Our Blue Ridge Towns: Whitesburg, Kentucky Comes Back
With the region’s coal mining jobs largely gone, the east Kentucky town is at work on new ways of success.
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: Thomas, W.Va. – "Everyone’s Hometown"
"Everyone’s Hometown." That’s what you see on the welcome signs coming into Thomas, West Virginia, population 554. Is a hometown feel enough to grow a remote high-valley town surrounded by national...
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: Sylva/Dillsboro, North Carolina
Where Small Business is Big Business: An hour southwest of Asheville, two adjoining North Carolina towns have earned themselves a string of “firsts” and “onlys.”
View ArticlePhDs on a Mission: The Past Becomes Present
Two young PhDs in public history have come back to the mountains to make a difference.
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: Jonesborough, Tennessee – Where ‘Story’ Defines a Town
This is a story about Story. It’s got unforgettable characters. A beautiful setting. A happy ending. And the promise of more to come.
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: 4 Towns, 2 States - One Great Experience
Our columnist went to Landrum, in search of a small town on the rise in Upstate South Carolina. What she didn’t know was that she’d find four such towns in the Carolina Foothills.
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: The Beautiful Balance of Blairsville
The remote, tiny city of Blairsville, Georgia has found middle ground in the mountains. Yes, it’s a tourist mecca…but it’s also drawing new residents and businesses.
View ArticleThe Pack Horse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky
During the Depression, they delivered books and other reading materials in remote rural areas, to people with no other access to the world of reading.
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: St. Paul, VA - A River Town on the Rise
“A Moving River Experience” is what St. Paul, Virginia, promises visitors. That . . . and a whole lot more.
View ArticleMountain-Classic Books: ‘Storming Heaven’
The Denise Giardina novel from the late ‘80s still rings true and strong.
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: Prestonsburg - The Star City of Eastern Kentucky
One key to a city on the rise: “A lot of really good people doing really good things.”
View ArticleClassic Mountain Books ‘Saints at the River,’ by Ron Rash
It’s hard to know where to start reading Ron Rash. With family roots extending far back in the North Carolina mountains, Rash sees and hears his place with keen accuracy and weaves story lines you...
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: Hinton, West Virginia - Three Rivers and a Railroad
With one of the largest National Historic Districts in the country, Hinton, West Virginia, is revising its story and its future.
View Article“The Widows”: Literary Music on the Page
A couple pages into Jess Montgomery’s debut novel, and you know you’re in the hands of a skilled storyteller.
View ArticleIs Henry Lee a Dixie Dingo?
A good dog is hard to find. (But sometimes, you get lucky.)
View ArticleOur Blue Ridge Towns: We Love Murphy, N.C.
A Valentine’s Day Visit to a North Carolina Town. Our columnist found a lot to love about this small town in the southwest corner of the state.
View ArticleFar From the Madding Crowd
When Lake Moomaw opened in 1982 in Virginia’s Alleghany Highlands, 300,000 visitors were forecast to flock to its shores the next year. Today, Moomaw is a solitary, beautiful place with stories to...
View ArticleA New Normal for Blue Ridge Towns?
The pandemic has caused havoc. Can our small mountain towns survive in its wake?
View ArticleA Classic Book Review: The Last Girls
For Women of a Certain Age, Lee Smith’s “The Last Girls” is a trip you want to take now: a novel about four women reliving a raft journey down the Mississippi River taken when it was acceptable to call...
View ArticleBook Review - Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian...
Despite inevitable comparisons to J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy,” Cassie Chambers’ “Hill Women” is a memoir with a different intention.
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