Project Summary

This collection of interviews focuses on writers whose work often dwells on the relationship between people and land. The poets, essayists, and novelists included in the collection have been significantly influenced by Kentucky's agrarian traditions. Some of these writers grew up on family farms, and some live and work on farms today. Others may not have a direct personal relationship with farming, but engage issues of land use in their own creative work. The interviews explore themes such as the role of community in the lives and work of writers who are sometimes isolated, due to their rural locations, from other artists; the challenge of balancing creative freedom with a concern for ecological sustainability and land stewardship; the meaning of the word "agrarian"; reflections on the process and practice of writing; and the role that Kentucky's agrarian landscapes have played in the creation of each writer's art and identity. Other topics discussed include mountaintop removal coal mining, racism, patriarchy, leavings and homecomings to Kentucky, localism, agriculture, and the history that contributes to Kentucky's literature of place. Arwen Donahue, who conducted the interviews, is a writer and artist who lives and works on her family's farm in Nicholas County, Kentucky. Donahue also created watercolor portraits of many of the writers she interviewed, as part of the exhibit "Rooted Words: Kentucky Writers on the Land."