The thirteenthvolume of the Anthology of Appalachian Writers was published earlier this year by the Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies & Communities and the West Virginia Center for the Book. This year’s anthology celebrates the work of award-winning poet, novelist and activist Dorothy Allison, the 2020 One Book, One West Virginia Common Read author. Allison served as the twenty-second Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence at Shepherd University where she received the Appalachian Heritage Writers Award.

The Anthology of Appalachian Writers is supported by the WV Library Association, the WV Humanities Council, and the Shepherd University Foundation. Volume thirteen unites writers and artists from across the region as well as across the nation. West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman, Weatherford Award-winner Pauletta Hansel, and several other writers and photographers from the Mid-Ohio Valley are among those featured.

Wood County native Randi Ward and Kari Gunter-Seymour, founder and director of the Women of Appalachia Project, both have poetry and photography in the anthology. Gunter-Seymour, who is currently Poet Laureate of Ohio, won the Appalachian Anthology Photographic Art Award for her photograph “Where I Come From.” Retired Ohio Valley University English instructor Lois Spencer has a short story in the new book, and educator Karen Whittington Nelson’s fiction and poetry were also chosen for publication.

In addition, volume thirteen contains the stories of West Virginia Fiction Competition winners Cat Pleska, Jordan Carter, Pat Donohoe, and Caroline Higginbottom. The photographic art published in the anthology will be part of an exhibit displayed during the Appalachian Heritage Festival, which takes place on the campus of Shepherd University each fall. The 2021 exhibit may now be viewed online.

The Dorothy Allison volume of the Anthology of Appalachian Writers is available at Four Seasons Books, the Shepherd University Book Store, Tamarack, and online. The West Virginia Library Association also distributes copies of the anthology to school libraries across West Virginia.  For more information, visit the anthology website at or contact Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt at SShurbut@shepherd.edu.