It’s hard to believe it’s the end of October, and even more difficult to believe that North Central West Virginia is now Northern Lights territory–but here we are. The days are getting shorter, and a chill is settling in. Whether you’re relishing the changing leaves on a brisk walk, gathering with friends around a fire, or diving into seasonal baking, this time of year invites reflection and warmth. As we hunker down for the coming cold, we’ve curated a selection of captivating podcasts, insightful interviews, fresh reviews, and a lineup of events to invigorate your autumn. 

Megan Howell’s Softie is beginning to generate encouraging momentum in media mentions and reviews. Topping the list is a Publisher’s Weekly review that gets it just right: “. . . a beautiful and striking collection. . . . These vivid and harrowing stories are tough to shake.” The Cream City Review’s Emily Barnard wrote, “Howell’s provocative stories, no matter the genre, will prove inspirational for anyone who can relate to and feel moved by the various strong and complex protagonists in Softie.” 

Matthew Ferrence has been extremely busy with podcasts, radio shows, festivals and bookstore visits to promote I Hate it Here; Please Vote for Me. Matt’s been featured on Airwaves with Raul Gallyot, A Moment With Erik Fleming, Good Folk Podcast, Public Libraries Online, Ron Van Dam Show, Coming From Left Field Podcast, The Eddrick Show, Brian and Lee Show, The Morning Show with Greg Berg, and Lewis at Large.  His voice has also been heard  in Newsweek and across the pond with “JD Vance Exploited Appalachia To Sell His Book, Now He Wants to Exploit America,” on Leading Britain’s Conversation (LBC).

From 7 to 8pm October 28th, Matt will appear with Kate Barr, Democratic candidate for North Carolina Senate District 37, in a conversation hosted by WVU Press moderated by Erik Herron, the Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of Political Science at WVU. The Zoom event is open to the public. Please register in advance.

Neema Avashia has also become a radio and podcast phenom with appearances on NPR’s Here and Now and Boston Public Radio. Another Appalachia was the topic of a nuanced and insightful discussion with Elizabeth Catte, WVUP Editor at Large, for California State University San Bernardino.

Belated congratulations to Terese Svoboda and her work Roxy and Coco for receiving a full-page review in the New York Times Book Review in May. It was also selected as one of eight new books recommended by the NY Times Book Review.

Published in February, Roxy and Coco has received wonderful reviews in The Common, California Review of Books, Electric Lit, and The British Columbia Review.

Just released earlier this month, Jason Newton included his book Cutover Capitalism in a recent talk with the Forest History Society. 

Issac Yuen, author of Utter, Earth, recently conducted a reading and writing workshop titled “How to Build a Beast: Changing the World with Wonder and Joy” with  the Green Academy Series funded by Creative Europe program of the European Union. 

Kristen Gentry’s Mama Said was longlisted for the 2024 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. The audiobook was released by Tantor Media just last week.

Robert Eaton, Steven V. Hunsaker, and Bonnie Moon, authors of Improving Learning and Mental Health in the College Classroom, have been hard at work sharing their strategies and approaches. 

Eaton and Moon have appeared on a number of podcasts to discuss the book and its pedological applications. They appears on Teaching with Higher Ed podcast, the leading podcast in the field, and were invited back for  a second time,  which Hunsaker was able to join. They also appeared  on Perusall’s podcast, “Social Learning Amplified,” hosted by Eric Mazur and Derek Bruff’s podcast, Intentional Teaching.

Eaton also presented to a group of over 350 BYU-Idaho faculty members at its annual faculty conference, presented a keynote address via Zoom to roughly 100 online instructors, led a 6-hour faculty workshop at Northern Illinois University, presented at the Teaching Professor conference twice (once as an invited speaker), and led discussions remotely with smaller groups of faculty at Michigan State University and Georgia Highlands College.

Improving Learning and Mental Health in the College Classroom has also inspired Eaton’s recent publications. He published with Harvard Business Review’s Inspiring Minds series and has an article under review with The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

The authors did a video for Magna Publication’s 20-Minute Mentor Series, “How Can I Intentionally Create a Course that Boosts Learning and Decreases Student Stress?”, a free online professional development course, and Easton conducted an interview on OneHE with Jim Lang.

Andrea Noelani Brower’s Seeds of Occupation, Seeds of Possibility received praise on Society + Space. “While the context teaches us about contemporary forms of extraction, dispossession, and degradation, the power of people show us ways forward, despite sometimes seemingly insurmountable odds. Brower’s insistence on different futures – ones that we can already see in formation – carves a vision for liberation, solidarity, and abundance,” writes Professor Hi’ilei Hobart.

Brower also appeared on Edge Effects’s podcast for a conversation about resisting and reimagining agricultural systems in Hawai’i. Seeds of Occupation, Seeds of Possibility also appeared on You Can’t Be Neutral. Brower also did an interview with Pesticide Action Network.

Kelley Shinn, author of The Wounds that Bind Us, presented at Youngstown Lit Book Festival in October, and will be a featured author at the Lexington (NC) Festival of the Book in March 2025. The Wounds that Bind Us was also highlighted in Amplitude, the largest national magazine for amputees in North America, and Shinn spoke this summer at the Triangle Amputee Group at Duke University.

Rebecca Godwin was interviewed by Dr. Rod Werline for the Barton College Center for Religious Studies about her book Community Across Time: Robert Morgan’s Words for Home.

Rachel King’s Bratwurst Haven, which had already won a Colorado Book Award in 2023, was named a finalist for an Oregon Book Award in February 2024. Harper Mahood covered all five finalists in an article in The Daily Emerald.

In October 2024, K. B. Dixon photographed King as part of his Cultural Landscape series in Oregon ArtsWatch that showcases “talented, dedicated, and creative people who have made significant contributions to the art, character, and culture” of Oregon. On February 22, 2025, Rachel will be reading from Bratwurst Haven at the Cannon Beach Library on the Oregon Coast.

William H. Turner’s The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns was reviewed in the Journal of Appalachian Studies: “Dr. Turner offers an honest, accessible, and yet scholarly view of Black life in Central Appalachia. Sit down on the porch with him and enjoy the conversation.”

Joining Turner in the Journal of Appalachian Studies, Scott MacKenzie’s The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Formation of West Virginia, 1829–1872 received a glowing review. William E. Hardy writes, “To be sure, MacKenzie succeeds in making the case for West Virginia as the fifth border state, troublesome as that may be for the state’s commonly remembered Civil War identity.”

Hillery Glasby, Sherrie Gradin, and Rachael Ryerson’s Storytelling in Queer Appalachia: Imagining the Unspeakable Other received a wonderful review from the Journal of Appalachian Health: meaningful praise coming from those working within Appalachia’s complex healthcare landscape: “It is an essential work for people who wish to gain insight on the real experience of being queer in Appalachia. The authors, who are from diverse walks of life—being practicing activists, advocates, scholars, students, and divinity writers—explicate the complexity of Appalachia as congruent with the complexity of queer identity.”