This Issue

This Issue_________________________ George Brosi This issue of Appalachian Heritage seemed so full of treasures that we decided to institute a new feature, a page simply introducing to the reader what can be found here. We put a lot of energy into presenting for readers a featured author each issue. This time it is Jeff Mann. His new book, Loving Mountains, Loving Men, is a ground-breaking attempt to reconcile being gay with being a mountaineer. Long before this effort, we admired Jeff as an up-and-coming poet, equally adept at depicting the natural environment and human emotions. Parks Lanier of Radford University gets this special section off to a great start with a powerful poem celebrating many dimensions of Jeff's unique contribution to regional literature. The interplay between what "tone" means when listening and when reading is vital and vibrant in Jeff's "Mountain Modes: Seven Dulcimer Poems" in poetry as well as in his speech. Our categories of "lit-bio," "lit-crit" and anecdotal pieces are transcended in the rest of this section as we present four essays by writers thoroughly familiar with both Jeff's life and his work. National literary media have made the JT LeRoy hoax a minor sensation. Our article by Ann Pancake brings a distinctive regional perspective to this controversy while retaining as much sophistication and artistry as you could hope to find in any publication. If the way the region is being treated in this case makes readers angry, they can find solace in learning about inspirational regional figures who have offered resistance to the status quo. While Jeff Mann represents a new kind of contemporary activist, Libby Falk Jones's article on Helen Lewis and Dexter Collett's treatment of the "Musicians of the Mine Wars" illuminate revered torch-bearers who were fighting the good fight long before Mann was born. Another new innovation with this issue is a full-page article about our artist, an idea that was long overdue. Readers need no reminder that Sidney Farr's cooking traditions are also included. Our two sterling short stories come from a first-time story-writer, Bill Weinberg, and one of the region's most well established, R. T. Smith, the Editor of Shenandoah. Check out the line-up we have for the ten additional poets and the two reviews, and don't miss more than a dozen pages of book write-ups plus the news and events and my editorial! ...