Poems, stories, and reflections
Appalachia
Good Night, Mama Hattie
My 94-year-old grandmother, Mama Hattie, died in January almost 20 years ago. She slipped away while astronauts stepped from the space shuttle, and the blizzard of the century blew through the East. The Pickens County Progress ran an obituary—read faithfully by neighbors in North Georgia. Her family and friends crowded in the Hinton Community United […]
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What the Heck’s a Fiddlehead?
An 18th-century French botanist trekked 8,000 miles of Appalachia, foraging for unclassified flora. Along the way, he plucked a fresh, furled fiddlehead here and picked another one there. Fast forward more than two centuries later, and the Fiddleheads do the plucking and picking. In 2009, four guys jamming in Dahlonega, Georgia, finished the night as […]
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