Crossing Troublesome 25 Years of the Appalachian Writers Workshop

Those of us who have been at Hindman during the past twenty five years know that something important has happened there. Something important has happened to many of us individually (as this book attests), and through that one-by-one transformation, something has happened to the region’s literature as well. The Appalachian Writers Workshop has nurtured seeds of writing that have flowered far beyond Knott County, beyond Appalachia, beyond what many would classify as “Appalachian literature.” Writers, both famous and unknown, have come to Hindman and found sustenance, community, inspiration and instruction.

Albert Stewart prepared the ground for the conference as we know it: Albert Stewart had the vision to see how important it was to center a conference in the heart of the east Kentucky hills. Stewart’s return to Knott County and the presence of James Still in Hindman added credibility and substance to the eventual settling of the Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School. Mike Mullins took the conference in hand in 1978, soon after taking over as Director of the Settlement School.

Early on, the idea came to us to arrange the book spatially and temporally, so that a reader might feel that he had physically experienced being at this gathering of writers in August. This book is not and was never intended to be an “anthology” of miscellaneous writings, but rather it was conceived to be an evocation, recreation and contextualization of the Appalachian Writers Workshop. Thus, the text moves from the crossing itself, to the heart of the days’ classes and meals, then to the evening singing and outward to “Hindman Worldwide.” Here you will find personal reminiscences mixed with tributes and vignettes. Along the way, some writers comment on the influence of the Writers Workshop on the body of Appalachian literature and the place of that literature on the world stage.

The effect, we hope, is to document a generation of writing in Appalachia -“generation” here referring as much to the genesis of the writing as it does to the generational group of writers producing it during the past 25 years.
– Leatha Kendrick