Imagine a week of hanging out at a nature conservancy with about a dozen other people, deeply immersed in daily lectures, lessons, and writings about all things Appalachia. Your evenings are filled with readings and old-time music. You share an indoor, air-conditioned cabin with one other person, and the guys’ dorm across the hall holds 1-2 people, depending on the night of the week of the conference. Imagine a building dedicated to the idea of open communication, a lower room modeled after the Cherokee seven-sided Council House, a design the Cherokees used for open representation of each tribe, and so each side could be heard equally. Imagine being led by one of the stars of current-day Appalachian poetry, Annie Woodford, in these daily activities, facilitated by Radford University and coordinated by April Asbury and Tim Thornton, Radford University faculty members dedicated to the ideals of promoting Appalachian literature and culture. If you can picture all of that, you have a snippet of what the 2024 Highlands Summer Conference was like, the week of July 8-12.
The first day, our work was centered on what it means to be Appalachian. Annie shared Robert Gipe’s Ted Talk on Appalachia, and his essay from Appalachia Reckoning, “How Appalachian Am I?”
On Tuesday, (my notes are scattered and out of order, and with so much packed into our time together, it’s hard to remember it all), I think we studied Bianca Lynne Spriggs’ “What Women Are Made Of” and talked about the ideas of writing what something is made of, stealing a line from a nursery rhyme, and/or writing about/in sonic patterns.
On Wednesday, we talked about Ballads, what their functions were/are, and we listened to some ballads, old and new. Some of us even wrote our own ballads during the generative portion of class. Mine is called, “Granddaddy, Granddaddy.”
Thursday’s lesson centered around Crystal Wilkinson’s lovely Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. Ideas for generative writing that came out of our reading included tools and what they’re used for; names for knives; how we learn to cook; being taught skills; the line between sentimentality, tenderness, and love. Our prompt was to write about a recipe and a family story that we connect to it. We were encouraged to “listen to [our] ghosts and to transcribe what they say.” I tried to write about canning tomatoes with and without my mom.
Our final day, we discussed Nickole Brown’s “Self-Portrait s Eastern Wood Rat.” We were encouraged to consider the attention to the natural world modeled in the poem. Then, we were challenged to write about something in nature/ourselves/the world at large that is considered ugly or unpleasant and surprise the reader with what we discovered. Or, just to examine the subject closely. I tried my hand at “Self-Portrait as Domesticated House Cat,” but didn’t make much headway because, by this point on Friday, I was really ready for a catnap myself. Then, after Nickole’s poem, we read Savannah Sipple’s poem, “After Seeing a Topo Map of My Childhood Stomping Grounds Hanging in a Colleague’s Home.” We talked about her use of “lines” throughout the poem, the different kinds and what effects they had on the reader and the overall work. Our prompt was to draw a remembered space and write about it. Since we all know I am no good at mapping exercises, I skipped the exercise (sorry, Annie), and worked instead on a writing piece I’d started earlier in the week that I thought could fit with my short story collection.
The evening activities were wonderful, too. On Monday night, we had Old-Time Music with Ricky Cox and Willard Gayheart in the Barn. On Tuesday evening, Annie Woodford read from her poetry collections at the McConnell Library on the Radford University campus. Wednesday night, Tim Thornton and some of his musical friends headed up a musical jam in the Barn. On Thursday evening, we had participant readings in the Seven-Sided Room downstairs in the Selu building where we had classes. It was an awesome experience.
Plans are already in the works for next year’s conference. This was, by far, the most affordable conference I have attended in years, at $150 per person, including a place to stay and some food! Be sure to watch for details about it next year. It’s well worth your time and money investments.
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