"Soupbean: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature" by Bob Snyder, P. J. Laska, et. al.

After thirty or more years of periodic searches on used book websites, I finally located a copy of "Soupbean: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature" by Bob Snyder, P. J. Laska, et. al, a group of Appalachian writers connected to The Soupbean Poets Collective of Antioch College/Appalachia. The book was published by Mountain Union Books of Beckley, WV, in 1977. Mountain Union Books was an imprint which was briefly operated by Antioch College Appalachia, which was a branch of Antioch College of Yellow Springs, Ohio. This branch campus was created by Antioch College in the early 1970's, initially opening in Huntington, WV, and after a couple of years relocated to Beckley. The branch was operated for roughly 8 years before being shuttered by the mother institution which had created a group of such campuses in California, Alaska, West Virginia, and one or two other locations. The campus in Beckley was never large with an annual enrollment which was generally less than 100 students. But Antioch Appalachia, which also operated briefly as The Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College, was staffed by several of the best writers in all of Appalachian Studies including Robert "Bob" Snyder, P. J. Laska, Don West, Bill Blizzard, Rod Harless, and Yvonne Snyder Farley. The campus also produced several well known authors of Appalachian Literature most of whom are still writing and publishing today. During the brief life of the campus, four of its female students were featured in an issue of "MS Magazine" as "Women Writers of Appalachia". Those four women were Gail Amburgey; Pauletta Hansel who eventually became the first Poet Laureate of Cincinatti, Ohio; Peggy Dotson Hall, now deceased; and Sylvia Evans. I ahve to admit that I have never met either Evans or Hall and know little about any subsequent work they did. But I have known both Gail Amburgey and Pauletta Hansel for years and read a great deal of both women's work. Other published student writers who attended or graduated from Antioch included the late Joseph Barrett who has two published books as the product of his brief life; Bob Henry Baber, the eventual mayor of Richwood, West Virginia, and the author or editor of several books. I am proud to say that I was briefly a student at Antioch Appalachia but didn't complete a degree there. I have published fiction and nonfiction in a dozen states and one foreign country. My first collection of short stories is pending publication at this time in late June 2026. I always have and always will say that being exposed to the faculty and students at Antioch Appalachia and the high level of education they provided was the greatest influence on my writing. Antioch Appalachia was a wellspring of and for writers and writing in Central and Southern Appalachia. In addition to the Appaachian writers who were produced by the campus, two other students achieved success in divergent fields. Sam Farley, a Vietnam veteran and eventual social worker who in 2007 was in 2007 recognized by The National Association of Social Workers, West Virginia Chapter, with the Catalyst Award for Direct Social Work Practice. Barbara Placier Ervin, another graduate of Antioch Appalachia became a professor at Lander University in South Carolina and served as Director of Montessori Education at that institution where she earned the Mary Frances Poole Alston Award, which is presented to a faculty or staff member who has provided "visibility for Lander University throughout the state of South Carolina, the United States and the world" which was a recognition of her internationally recognized work in her field. By percentage of the student body, this group of highly successful individuals stand out very favorably in comparison to nearly any other college in the nation. The book being reviewed here contains writing from several members of that group including Pauletta Hansel, Gail Amburgey, Mary Joan Coleman, Bob Henry Baber, and Joseph Barrett. It also includes work by Bob Snyder, P.J. Laska, and Yvonne Snyder Farley who all served as faculty of Antioch Appalachia. This little book contains the powerful and sometimes biting poetry of Gail Amburgey who was a survivor of the Buffalo Creek Flood and one of two Antioch Appalachia products who went on to be among the early female coal miners in Appalachia. Gail's writing is frequently colored by her exposure to that flood which was a glaring example of everything that can go wrong when an American industry is underregulated and its actions go awry. It also contains contributions from Joseph Barrett who published poetry in numerous journals around the world before his untimely death at only 39. There is also some fine writing by former student David Chaffins who became a career Navy noncom. Jim Wayne Miller, who was a professor of German at Western Kentucky University and a well recognized writer of literature in Appalachia, also contributed to this book which must be considered a complement to the little college that could. This is a generally difficult little book to find for sale since it was issued in a small edition in 1977. But if you can locate a copy, buy it, read it, come to enjoy one of the most productive institutions to ever exist in Appalachia and Appalachian Literature. You won't be disappointed.!

Mourning The West Virginia I Love

It was about 1974 the first time I went to West Virginia and I have been in love with it ever since.  I was a potential student at Antioch University Appalachia which at that time was in Huntington but moved shortly thereafter to Beckley where it remained until Antioch University shut it down.  Beckley and Raleigh County were the first place I lived in West Virginia in 1974 to sometime in 1976.  I also lived in Logan and Mingo Counties from 1985 to 1989.  I was married to my wife Candice in 1992 at the main overlook of Grand View National Park.  I have loved West Virginia every day since the first time I ever went there and I will love it until the day I die.  But over the last few years, I have become deeply disappointed, disgusted, and ashamed of what West Virginia has become which is nothing more or less than a political cesspool, a quagmire, a reprehensible home for several thousand, and sadly, perhaps several hundred thousand members of that basket of deplorables which Hillary Clinton spoke of on September 9, 2016.  The West Virginia which for all its history since statehood on June 20, 1863, was a home for progressive, liberal, conscientious, and admirable acts, people, arts, and actions has deterioriated over the last twenty years into a place which is run by some of the most reprehensible politicians in the nation and its citizens espouse right wing radical political opinions which are detrimental not only to West Virginia but to the entire nation.

The state which produced Pearl S. Buck, Breece D'J Pancake, Cyrus Vance, Chuck Yeager, Walter Reuther, Bill Blizzard (both senior and junior), Rod Harless, Tom Woodruff, and Arnold Miller is now frequented and horribly negatively influenced by the likes of Jim Justice, David McKinley, Carol Miller, and Alex Mooney.  The state in which brave miners fought proudly for union representation on Blair Mountain is now home to thousands of scabs who have bought into the lies of coal companies and the billionaire thieves who own them.  The state which was proudly represented in congress by Ken Hechler and in Charleston by A. James Manchin is now misled and misrepresented by the likes of McKinley, Miller, Mooney, and Shelley Moore Capito the daughter of Arch Moore, one of the worst criminals the state ever produced.  

It is long past time for West Virginians to come to their senses and return the state to the proud place it once held in American History when the Kennedy brothers both campaigned there, when Jesse Jackson, Jr. was welcomed to Logan County, and when the state voted solid Democratic and was considered progressive and socially responsible.  I hate to have to say that I mourn for the West Virginia I love. 

Authors Addendum: January 21, 2020

This is evidently an important post, possibly one of the most important I ever written.  It has gotten more than 500 page views in less than 24 hours and several comments, most of which help support and prove my argument in this post.  No matter how ignorant the comments are on this blog, I always leave them up unless they require me to report the comment to legal authorities as a threat of harm, because they nearly always prove me to be correct as these have.  So, all of you who read this blog who turn out to be members of the basket of deplorables, Right Wing Repugnican Radicals, or just idiots, have fun!  

This Is The Battle I Was Trained To Fight!

America is in the midst of the worst constitutional crisis in the history of the country.  I had considered saying that we are in the worst constitutional crisis since April 12, 1861, the day the Civil War began.  But after careful consideration, I realized that even during the Civil War, the forces which were fighting against the United States of America were not controlled by a foreign power.  They were not fully committed to destroying Democracy in North America.  They were not fully committed to destroying the US Constitution.  Today, we are in a battle in which the individual who illegally occupies the White House is fully committed to destroying America, American Democracy, the US Constitution, and everything they all represent as he works to support his Russian master and the ideas of his heroes such as Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Adolph Eichmann, and every other Fascist and dictator who ever lived.  These are the worst days in the history of the country, worse than the Civil War, worse than World War I, worse than World War II, worse than the Great Depression.  We are literally engaged in a battle which will decide if this country will survive as the greatest democracy in the history of the world.

Statue Of Liberty--Photo by Ellis Island

So the question becomes what will each of us do in response to this widespread Fascist attempt to destroy America.  I don't know about you but I will fight it to my dying breath.  Just as the title of this blog post says 'This is the battle I was trained to fight'.  I have been incredibly lucky to be born in the greatest democracy on the face of the earth and so were most of you. And, of course, some of you were born in other countries and chose to immigrate to America for a better life in a better country.  I applaud each immigrant in America and know that the great majority of you are also deeply involved in this battle for the country you loved enough to leave everything and everyone you had ever known to become Americans. Each immigrant citizen in America is under attack today and living in fear of seeing the destruction of the constitutional process which made you an American.  I was incredibly lucky to have been born into a family which was composed of intelligent, politically aware people who were able to understand an attack on our country and to train me to understand it also along with being able to see and understand any future attacks long after the people who raised me were dead.  I have been incredibly lucky to have found, wandered into, or been divinely guided to other teachers, mentors, heroes, and friends who expanded on that early education I received at the feet of my elders.  Collectively and individually these people gave me a base of knowledge, morals, values, and resources which make it not only suggested but mandatory that I stand up for what is right in the face of any attacks which occur to destroy that which is valuable to and life sustaining for a democracy.  I sincerely hope each of you who read this has also had some level of the same type of mentoring, instruction, and moral training to teach you the same things.  At this time of incredible crisis in America, it is necessary that every American citizen with enough intelligence and morals to understand the nature of the intensifying attack on our country and its sacred institutions  must be willing to stand up, stand out, speak up, and speak out on a daily basis to confront the incredibly Fascist and anti-American ideas which are arising from the Radical Right and from Russia and their minion in Washington.

Albert Stewart--Photo by Lexington Herald-Leader

I have often written on this blog about some of the people I have encountered in life who have reinforced the democratic and patriotic values which my parents instilled in me.  Probably the first such person I met was William Howard Cohen when I was about 14 years old in Upward Bound on the campus of Alice Lloyd College.  Bill Cohen became my professor, mentor, and friend and taught me both by example and by didactic methods to stand up for what is right.  Bill Cohen went out in Eastern Kentucky to strip mines and lay down in front of coal trucks in his fight against strip mining and eventually lost his job at Alice Lloyd College because of it.  But because he was right, he never stopped speaking out against wrong.  At about the same time, I met Albert Stewart who also taught at Alice Lloyd College but fought his fights in a much quieter  but just as firm a manner.  In his effort to save his family farm on Yellow Mountain in Knott County from destruction by strip mining, he eventually willed it and gifted it to the University of Kentucky to prevent that destruction.

Robert "Bob" Snyder--Photo by Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College

A few years later, I became a member of a group of people in Beckley, West Virginia, who have gone on to become some of the most respected writers, teachers, and social activists in all of Appalachia.  The Southern Appalachian Circuit Of Antioch College in Beckley was created and directed by Robert "Bob" Snyder one of the best poets and most brilliant minds Appalachia has ever produced.  He also put together a tremendous group of professors and students at that time in the early 1970's who are often spoken of as a group when Appalachian writing and social activism are discussed.  In that group of professors was Don West, P. J. Laska, Rod Harless, and William C. "Bill" Blizzard.  Each of those people further reinforced my commitment to do the right thing no matter the circumstances or the opponent.  I learned valuable lessons from each of them along with several of the other students in that group.

Don West--Photo by Georgia Encyclopedia

Don West had been born in North Georgia as the son and grandson of poor mountain farmers.  He grew up to write, teach, preach, do social action work, and to influence dozens of other American social activists.  He co-created Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, with Miles Horton.  He and his wife Connie Adams West created the Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem, West Virginia.  Don fought for the UMWA in Harlan County Kentucky in the 1920's, worked in the defense of Angelo Herndon in Georgia in the 1930's, and saw himself fired from Oglethorpe University due to his social activism.  He was run out of Georgia under a death warrant for his defense of Herndon, saw two homes burned out from under him, and was ostracized in many ways in many places.  But Don West never stopped fighting for social justice.  He also never stopped working to teach anyone he met about the importance of doing the same thing and never stopping in a fight for the good, just, correct thing in a crisis. By the time Don West died in 1992 at 86, his battles had earned him an obituary in the New York Times and a biography in the encyclopedias of two states, Georgia and West Virginia. 

Roderick Mansfield Harless--Photo by the Harless Family

Roderick Mansfield "Rod" Harless was also one of those professors at the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College.  Rod had grown up in a large family which produced both him and a brother who was a long term official in the United Mine Workers of America.  Rod was quiet, low key, and a wonderful writer.  His "Prince of New Rock" satire series about the candidacy of Jay Rockefeller for governor of West Virginia is an unknown and unrecognized classic. He was a social activist who was deeply committed to always doing the right thing in all circumstances and passed that commitment on to those who knew him.

William C. Blizzard--Photo by Kimberly Clear

William C. "Bill" Blizzard was also a member of the faculty at the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College after having spent most of his life as a writer at the Charleston Gazette  which fired him for refusing to cross a press men's picket line at the paper during a strike.  Bill Blizzard would likely have chosen to die rather than cross a picket line.  He was the son of William Blizzard, the leader of the United Mine Workers at the Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County, West Virginia.  Bill Blizzard published a book, "When Miners March" about the West Virginia unionization effort late in life and devoted his life and much of his free lance writing to passing on the socially active values his father and the United Mine Workers had passed on to him as a child.

P. J. Laska--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

P. J. Laska was also a key member of the faculty at the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College and has been my professor, mentor, and friend since we met in the 1970's.  He is the one living member of that incredible group of teachers and activists who came together in Beckley along with a sizeable group of their students who have continued the good fight in nearly all causes we have encounter.  Laska was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry in 1976.  I have been blessed to have known all of these people I have listed so far in this blog post.  But I have been especially blessed to have had P. J. Laska as a friend and mentor for the past forty plus years.  Today, at 80, he is still fighting the good fight just as many of his former students are.  After knowing and having been mentored by this group of people, how could I do anything except keep up the good fight until it is won just as the American Revolution was won, just as the Civil War was won, just as all of our greatest challenges such as the Great Depression have been won?

Dr. Daya Singh Sandhu--Photo by Sikhnet.com

I have also been blessed to know several immigrants who have influenced me deeply over the years.  I have written about some of those people and their contributions to America in this blog and I will continue to do so.  Recently, I have met two new immigrants who work in two of my favorite restaurants who are also inspirations to me.  After having known people like Dr. Elif Arioglu-Oral, Dr. Daya Singh Sandu, Dr. Surjit Dhooper, Dr. Noor Loynab and his wonderful wife, Amena Loynab, all of whom are immigrants, how could I not continue to fight the good fight to keep the open door of America open to all who are willing to come and work to make this country better?  But I have also been influenced by many other immigrants who came to America, became citizens, and spent their lives working as horsemen, waiters, laborers, and other jobs which make a country function successfully?  And, of course, how could any loyal citizen of this country not fight to their dying breath against the nameless TRAITOR who now lives illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Russia?  I call upon every person who reads this blog post to join in this greatest fight in American history and to continue unflinching until the battle is won.  Do not allow our country's greatest enemy to destroy the US Constitution, American Democracy, and America herself as they are working daily to do?   

Dr. Elif Arioglu-Oral, M. D.--Photo by U of Michigan Health Net

Gallery of Appalachian Heroes

As I find more time to work on this blog, I intend to post a collection of articles about several, perhaps a few dozen, heroes from Appalachia.  Some of them will be people I have known. Some will only be people I wish I had known.  They will include union organizers, artists, musicians, college professors, writers, poets, coal miners, one or two preachers, at least one Supreme Court Justice, and one Indian Chief.  The people in this gallery will be a group of individuals who have accomplished things which have made the world a  better place.  Some will have written books.  Some will have produced works of art.  Some will have put their lives on the line in support of their beliefs.  One part of me wants to list some of the group in this article today.  Another part of me wants to keep you in suspense.  I have decided to post the list, or at least the beginnings of the list.  This group will include several writers and poets: Don West, Albert Stewart, Verna Mae Slone, Loyal Jones, Cratis Williams, Bill Blizzard, Bob Snyder.  One other poet who was not Appalachian but lived and worked in Appalachia for many years will probably also be discussed at length but not included in the gallery of heroes due to his having been born outside the region: William Howard Cohen.  I will also include some articles about those miners and textile workers who gave their lives  in the union struggle in Appalachia. I have already written a small piece about the Battle of Blair Mountain.  But I would like to do something larger for all those people who died in order to gain union representation, fair wages, holidays, and vacations for the workers who live today and benefit from their blood, sweat, and tears without ever knowing, acknowledging, or appreciating the tremendous sacrifices these men and women made.  I cannot say that I really knew Florence and Sam Reese but I did have the pleasure of meeting them and attending a seminar they were involved in once.  For the uninitiated, Florence Reese wrote "Which Side Are You On?", one of the greatest union songs ever written.  I will also write about Cherokee Chief Charles Renatus Hicks, one of the most literate men in America in the 18th century.  Many of my relatives believe we are decended from Chief Charles.  I have never been able to find sufficient proof to make that statement.  But I do know that I would love to be able to prove it.  Chief Charles read and wrote  both Cherokee and English and served as an interpreter for the tribe at many of the most famous treaty conferences.  He also owned one of the largest private libraries in America at a time when most Native Americans were illiterate.  I am on the fence about writing about Sgt. Alvin York, WW I solider and hero.  His military record is generally what brings him mention.  I am more interested in his work to improve education in East Tennessee after he returned from the war.  I have already mentioned at least a dozen men and women who worked to make America a better place. I can't wait to find out who the next dozen will be who pop into my head.  Aha, Jock Yablonski, what gallery of Appalachian heroes could be complete without mention of his name and how he paid the ultimate sacrifice in the UMWA.  There are also all the men and women, boys and girls who died in disasters in Appalachia.  I have always been interested in the way Appalachian people work within our cultural value system to rebound from death, destruction, and disaster.  I would like to write some posts about the events leading up to, during, and after disasters such as the coal mine explosions, the Buffalo Creek Flood, the Floyd County School Bus Wreck, the Silver Bridge Collapse, the Marshall University Airplane Crash, and several more catastrophic events in our history as a region. 

Don West, Poet, Preacher, Teacher, Social Activist

Sgt. Alvin C. York, War Hero

Verna Mae Slone, Writer

William Blizzard, Sr., Union Activist, Blattle of Blair Mountain

Historic Marker For William Blizzard, Sr.

Major General Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, Pilot & Military Leader



Albert Stewart, Poet