| Something's Rising collects oral histories from a diverse group of individuals from Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia who are fighting mountaintop removal, an ecologically devastating form of coal mining. Taken together, these voices stand as a testament of what it means to be an Appalachian and the value of preserving a culture's history and spirit through the stories of its people.
The authors have chosen twelve unique voices including Jean Ritchie, the "mother of folk " who doesn't let her eighty-six years slow down her fighting spirit; Judy Bonds, a tough talking coal-miner's daughter; Kathy Mattea, the beloved country singer who believes that cooperation is the key to the battle; Larry Bush, who doesn't back down even when speeding coal trucks are used to intimidate him; and Denise Giardina, the West Virginia writer who ran for governor to bring attention to the mountaintop removal issue. Written and edited by native sons of the mountains, these riveting, personal stories are captured here in this original and highly readable book.
Silas House is the author of the novels Clay's Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, The
Coal Tattoo, and the play The Hunting Part. His writing has been featured in such publications as Newsday and The Oxford American.
Jason Howard is a writer whose works have appeared in Equal Justice Magazine, Paste, Kentucky Living, The Louisville Review¸ and many other publications.
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| Reviews:
"This revelatory work is a challenging tocsin shouting out the effects of poverty and exploitations of the Appalachian people by strip miners and other corporate pirates. I am reminded of the fighting spirit of the Eastern Kentuckians when I visited these embattled pioneers in their hills and hollers. Here, Jean Ritchie and others speak out in the fighting tradition of the 1930s and 1960s. It is oral history at its best."-Studs Terkel
"Something's Rising will be an inspiration for younger activists and should galvanize people to defend our mountains. The book provides a complete primer on mountaintop removal, then goes beyond that: it thoroughly humanizes an environmental catastrophe."-Ann Pancake, author of Strange as This Weather Has Been
"Something's Rising is the testimony of two sons of the Kentucky coal country, novelist Silas House and activist Jason Howard, who have placed themselves at the center of a grassroots movement to fight mountaintop removal and the hegemony of the coal barons."-Hal Crowther, author of Gather at the River and Cathedrals of Kudzu
"What comes through in Something's Rising is people's love of their land and pride in their Appalachian heritage."-Salem Press
"This book takes you into the hearts and minds of some of Appalachia's most committed residents and helps the reader understand the moral outrage at the destruction of their homeland."-Tom Eblen, Billings Gazette
"Something's Rising is a welcome addition to the growing canon of MTR literature.... This book can serve as a powerful call-to-arms, affirming those who take a stand against MTR, while encouraging more to speak out against this destructive practice."-Joyce Barry, West Virginia History
"Something's Rising strikes a balance between interpretation and interview that allows its narrators to speak of their own communities' struggles while also providing concrete details of mountain top removal's general material costs in Appalachia. . . . The interviews bring a tangible humanity to the environmental destruction wrought by mountain top removal."-Oral History Review
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