RURALVOICES

RURALVOICES

edited by

NORA SHALAWAY

CARPENTER

15 AUTHORS CHALLENGE

ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT

SMALL-TOWN AMERICA

Names, characters, places, and incidents in the fictional pieces in this book are either products of the authors’ imaginations or, if real, are used fictitiously.

Compilation and introduction copyright © 2020 by Nora Shalaway Carpenter © * “The (Unhealthy) *Breakfast Club” copyright © 2020 by Monica Roe

© © © * “The Hole of Dark Kill Hollow” copyright *

© 2020 by Rob Costello © * “A Border Kid Comes of Age” copyright © ©

* © 2020 by David Bowles © * “Fish *and Fences” copyright ©

© 2020 by Veeda Bybee © * “Close Enough” copyright ©

* © 2020 by Nora Shalaway © Carpenter * “Whiskey and Champagne” copyright

© * © 2020 by S. A. Cosby © * “What Home Is” copyright

© *

© 2020 by Ashley Hope Pérez © * “Island Rodeo Queen” copyright ©

* © 2020 by Yamile Saied Méndez © * “Grandpa” copyright © ©

© 2020 by Randy DuBurke © * “Best in Show” copyright © ©

* © 2020 by Tirzah © Price * “Praise the Lord and Pass the Little Debbies” copyright

© © * © 2020 by David Macinnis Gill

© © *

“The Cabin” copyright © 2020 by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson © * “Black Nail Polish” copyright © ©

* © 2020 © by Shae Carys * “Secret Menu” copyright

© * © 2020 by Veeda Bybee © * “Pull Up a Seat Around the

© *

Stove” copyright © 2020 by Joseph Bruchac ©

© * “Home Waits” copyright * © 2020 by Estelle Laure © Excerpt of letter from Millicent Rogers to her son Paul on page 286 courtesy of Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, NM.

Every effort has been made to obtain permission from the relevant copyright holders and to ensure that all credits are correct. Any omissions are inadvertent and will be corrected in future editions if notification is given to the publishers in writing.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

First edition 2020

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number pendingISBN 978-1-5362-1210-5

SHD 25 24 23 22 21 2010 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in Chelsea, MI, USA

This book was typeset in ITC Esprit and Halewyn.

Candlewick Press99 Dover StreetSomerville, Massachusetts 02144

www.candlewick.com

A JUN I OR LIBRARY GU I LD SELECT I ON

To anyone who’s ever felt “less than”

N S C

xi INTRODUCTION

1 The (Unhealthy) Breakfast Club Monica Roe

22 The Hole of Dark Kill Hollow Rob Costello

45 A Border Kid Comes of Age David Bowles

62 Fish and Fences Veeda Bybee

83 Close Enough Nora Shalaway Carpenter

106 Whiskey and Champagne S. A. Cosby

117 What Home Is Ashley Hope Pérez

129 Island Rodeo Queen Yamile Saied Méndez

152 Grandpa Randy DuBurke

172 Best in Show Tirzah Price

198 Praise the Lord and Pass the Little Debbies David Macinnis Gill

212 The Cabin Nasugraq Rainey Hopson

227 Black Nail Polish 227

Shae Carys

247 Secret Menu247

Veeda Bybee

259 Pull Up a Seat Around the Stove Joseph Bruchac

279 Home Waits Estelle Laure

301 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

318 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

.NasugrNasugr

INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader,

When I was growing up, my family traveled a lot, a perk of hav-

ing a parent who took on freelance travel-writing assignments.

I was seven years old when, on one such trip, an adult I’d just

met cracked a joke about me. In response to learning I was

from West Virginia, the person wondered how that could be—

because I still had all my teeth.

There was a pause, and young me realized I was supposed

to laugh. To join the “fun.” I don’t remember what the person

looked like or whether we were in an airport or a fast-food res-

taurant. But the smallness that comment instilled in me—the

idea that I should feel shame because of where I lived—that I

remember to this day.

Unfortunately, this was only the fi rst of many ugly West

Virginia stereotypes I’d encounter. I spent most of my childhood

and young adulthood internalizing shame about where I was

from and trying to reconcile my lived experiences with the

almost universally negative and simplistic portrayal of rural

people on TV and in other popular media. I grew accustomed

to casual jabs about my background and learned not to mention

it. On the occasional times I did challenge those jabs—when I

managed to communicate some version of What you’re saying

doesn’t match my reality and it also insults many people I love—

my experiences were seen as exceptions to the rule, not proof of

its invalidity.

This reaction depressed me, but it didn’t surprise me. After

all, for most of America’s history, rural people and culture have

been casually mocked, stereotyped, and, in general, deeply mis-

understood. But then 2016 happened. In the months following

the presidential election, rural people became something of a

media obsession. Derogatory remarks about rural Americans

became increasingly prevalent and intense. Over and over

again, people outside the rural experience tried to understand

and explain the rural narrative. Over and over again, the story

of a rural monolith—a uniform, like-minded population that

shares the same beliefs, value system, identities, and political

leanings—was told and accepted as truth.

Because this is a foreword and not a political-science or

economics article, all I’ll say here is that yes, I saw the elec-

toral maps like everyone else, but those visuals don’t tell any-

where close to the whole story. However, in the eyes of most

Americans, it seemed, there was only the monolith.

I was done with the monolith.

Rural Voices emerged as a counterpoint to that harmful nar-

rative and the hurtful idea that accompanies it—that “rural”

equates with “less than.” Being rural is deeply embedded in

many people’s identities, but it is defi nitely not a punch line.

As I began envisioning this anthology and the authors who

might want to contribute, the slipperiness of the “rural” label

became more and more apparent. Some townships and unin-

corporated areas are technically (according to mailing address)

classifi ed as part of larger towns, but due to the reality of geog-

raphy, the residents’ lifestyles are vastly different from those of

the people living in the towns’ centers. Some areas, while tiny

in population, are nonetheless major tourist attractions and

posh vacation hot spots. Does that somehow negate their rural

status?

The nature of this project did require some kind of rural

defi nition, and so, for the purposes of this collection, it is this:

Rural refers to belonging to a community consisting of ten thou-

sand people or fewer that is a signifi cant driving distance from

an urban area. Contributors either grew up in rural communi-

ties or lived in one long enough at some point to self-identify as

a rural American.

The fi fteen authors whose work you’re about to read are

diverse in ethnic and cultural background, sexual orientation,

rural geographic location, physical ability, and socioeconomic

status. You’ll fi nd powerful new voices alongside award -

winning, established authors. Still, this collection portrays only

a fraction of the innumerable experiences and voices that com-

pose rural America. And that, indeed, is the point: There’s not

just one type of rural.

These stories will transport you all over the United States

and into the lives and hearts of the characters who inhabit

them. In Virginia, you’ll solve a mystery and right a wrong.

You’ll roam the arctic tundra of Alaska and meet the ghosts

of a mountain town in New Mexico. In New York, you’ll dis-

cover a hollow’s powerful, dark secret, and you’ll be invited to

pull up a seat and learn of real-life experiences that bloomed

into poetry. You’ll navigate a private school in South Carolina

and learn to speak your truth. You’ll walk—painfully—down

cracked Indiana sidewalks. In Georgia, you’ll take a life-altering

bus ride in one story; in another, you’ll fi nd a forest that makes

you remember who you are. In Idaho, you’ll discover the secret

menu of a small restaurant and, later, how speaking up can

shatter barriers. You’ll fi nd fear and freedom in East Texas and

political—and personal—unrest in a Texas border town. You’ll

climb trees in West Virginia and visit a county fair in Michigan.

In Utah, you’ll experience a teen’s struggle to bridge two very

different parts of her identity. Every one of these places is rural;

yet every one is its own unique universe.

Just as there’s no one uniform rural place, there’s no one

kind of rural teen, either. The teenagers in these pieces range

from amateur sleuths and academic scholarship winners to

marching-band members and rodeo queen hopefuls. They are

pig farmers and writers, artists and restaurant servers. They

navigate relationships, bigotry, and their own identities. Some

are popular. Some are misfi ts. They love their hometowns and

hate them, sometimes both at once.

Rural Voices defi es the idea of a rural monolith, over and

over, with every story. It seeks to change the conversation. To

offer new narratives and ways of viewing the incredible people

who make up rural America, the people who are so often mis-

understood, made fun of, and maligned, who are overlooked or

even outright ignored. The short stories, poetry, graphic short

stories, personal essay, and author anecdotes in these pages dive

deep into the complexity and diversity of rural America and the

people who call it home.

Whether your own experience is rural or not, I hope you

fi nd something of yourself in these pages—and more than a few

somethings that surprise you.

Thank you for reading,

Nora Shalaway Carpenter