The seed for an intriguing nonfiction collection was planted with one simple question: 'What were the influences on your writing?'
~Southern Living
The contributors are an impressive group, distinguished international lecturers and respected scholars, winners of numerous grants and literary awards.
~Southern Quarterly
It's a book that speaks in the many voices of Appalachia's women writers. Sometimes their voices sing. Sometimes they tell a story or a fragment or a memory. but always they offer a piece of their soul. It's a gift worth accepting.
~The Knoxville News-Sentinel
A volume rich with unexpected gifts.
~Appalachian Heritage
In Bloodroot are the real mountains and their prolific and grateful offspring.
~The Roanoke Times
Gratitude permeates this collection, making it a warm invitation to experience Appalachian country.
~The Appalachian Quarterly
A worthy addition of any collection of Appalachian literature.
~Ace Magazine
Dyer's collection of short essays by some 35 'Appalachian women writers' makes a fairly riveting witness to the whole process of deciding that you are from anywhere, and what that means anyway.
~Appalachian Journal
Each essay is filled with illuminating honesty and allows the reader to glance into the writer's soul. The conclusions of most of the essays are exquisite gems.
~Bloomsbury Review
Contained in this book are a collection of memories as rich, strong, and unforgiving as the land from which they came.
~BookLovers
From the well-known, like Dykeman, Sharyn McCrumb and Denise Giardina, to the lesser known, these essayists, in one way or another, write of what it means to come to fully appreciate one's native tongue; to be inspired by the courage and fortitude of their Appalachian foremothers; and to glory in their profound attachment to the natural beauty of the Appalachian hills, hollers and trails.
~Bowling Green Daily News
Wherever your own roots lie, you will find Bloodroot moving, inspiring—and a reminder that we are all shaped by the landscape we spring from, the place we call home.
~Chicago Tribune, Charlotte Observer
Although all of the writers discuss their writing and its ties to their Appalachian experience in some fashion, the book should appeal to audiences who have little or no knowledge of the Appalachian region as well as those who are particularly interested in it and its literature.
~Choice
After reading the essays, the reader should come away with a much better concept of this place we call home, Appalachia.
~Floyd County (KY) Times
This is a wonderful book. Not the kind you can't put down, not the kind for which you take copious notes. This is a book you can read for awhile and then come back to. It's a book that makes you start thinking about your own life.
~Journal of Appalachian Studies
Although the stories in the collection are diverse, the authors' shared connection to the region stands out and speaks of a part of America's literary history that has been unexplored for too long.
~Kentucky Monthly
If the word Appalachia conjures little more for you than mining disasters and Walker Evans photos, turn these pages and discover the remarkable storytelling tradition that flourished there, and survives still.... This collection won the 1997 Appalachian Studies Award—and deservedly so.
~Kirkus Reviews
These women describe Appalachia with poignancy, eloquence, forthrightness, and humor and produce a powerful collection of reminiscences, each different in its own way, to enrich both the region they describe and the reader who turns the pages.
~Louisville Courier Journal
The writers here represent some of the most unique and often unsung talent in literature. These essays will carry you to a far mountain place and whet your appetite for more
~Magazine (Baton Rouge, LA)
In voices that are honest and true, these women celebrate the rich cultural mother lode of the Appalachians.
~Magill Book Reviews
A rich and outstanding contribution.
~McCormick (SC) Messenger
Hats off to Joyce Dyer for such a grand idea for a book.
~Now & Then
A marvel of a book, one whose significance far exceeds the boundaries of the mountains.
~NWSA Journal
Taken together, these essays articulate the difficult beauty, history, culture, and deep-rootedness of the 'Southern Appalachian region, the section that forms the book's focus'.
~Ohioana Quarterly
Each essay is like sitting on the porch and drinking a cool lemonade while each writer weaves a story of a grandmother or uncle or describes some homeplace long abandoned, but never forgotten.
~Paintsville Herald
Dyer succeeds admirably in a dual purpose: to promote a vital and virtually unknown body of work, and to suggest an Appalachian spirit that transcends state borders and artistic genres.
~Publishers Weekly (starred review)
This is a book about how living amidst scenic beauty gives a person a sense of place that tends to affect that person's writing, and about how different the people, the places, and the writing can be. I personally think these brief memoirs make a fascinating read.
~Priscilla's Zine & Bookstore