Some Chief Appalachian Poets  

(Please add suggestions to this partial list by contacting Larry Smith of Bottom Dog Press at Lsmithdog@aol.com; thanks to Eddy Pendarvis, Larry Richman, Richard Hague, Lynn Powell,
 Maggie Anderson & Charles Dodd White for help with this list.) (Revised April 7, 2011)

Gilbert Allen, In Everything (1986 ); Driving to Distraction ( 2003 ).

Maggie Anderson, A Space Filled with Moving (1992); Windfall: New and Selected Poems (2000).

Tom Andrews, The Hemophiliac's Motorcyucle (1994).

Marilou Awiakta, Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet (1986; 2006). 

Bob Henry Baber, George Ella Lyon and Gurney Norman. Old Wounds, New Words: Poems from the Appalachian Poetry Project.(1994).

Joseph Barrett, Roots Deep in Sand, Periods of Ludicity.

Laura Treacy Bentley, Lake Effect (2006).

Roy Bentley, Any One Man (1992); Strange Privacies (2006).

Wendell Berry, Collected Poems (1987); A Timber Choir: The Sabbath Poems (1999); The Country of Marriage (1975); Given: New Poems (2006); The Mad Farmer Poems (2008).

Elaine Blue, Moods and Works of Blue (1985).

Kathryn Stripling Byer, Wildwood Flower (1992); Black Shawl: Poems (1998); Coming to Rest (2006)

Jeanne Bryner, Blind Horse (1999); No Matter How Many Windows (2010)

Jo Carson, Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet. (1993).

Fred Chappell, Shadow Box: Poems (2009); First and Last Words (1989); Family Gathering (2000).

Jim Clark, Dancing on Canaan’s Ruins (1997); Handiwork (1998).

Geraldine Connolly, Flood for the Winter (  ); Hand of the Wind (  ).

Lou V. Crabtree, The River Hills and Beyond (1995)

Mark DeFoe, Aviary (2001); The Green Chair (2003).

Victor Depta, The Silence of Blackberries (1999); An Afterthought of Light (2007).

Charles B. Dickson, A Touch of Wholeness (1986); A Moon in Each Eye (1993).

Julia Nunnally Duncan. An Endless Tapestry (2007); At Dusk (2010).

Joe Enzweiler, The Man Who Odered Perch (2004).

Nikky Finney, Rice (1995); The World Is Round (2003).

Diane Gilliam Fisher, Kettle Bottom (2004); One of Everything (2003).

Nikki Giovanni, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1980); Sacred Cows…and Other Edibles (1989); Spin a Soft Black Song (1987); Love Poems (1997); The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni (2007).

James B Goode. Up from the Mines (1993).

Chris Green, Rushlight: Poems (2009).

Richard Hague, Ripening (1984); Alive in Hard Country (2003); Public Hearings (2010).

Marc Harshman, Turning Out the Stones (1983); Rose of Sharon; Local Journeys.

Jane Hicks, Blood and Bone Remember: Poems from Appalachia (2005 ).

Ron Houchin, Museum Crows (2010).

David Huddle, Summer Lake (1999); Grayscale (2004);  Glory River (2008).

Charles Hughes, Shifting for Myself (2002); Body and Blood (2010).

Don Johnson, Here and Gone: Selected Poems (2009).

Judy Jordan, Carolina Ghost Woods (2000 ); 60 Cent Coffee and a Quarter to Dance (2005).

Norman Jordan, Where Do People in Dreams Come From (2004).

Leatha Kendrick, Second Opinion (2008).

Stephen Knauth, Twenty Shadowns (1995); The River I Know You By (1999).

Mary Kratt, Small Potatoes (1999).

P. J. Laska, Night and Day (2010).

George Ella Lyon, Mountain; Catalpa (2007).

Jeff Daniel Marion, Ebbing and Flowing Springs (2002); New and Selected Poems and Prose (1976-2001).

Linda Parsons Marion, Mother Land (2008).

Maurice Manning, Bucolics (2008); The Common Man (2010).

Michael McFee, Colander (1996); Earthly (2001).

John McKernan, Resurrection of Dust (2007).

Llewellyn McKernan, Short and Simple Annals (1983).

Irene McKinney, Vivid Companion (2004); Quick Fire, Slow Fire (1989); Unthinkable: Selected Poems (2008); Six O’clock Mine Report (2009).

Louise McNiell, Eldeberry Flood (1979); Hill Daughter (1991); Paradox Hill (2009).

Jim Wayne Miller, Dialogue with a Dead Man (1974); The Mountains Have Come Closer (1980); Nostalgia for 70 (1986); The Brier Poems (1997).   

Jim Minick, Her Secret Song (2006); Burning Heaven (2008).  
 
Felicia Mitchell, Her Words: Diverse Voices in Contemporary Appalachian Women's Poetry (2008).

Robert Morgan, The Strange Attractor: New and Selected Poems (2004).

Valerie Nieman, Fidelities (2004); Wake, Wake, Wake (2006).

Edwina Pendarvis, Like the Mountains of China (2003).

Lee Pennington, Songs of Bloody Harlan (1975); I Knew a Woman (1977); Thigmotropoism (1991).

Lynn Powell, Old and New Testament (1995); The Zones of Paradise (2003).

Ron Rash, Among the Believers (2000); Eureka Mill (2001);  Raising the Dead (2002). 

Sam Rasnick, Necessary Motions (1998); Inside a Broker Clock (2010).

Steve Scafidi, Sparks from a Nine-Pound Hammer (2001); For Love of Common Words (2006).

George Scarbrough, Tellico Blue (1952, 2nd. 1999); New and Selected Poems (1977); Invitation to Kim (1989).

Bettie Sellers, Wild Ginger (2006).

Vivian Shipley, Poems out of Harlan County (1989); All Your Messages Have Been Erased (2010).

Effie Waller Smith. The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith (1991).

Larry Smith, Milldust and Roses (2002); A River Remains (2006).

Noel Smith. The Well Spring (2008).

R.T. Smith, Split the Lark: Selected Poems (2000); Outlaw Style (2007).

Katherine Soniat, Cracking Eggs (1990).

Philip St. Clair, Divided House (2005).

James Still, The Wolfpen Poems (1986); From the Mountain, From the Valley: New and Collected Poems (2005).

Art Stringer, Human Costume (2010).

Dabney Stuart, Family Preserve (2005).

Jesse Stuart, Album of Destiny (1944); The World of Jesse Stuart; Selected Poems (1975); Hold April: New Poems (1979); Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow (1999).

Robert L. Tener, Depression Days on an Appalachian Farm (2006).

Frank X. Walker, Black Box (2005); Affrilachia (2000).

Don West. No Lonesome Road: Selected Prose and Poetry (2004).

John Foster West, Wry Wine (1977).

Dana Wildsmith, One Good Hand (2005).

Jonathan Williams, Blues & Roots, Rue & Bluets: A Garland for the Southern Appalachians (1985);  Jubilant Thicket: New and Selected Poems (2005).

Marianne Worthington, Larger Bodies than Ours (2007).


Charles Wright,
Chickamauga Poems (1996); Appalachia (1999);  A Short History of the Shadow (2002); Buffalo Yoga (2005); Scar Tissue (2007).


James Wright,
The Branch Will Not Break (1963); Collected Poems (1971);
Two Citizens (1973); This Journey (1982); Above the River: Complete Poems (1992).

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Last updated April 6, 201`
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