Degrees of Elevation

Hard, brilliant, and dark as coal, this brand new and necessary volume captures Appalachia today, a place where the old bedrock verities of family, community, belief, work, and the earth intself are all in painful "Upheaval"--to use the title of Chris Holbrook's story herein. From manic to elegiac to rough, raw, beautiful, and heartbreaking, these sotries will strike the reader as both absolutely true and as unforgettable, like the high pure ring of an ax on a cold winter morning, vibating across distance, hanging in the air long afterword.--Lee Smith, author of The Last Girls--Cover.