L.L. Gaddy

side by side series of the cover of A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia

Reading A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia

I did not know before encountering this anthology’s opening fact that the eastern cougar, “puma, mountain lion, wildcat, catamount, painter, mountain screamer, in all its many names,” had been declared extinct in 2018 from where I am from. This caught a latch in my throat, lighter to such knowledge’s touch than I’d expected.