Author Archives: Rusty
Russell Banks and Contextualized Naturalism
I find this article, linked from Conversational Reading, fascinating. While discussing Russell Banks' book Affliction, Daniel Green posits some reasons why Banks, often read as a realist or naturalist in his later work, is actually continuing along the path on … Continue reading
Ebony and Irony
White Trash Blues: Class Privilege vs. White Privilege Jennifer Kesler has some good points in this post from the blog Blind Privilege (see below for her comments indented after mine), and the comment stream is worth reading as well. I … Continue reading
Redneck Gottdamn Rampage!
I played this game with all my spare time back in the mid-90s when computer games were so much more fun than they are now. Its graphics are primitive, the plot is nonexistent. It's a first-person shooter. I hate those … Continue reading
Bonding, by Jarrid Deaton
My father, an old slaughterhouse man, decided to keep hens on our property around my twelfth birthday. The coop was an unbalanced structure that sat close to the cold white bricks of the slaughterhouse and just down from our garage. … Continue reading
Times I Nearly Died, non-fiction by Murray Dunlap
When I was born, with Highline Membrane Disease. The doctors gave me even odds. My father was out hunting, drunk. When Scarlet Fever found me. When the old dude who lived next door’s tree house gave way to one hundred feet of … Continue reading
Points To Consider: White Trash or Not?
One can hope this woman is employing irony. Let's look at why women might label themselves this way: They want to get laid, easily (but does any woman –white trash or no–need to employ anything to do that?) They want to show … Continue reading
The Map of Your World
This tells you everything you need to know. No kidding. I really am going to concentrate more on this fine place I've dug for myself, soon. In the interim, I've discovered that gas and oil leases in my home county, … Continue reading
Submissions and Et Cetera
I hope the long silence doesn't prevent you all from submitting. I'm back on the stick now and looking for material, and all previous submissions have been cleared (thank you very much for sending). I'm off now to catch up … Continue reading
Appalachia's Agony
Gakked from Jim Tomlinson on Facebook. Let's hope President Obama notices. The longstanding disgrace of mountaintop mining is now squarely in President Obama’s hands. A recent court decision has given the green light to as many as 90 mountaintop mining … Continue reading
Get On the Bus
The Affrilachian poets are off on another bus tour of Central and Southern Appalachia, bringing poems everywhere they go. Too bad they're not making the trip farther into Yankee territory. The Affrilachian Poets: A History of the Word What’s In … Continue reading
