Backcountry: Contemporary Writing in West Virginia

by Irene McKinney

This is as closely-knit an anthology as you are ever likely to see. It is as though a large, extended family were drawing on the same store of family stories, jokes, symbols, landscapes, animals, trees, language, and vernacular. How many snakes are in this book? How many foxes, possums? Fossils? And how very many coal mines? But it is not merely local references that unites these writers. There is a larger vision that ties these works together.

"The connection is not so much in mutual influence, though there is some of that, but in each writer’s total immersion in place. Even those writers who no longer live in the state remember the feel, the physical texture, the overwhelming and enfolding vegetal surround of the place." Editor, Irene McKinney

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories

273 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2002

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the anthology that I actually helped compile while a senior in college...look closely in the opening pages, you'll see my name!

Anyway, West Virginia has been blessed with a multitude of very talented writers and this book showcases the major players. The quality of the literature is excellent; while working on it, we spent hours digging through texts to find the very best.

Anyone wanting to learn a little more about WV from those that have lived it, this is an excellent way through fiction. I encourage anyone to pick up this book.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a representation of contemporary West Virginia writing, "Backcountry" can be both unsettling and reassuring.