I grew up in Harts, West Virginia, a small town in the southern coalfields. Like so many others in the region, my families had been in the mountains for generations. They were farmers, merchants, loggers, moonshiners, school teachers, miners—generally doing whatever they could to get by. They knew the Bible verse to recite to stop a bleed or a toothache, and which plants to dry for the croup and which ones to poultice for a sting. They told stories of haints and boogers and laubisals and wampus cats, warning children against dangers to body and soul. The world I grew up in was inhabited by old magic even as TV and politics further colonized the region.

Despite my deep roots, I was one of those kids who couldn't wait to get away and left home as soon as I graduated high school, working whatever pink collar jobs I could get. I worked in a grocery store, a café where I got tipped quarters, and an antique shop. I got married. I got divorced. I repeated that process. 

With two failed marriages behind me, in my early 20s I decided to go to college and get serious about my education. By that time I had moved to Blacksburg Virginia in the pursuit of another happily-ever-after. Happily Ever After didn’t work out (again), but Blacksburg happens to be the home of Virginia Tech. I applied for admission and was accepted. While working a multitude of other low wage jobs, eventually I finished a masters in English. I took a break, got married again (and later divorced), and at the age of 30 I went back to campus and earned a PhD in Human Development with a focus on families and aging in Appalachia.

Throughout my educational experience I kept coming back to Appalachia. I couldn't not write about the place I'd struggled with so much as a child—trying to reconcile the love and magic I knew as a child with the place that could be so unaccepting of difference. I felt compelled to explore the ideas of home, place, family, and love. Today I continue to write about Appalachia, trying to reconcile all that she holds, all the contradictions that she is.

I live in the magical Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with my kids, dogs, and husband; and visit the coalfields often where most of my extended family still live.