In Appalachia and Beyond:“Yarns and Yearnings in Prose and Poetry”, Stanley Barlow entertains us with some stories and sketches--many of them from Appalachia as he experienced it growing up. He engages us in some thinking about education, religion, and personal identity. Here too are some poems--new and selected.
“The yarns and sketches are for the most part true. Some come from my humorist years,” writes the author. “The play, Mostly Anecdotal, I hope reads like a short story: it centers on a colorful professor in Oregon, and at the same time, it argues the importance of career counseling in our schools and colleges.
Much of the narrative in the book reflects my years as an educator in Tennessee, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York.
“This book also includes some ‘deep thoughts’ —let’s say, ‘jottings that are pensive’—hence I call them Pensees--that are like Wagnerian chords seeking resolution. They are for conversation. So also, are some of the eighty-one poems.”
In Appalachia and Beyond, you will find the following:-- In Part One:
Twelve humorous stories and collections—the author calls them: ‘Yarns’--- that will tickle your funny bone,
and
Fourteen sketches/groups of sketches that highlight unique personalities.
In Part Two:
An original play: Mostly Anecdotal, features a certain colorful teacher named Jewell, and focuses on career counseling.
In Part Three: Twelve Pensees: Thoughts for conversation—from the author’s essays, notes and journals—discuss religious beliefs, personal identity questions, and the joys of poetic reverie.
In Part Four:
Forty-three new poems, under headings: 9/11, Devotions, Looking Back, Love Notes, and Questions
In Part Five:
Thirty-eight poems selected from Swimming Laps in August . . . (2001)
--with some revisions and notes.
