1. elainemcmillion:

    This evening I filmed South 52 practicing for the McDowell County Fair…super talented group of people. (photos by Elaine McMillion)

    I’m living vicariously through Elaine McMillion’s adventures in southern WV by following her Hollow project updates on Tumblr. I just love these photos. I’m so inspired by the ways my fellow young West Virginians like Elaine and Melissa Rogers (Melissa not only designed the cover for Gloss, but she is also close to launching the West Virginia Storytelling Project) are using art and technology to explore, understand, strengthen, and play — truly, like the musicians in Elaine’s photos — the heartstrings that tie us to our homeland. How does a place mean, and how do you love it? I, for one, keep feeling those strings lace up tighter and tighter with pride and wonder and hope for the future. I’ve been home in West Virginia all week, breathing the late May sweetness. The air at night is like dessert.

    I’m with ya, Elaine and Melissa! 

  2. Gonna read all my most sweltering poems. Thanks to Misha Cahnmann-Taylor and Jim Woglom for making this happen.

    Gonna read all my most sweltering poems.

    Thanks to Misha Cahnmann-Taylor and Jim Woglom for making this happen.

  3. "Silence is louder than words. We’ve talked and talked and talked, but it hasn’t gotten us where we need to be with this issue. You have air pollution, water pollution, the destruction of so many living things — it’s a bigger deal than people think. I mean they are actually destroying a culture of people. It’s not what my grandparents would have wanted. And I know, the old coal miners, they don’t like it — they think it is horrible. We are the majority but our voices are drowned out by big coal money. It’s like they shove their money down our throats. The politicians completely ignore us."

    Marilyn Mullens (in an interview with Jeff Biggers) on the Appalachian women’s silent protest of MTR planned for Memorial Day at the capitol in Charleston.

    Just read the whole thing.

  4. »  a poem from gloss and a behind-the-scenes essay about it on HTMLGIANT. ooh!

    Thanks to the inestimable Kyle Minor for making this happen!

  5. Ohh book blossoms! Profusion!

  6. from npr

    from npr

  7. if you <3 gloss, you’ll <3 HOLLOW. kickstart it!!!

  8. a tongue-in-cheeky reading from The Anthology of Really Important Modern Poetry at the best little bookshop east and west of the mississippi. thanks for the fun, Avid Bookshop!

  9. »  what's red and black and glossy all over? a nifty article about gloss in UGA's student newspaper!

    kudos to Julia Carpenter!

  10. »  another terrific review by tori grant-wellhouse at her circle

    I must say, this does not get old… Hooray for the kindness — and time! and smarts! and sensitivity! — of strangers.

About me

Here’s a pocketful of posies and poesie—glossy whatnots, gold stars, confetti, seeds, sequins, ticket stubs, loose ends, notions, trinkets, curiosities, pressed flowers, marginalia, and sundries.

Salutations! I’m Ida Stewart. I’m the author of Gloss (Perugia Press, 2011), and my poems have appeared in a number of journals, including Field, The Laurel Review, Linebreak, and The Journal. I hold an MFA in creative writing from The Ohio State University, and I’m currently a PhD in creative writing candidate at The University of Georgia. I’m a co-editor of Unsplendid and have also served as an editorial assistant at The Georgia Review. A native of beautiful West Virginia, I currently reside in an ivy-engulfed barn in Athens, Georgia.