More than thirty years have passed since poet Miller Williams compiled his anthology Ozark, Ozark: A Hillside Reader, but time has not whittled away the talent of writers living in or native to the Ozarks. Yonder Mountain, inspired by Williams’s collection, remains rooted in the literary legacy of the Ozarks while reflecting the diversity and change of the region. Readers will find fresh, creative, honest voices profoundly influenced by the landscape and culture of the Ozark Mountains. Poets, novelists, columnists, and historians are represented—Donald Harington, Sara Burge, Marcus Cafagna, Art Homer, Pattiann Rogers, Miller Williams, Roy Reed, Dan Woodrell, and more.

A Cherokee chief chooses his successor by asking three candidates to climb a mountain, thus testing their character and strength.

Sarah Goodwin can hardly wait for her first year of school to begin. "I'll have a girlfriend at last," she thinks. But when she reaches the one-room schoolhouse on Yonder Mountain, she finds nothing but boys, boys, boys! How will Sarah get along with the boys on Yonder Mountain? Will she make new friends? Will she forgive Lijah and Trace for what happens to her doll? Will her prayer for another girl on Yonder Mountain be answered? Six-year-old Sarah tackles her problems with the determination of a mother hen protecting her nest. But sometimes even determination does not help, and Sarah learns to seek help from wiser sources. In the process, Sarah gives as much help as she receives. - Back cover.

Higher Than Yonder Mountain is Deany Brady's second memoir, following her well-received childhood memoir An Appalachian Childhood. Yonder Mountain reveals the arc of Deany's young womanhood as she climbs a treacherous mountain of obstacles on her path to the wealthy, elegant world of Manhattan and Miami Beach. In this absorbing account she details her extraordinary love affair and marriage to a successful New York businessman, Jerry Brady. Once Jerry's health starts to weaken, Deany enters a time of great suffering and confusion. Ultimately, she must find a new courage and determination, inspired by her beloved Appalachian roots.

Originally released in 1932, Wayman Hogue's Back Yonder is a rare and entertaining memoir of life in rural Arkansas during the decades follow- ing the Civil War. Using family legends, personal memories, and events from Arkansas history, Hogue, like his contemporary Laura Ingalls Wilder, creatively weaves a narrative of a family making its way in rug- ged, impoverished, and sometimes violent places. From one-room schoolhouses to moonshiners, the details in Hogue's story capture the essence of a particular time and place, even as the characters reflect a universal quality that endears them to the mod- ern reader. This reissue of Back Yonder, the first in the Chronicles of the Ozarks series, features an introduction by historian Brooks Blevins that explores the life of Charles Wayman Hogue, analyzes the people and events that inspired the book, and places the volume in the context of America's discovery of the Ozarks in the years between the World Wars.

"Keeney delivers a riveting and propulsive story about a nine-year battle to save sacred ground that was the site of the largest labor uprising in American history. . . . He unveils a powerful playbook on successful activism that will inspire countless others for generations to come." --Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic In 1921 Blair Mountain in southern West Virginia was the site of the country's bloodiest armed insurrection since the Civil War, a battle pitting miners led by Frank Keeney against agents of the coal barons intent on quashing organized labor. It was the largest labor uprising in US history. Ninety years later, the site became embroiled in a second struggle, as activists came together to fight the coal industry, state government, and the military- industrial complex in a successful effort to save the battlefield--sometimes dubbed "labor's Gettysburg"--from destruction by mountaintop removal mining. The Road to Blair Mountain is the moving and sometimes harrowing story of Charles Keeney's fight to save this irreplaceable landscape. Beginning in 2011, Keeney--a historian and great-grandson of Frank Keeney--led a nine-year legal battle to secure the site's placement on the National Register of Historic Places. His book tells a David-and-Goliath tale worthy of its own place in West Virginia history. A success story for historic preservation and environmentalism, it serves as an example of how rural, grassroots organizations can defeat the fossil fuel industry.