KARI GUNTER-SEYMOUR

"Singer/songwriter Roberta Schultz says, “A storyteller stands upon a stage/to share beginnings of this sacred place,” in one of her songs in Women Speak, the Women of Appalachia Project’s newest anthology, a rich, eclectic gathering of writing, visual art, songs, and photography from women from all around the region. It’s a challenging collection of straight talk about motherhood and marriage, body shaming and senseless violence, love and loss, the long past and the present, about women who fight back and lose, and fight back and win. These artists know all about the modern world, but they also know what tatting is, how to quilt, raise chickens, work in factories, farm and garden— living a life of hard work and sometimes harder luck. But mostly, these women remind us of the powerful beauty of these hills, their own fierce spirits, and the triumph of their individual journeys in these powerful works."

-Rita Sims Quillen, author of Wayland and Some Notes You Hold

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“Despite the educational and economic inequalities in Appalachia, despite the lack of adequate healthcare and jobs, despite the lack of infrastructure, there are women, such as these, who have contributed to the “Women Speak” anthology, standing in defiance, their words and art like steel girders. In this anthology, this hope chest of creativity, it is the power of the feminine that covers grief with love, suffering with resilience, disappointment with hope, and vulnerability with pride. Some of these poems, stories, songs, memories, and art pieces will make readers smile, even laugh; some will bring them to awed silence or tears; but all will leave them with a sense of what it means to be “stitched at the seam of the mountain.” These are offerings of survival and strength. Despite all the forces set in place to silence them, these beautiful, fierce women speak and in their voices and truths, there is no lack at all.”

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-Poet Sandy Coomer, Available Light, Director, Rockvale Writers Colony

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Contributors:

Sharon Perkins Ackerman, Lake Angela, KB Ballentine, Jennifer Browne, Catherine Carter, Danielle Kelly Curry, Denita Dodson, Jean K. Dowdy, Hilda Downey, Monic Ductan, C.J. Farnsworth, Lynette Ford, Jo Anne Moser Gibbons, Connie Jordan Green, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Jennifer Hambrick, Pauletta Hansel, Sharon Hatfield, Flossie Hedges, Melissa Helton, Mikelle Hickman-Romine, Jane Hicks, TaKya Huges, Megan Hutchinson, Meredith S. Jensen, Jessica Jones, Libby Falk Jones, Jennifer Schomburg Kanke, Stephanie Kendrick, Patsy Kisner, Celia Lawren, Chiquita Mullins Lee, Ariadne Alexis Macquarie, Marjorie Maddox, Jessica Manack, Silvia McClamrock, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Jonie McIntire, Wendy McVicker, Mary B. Moore, Laura Leigh Morris, Erin Murphy, Karen Whittington Nelson, Valerie Nieman, Idra Novey, Elaine Fowler Palencia, Lisa J. Parker, Tina Parker, Linda Parsons, Sarah Josephine Pennington, Cat Pleska, Sherry Poff, Susan E. Powers, Bonnie Proudfoot, Amy Le Ann Richardson, Rachel Rosolina, Leigh Claire Schmidli, Roberta Schultz, M. Lynne Squires, Sherry Cook Stanforth, Angie Terry, Allison Thorpe, Patricia Thrushart, E. J. Wade, Elinor Ann Walker, Kristi Stephens Walker, Randi Ward, Dana Wildsmith, Kristine Williams, Meredith Sue Willis, and Andrena Zawinski.