PBS NewsHour Celebrates New West Virginia Anthology

Elizabeth Flock, of PBS NewsHour, directs readers' attention to a new anthology—in fact, it's the first anthology featuring poetry and literary writing by West Virginia authors to emerge in 15 years. Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Fiction and Poetry From West Virginia is co-edited by poets Doug Van Gundy and Laura Long and includes writing by 63 West Virginia writers and poets, ranging from the state's poet laureate, Marc Harshman, to up-and-coming poet Randi Ward. Here's more about it, in the words of Van Gundy, Flock, and Harshman, respectively:

“[It is not] the Appalachian poetry that is nostalgic about Grandma’s quilts, and ‘I remember the canned beans,’” poet Doug Van Gundy, who co-edited the anthology, told me.

Its title, “Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods,” is a nod to how animals, seen from a distance, can be as mysterious and little-known to humans as West Virginia is to the rest of the country.

Harshman, who often crisscrosses the state in his role as poet laureate, said the poetry coming out of West Virginia no longer just celebrates rural life and industry.

The anthology, which features 63 fiction writers and poets, has “work that combats stereotypes from a state like this — that it’s a place of lesser sophistication, of lower literacy, conservative in all the worst ways instead of the best ways,” he said.

In his poem in the anthology, called “Shed,” Harshman describes rural life but also warns of its risks: “A man comes to believe almost anything when he lives on the inside of himself long enough,” he writes.

Van Gundy — who left West Virginia for school in Utah, North Carolina and Vermont before coming back home for love — is blunter.

“We’re not just a state of Trumpian contrarians. We’re far more complex than that,” he said, something showing up in the poetry being written there.

Learn more at PBS NewsHour.