In this lively narrative, award-winning author Michael Kammen presents a fascinating analysis of cutting-edge art and artists and their unique ability to both delight and provoke us. He illuminates America’s obsession with public memorials and the changing role of art and museums in our society. From Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece The Gross Clinic, (considered “too big, bold, and gory” when first exhibited) to the bitter disputes about Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial, this is an eye-opening account of American art and the battles and controversies that it has ignited.

“A comprehensive and unsurpassed anthology of women writers from Appalachia . . . Exceptional in diversity and scope.” —Southern Historian Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia is a landmark anthology that brings together the work of 105 Appalachian women writers, including Dorothy Allison, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Annie Dillard, Nikki Giovanni, Denise Giardina, Barbara Kingsolver, Jayne Anne Phillips, Janice Holt Giles, George Ella Lyon, Sharyn McCrumb, and Lee Smith. Editors Sandra L. Ballard and Patricia L. Hudson offer a diverse sampling of time periods and genres, established authors and emerging voices. From regional favorites to national bestsellers, this unprecedented gathering of Appalachian voices displays the remarkable talent of the region’s women writers who’ve made their mark at home and across the globe. “A giant step forward in Appalachian studies for both students and scholars of the region and the general reader . . . Nothing less than a groundbreaking and landmark addition to the national treasury of American literature.” —Bloomsbury Review “A remarkable accomplishment, bringing together the work of 105 female Appalachian writers saying what they want to, and saying it in impressive bodies of literature.” —Lexington Herald-Leader “One of the keenest pleasures in Listen Here lies in its diversity of voices and genres.” —Material Culture “Besides introducing readers to many new voices, the anthology provides a strong counterpart to the stereotype of hillbillies that have cursed the region.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Full of welcome surprises to those new to this regional literature: specifically, it includes particularly strong selections from children’s fiction and a substantial number of African American writers.” —Choice

This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. Here in one convenient source are the South's novelists and short story writers, poets and dramatists, memoirists and essayists, journalists, scholars, and biographers from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. What constitutes a "southern writer" is always a matter for debate. Editors Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel have used a generous definition that turns on having a significant connection to the region, in either a personal or literary sense. New to this volume are younger writers who have emerged in the quarter century since the dictionary's original publication, as well as older talents previously unknown or unacknowledged. For almost every writer found in the previous edition, a new biography has been commissioned. Drawn from the very best minds on southern literature and covering the full spectrum of its practitioners, Southern Writers is an indispensable reference book for anyone intrigued by the subject.