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The “back of beyond!” Writing from North Carolina, that’s what Horace Kephart called the Tennessee side of the Great Smokies. It was nearly impossible to get there in his day and a stingy place to scratch out a living. Kephart wrote about that dark side of the Smokies in hisContinue Reading

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At the end of February, we packed our bags (masks, sanitizer, and alcohol spray included) and took a daytrip to downtown Asheville, North Carolina, to visit the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, honoring the Appalachian writer, novelist, playwright, and poet, Thomas Wolfe. We took the scenic route on 25-W and it wasContinue Reading

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Check out the following answers for Appalachian English Quiz 3. Appalachia Bare works to provide the best available answers, with the understanding that some words are said or meant differently in various Appalachian regions. Let us know in the comments if other meanings for these words exist. The following dictionariesContinue Reading

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I recently took a walk/hike through finished portions of the Fonta Flora State Trail in Burke County, North Carolina. The trail is named after the local Fonta Flora settlement of African-American sharecroppers whose homes were flooded when the Catawba River was dammed to create Lake James. I started the walkContinue Reading

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I’m a bad Buddhist. I lead with that statement when describing my spiritual practice because claiming Buddhism as one’s spiritual path often leads to the inevitable questions (or jokes) about enlightenment or the assumption that I have an outsized well of patience and wisdom. Neither of these things are trueContinue Reading

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My first “spiritual” teacher arrived simultaneous to the literary discoveries. Anything but spiritual and much older, he drew me at nineteen into a long and difficult entanglement, a liaison lasting years that would, these days, set off all the #MeToo sirens. The sum of it was traumatizing, but there wereContinue Reading

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Writing about fifteen years of practicing Universal Sufism gives me pause. For one, keeping personal matters personal–a tacit cultural feature of this region–seems polite and practical. Especially with spiritual matters, staying mum averts misunderstandings. Another reason I hesitate is that the essence of Sufism, an ancient form of mysticism, isContinue Reading

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Sara filled the air with a pitiful cry, from somewhere deep inside her chest, that even made her daddy misty-eyed. She clutched her yellow dog, Milly, around the neck, refusing to let go, and, when Daddy put his hands on her shoulder, she tightened her embrace. Milly’s body was cold,Continue Reading

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While sifting through his library the other day, our own Edward Francisco found this gifted poem (below) written by George Scarbrough entitled “The Kitchen.”   The Kitchen Broad planks laid on the raw clay Composed the floor. Some had cupped At edges, others at ends, so one made A higgledy-piggledyContinue Reading

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All of us at Appalachia Bare would like to wish our readers a happy, safe, and healthy holiday season. We’re so grateful for your continuing interest and support. We’ll be taking a short break for the holiday season and will return with new content on January 14, 2021. During thisContinue Reading