage, at Berea College, publishes works of writers primarily from Appalachian region.  The literary review, which publishes poetry, short stories, and essays, once dealt mostly with the past.  Now, however, I read on their site that they are looking for ground-breaking poems that look to the future, and the changes that have taken place in Appalachia, and the great beauty of the Appalchia Trail.  I have walked part of the Trail, and can testify to its breathtaking beauty.  And why I am an environmental activist so deeply opposed to removing mountaintops. Some of the topics covered at the time of my publication there:  Oral history; blacks in Appalachia, mental health; Appalachian folklore and song; memories of the mountains; specific skills, such as chairmaking (a skill of my own father, who caned chairs in his eighties); aging in rural America. 
Read full overview »

The Appalachian Heritage, at Berea College, publishes works of writers primarily from Appalachian region.  The literary review, which publishes poetry, short stories, and essays, once dealt mostly with the past.  Now, however, I read on their site that they are looking for ground-breaking poems that look to the future, and the changes that have taken place in Appalachia, and the great beauty of the Appalchia Trail.  I have walked part of the Trail, and can testify to its breathtaking beauty.  And why I am an environmental activist so deeply opposed to removing mountaintops.

Some of the topics covered at the time of my publication there:  Oral history; blacks in Appalachia, mental health; Appalachian folklore and song; memories of the mountains; specific skills, such as chairmaking (a skill of my own father, who caned chairs in his eighties); aging in rural America. 

Read an excerpt »

What I Needed Was Nourishing Food, Not New Dishes

I was reared on the classic blue cup,
handleless,
chips bitten hungrily from the rim.
I finally cracked, too, around the lips
and hands
and people who loved me
tried to give me things--

new dishes . . .

bonnie-g-roberts's picture

The excerpt--this is not the whole poem, which I would truly wish to edit--is not about my literal life, but is strictly metaphorical. I have seen poverty in the Appalachian region, and I have spent my life at the foothills, at the start. I have several poems which I plan to send to the more "forward-looking" Appalachian Heritage for the winter issue.

About Bonnie

Both my parents were teachers, who met at the University of AL.  My mother eventually taught 2nd-grade reading; my father taught math, history, and political science.  To improve his income, he later became a seller of insurance, not something he liked, but it met the needs...

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Published Reviews

Jun.22.2011

". . . The human voice, as well as the voices of bears, wind, and waves, are at one with an animate universe, and when we are alive in and to the world we inhabit, we enter into a loving relationship with...

Jun.27.2011

From interview:

"I think dirt is the reason I have spent my whole life in the South," offers Huntsville, Alabama poet, Bonnie Roberts, whose poem "Take Me Down That Row One More Time, Green-Eyed Boy...