Silas House is a bestselling novelist of Clay's Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, and The Coal Tattoo, whose nonfiction has been published in Newsday, Sierra, The Oxford American, No Depression, and elsewhere. In 2008 he won the Helen Lewis Award for Community Service for his efforts in the fight against mountaintop removal. He teaches at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.
" Something's Rising presents a series of poignant testimonies,
such to touch and inspire readers across the nation...House and
Howard have created a compelling and readable narrative." --
Paintsville Herald
"This book takes you into the hearts and minds of some of
Appalachia's most committed residents and helps the reader
understand the moral outrage at the destruction of their homeland."
-- Billings Gazette
""...storytelling is clearly oriented as the true north of literary
activism... Something's Rising, edited by Silas House and Jason
Howard, celebrates the capacity of story to illuminate the ways
that individual lives and mountain landscapes are shaped by one
another...Howard and House, both Kentucky natives and coal miners'
grandsons, have made this provocative testimony possible,
suggesting that a new narrative of energy in Appalachia must
emerge, one that accurately reflects the values of community,
health, and working-class environmentalism...An activist text at
home in the discourse and practice of environmental justice. [
Something's Rising] belongs in the good company of a movement which
aims to illuminate the struggles of poor, minority, and indigenous
communities against environmental hazards and seeks to redress the
often egregious violations of public health and corresponding
environmental degradation. [House and Howard] focus attention on
Appalachia's environmental justice movement in undeniable,
effective ways. And they fill a gap in several of the leading texts
on environmental justice...Seen in the context of social and
environmental justice struggles Something's Rising demonstrates not
only that 'Appalachian's were born of social protest," but also
that they have something powerful to contribute to national
conversations about poverty, public health, the environment, and
our shared energy future...[Something's Rising] will surely spur
readers to begin asking more questions about mountaintop removal,
and that is one of the hallmarks of an activist text."" --
Appalachian Journal
" Something's Rising gives hope that the mountains and streams of
Appalachia will survive, if for no other reason than the people who
are living there will simply not allow them to be destroyed." --
Earth Justice in Brief
" Something's Rising is a welcome addition to the growing canon of
MTR literature.... This book can serve as a powerful call-to-arms,
affirming those who take a stand against MTR, while encouraging
more to speak out against this destructive practice." -- West
Virginia History
" Something's Rising is an excellent and thoroughly insightful
account of the confrontation between the resident mountaineer
population and a newer destructive industry." -- Choice
" Something's Rising is the testimony of two sons of the Kentucky
coal country, novelist Silas House and activist Jason Howard, who
have placed themselves at the center of a grassroots movement to
fight mountaintop removal and the hegemony of the coal barons.
Their own stories, their eloquent argument and the formidable array
of witnesses they assemble---writers, musicians, community
organizers and backroads sages with long memories---will kindle
hope in the breast of the most exhausted cynic." -- Hal Crowther,
author of Gather at the River and Cathedrals of Kudzu
" Something's Rising strikes a balance between interpretation and
interview that allows its narrators to speak of their own
communities' struggles while also providing concrete details of
mountain top removal's general material costs in Appalachia.... The
interviews bring a tangible humanity to the environmental
destruction wrought by mountain top removal." -- Oral History
Review
" Something's Rising will be an important tool in the fight against
mountaintop removal as well as important documentation of the
ravages caused by the practice." -- Melissa Walker, author of
Southern Farmers and Their Stories: Memory and Meaning in Oral
History
" Something's Rising will be an inspiration for younger activists
and should galvanize people to defend our mountains. The book
provides a complete primer on mountaintop removal, then goes beyond
that: it thoroughly humanizes an environmental catastrophe.
Something's Rising is a one-of-a-kind book that will make an
invaluable contribution to the literature of Appalachia." -- Ann
Pancake, author of Strange As This Weather Has Been
" Something's Rising will raise your consciousness as you hear the
voices of the mountaineers rise from a murmur to a wail." --
Louisville Courier-Journal
"A collection of testimonies from citizens from Kentucky, West
Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia, the accounts included serve not
only as a cry against mountaintop-removal but also as a reflection
of the strong beliefs of the people involved and of aspects of
Appalachian life that are slowly disappearing along with the
mountaintops." -- The Paintsville Herald
"A humble call to those who believe that man is capable of all
things, stating that the beginning of wisdom is a respect for
creation, the rightness of place, and the order of being." --
Washington Times
"A landmark of oral history." -- Louisville Courier-Journal
"A non-fiction condemnation of the controversial style of coal
mining practiced in Eastern Kentucky and elsewhere." -- Lexington
Herald-Leader
"A window into traditional Appalachian values and culture, and
their attachment to a beautiful and rugged landscape that is
quickly disappearing beneath coal-company bulldozers." --
PopMatters
"According to House and Howard, the something that's rising is the
voice of the Appalachian people. The voices featured in this book
are sometimes lyrical, sometimes gravelly, but always compelling."
-- Now & Then
"All 12 eco-heroes are mesmerizing, informative, and motivating as
they articulate their moral and spiritual convictions, love for the
land, and pride in Appalachian culture, while calling for
responsible mining and respect and protection for all of life." --
Booklist
"Gives a stirring voice to the lives, culture, and determination of
the people fighting the destructive practice of mountaintop
removal." --
"House and Howard tell the stories of social protest in Appalachia,
expressed by the efforts of twelve courageous and 'ordinary'
citizens fighting to preserve their land against mountaintop
removal." -- Denise Scheberle, author of Refusing to Bow to King
Coal: Tales of Our Energy Future and Mountaintop Removal in
Appalachian Coal Country
"In Something's Rising, we read about children playing on creek
bottoms coated with carcinogens and in streams full of dead fish.
But we also hear about ordinary Appalachian people overcoming fear
and fatalism to stand up for their homes and for God's creation."
-- Sojourners
"In this volume, the authors give voice to the people trying to
save their mining towns. The people of Appalachia affected by the
destruction of their region have begun to rise against the coal
companies." -- Southern Living
"Mr. House and Mr. Howard strike at [mountaintop removal] with
cool, measured fury." -- Washington Times
"Not only will these stories resonate among Appalachians, they will
also help non-Appalachians to identify with the plight of the
region and to understand that national energy policy has severe
human as well as economic and environmental consequences." --
Ronald D. Eller, author of Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945
"Readers clearly hear the voices of 12 Appalachians fighting for
their heritage and homes against the coal industry." -- Louisville
Courier-Journal
"Reading Something's Rising is a fascinating and mind-opening
experience." -- Multicultural Review
"Silas House and Jason Howard know how to write, but more
importantly, they know how to listen. They both come from coal
mining families, and their book is filled with the powerful,
passionate, and authentic voices of men and women who share their
heritage, and their outrage. My hope is that others will listen to
these voices as well." -- Steven V. Roberts, author of My Fathers'
Houses: Memoir of a Family and coauthor of the New York Times
bestseller, From This Day Forward
"Stories of real people facing real adversity in Appalachia as it
is being flattened by mountaintop removal mining." -- Earth Justice
in Brief
"Takes you into the hearts and minds of some of Appalachia's most
committed citizens and helps you understand their moral outrage at
the destruction of their homeland." -- PopMatters
"The book blends profiles and interviews of a dozen writers,
activists, and singer/song-writers -- natives of the region who are
working to end this environmentally destructive form of mining." --
Journal of Southern History
"The profiles in this book make for reading that is at the same
time disturbing, and oddly leisurely and engaging. They leave you
with the sense of having visited and talked with the people
portrayed." -- Journal of Appalachian Studies
"The tales are told with the passion and determination typical of
the hearty people of the mountains and contributors' stories remind
audiences sometimes living in excess has more than just a monetary
cost." -- Cleveland Daily Banner
"The voices rising in this fine and essential collection gathered
by novelists Silas House and Jason Howard each sings their own song
of the people and land protesting the violence being done to it by
energy companies and their practice of mountaintop removal...strip
mining with a vengeance. Each of their voices and stories is well
worth the listening and ultimately inspiring. The book's mission is
clearly to move the public to action, to create a public outcry by
building a concrete awareness. It is a long overdue and healthy
gathering shared here." -- Larry R. Smith, Red Room Blog
"These oral histories will give readers a sense of what's at stake
on a personal level.... This important collection illuminates the
ongoing betrayal of the American mining town." -- Publisher's
Weekly
"This important book paints compelling portraits of eleven
courageous people with deep roots in the Appalachian coalfields who
are resisting mountaintop removal coal mining." -- Appalachian
Heritage
"This revelatory work is a challenging tocsin shouting out the
effects of poverty and exploitations of the Appalachian people by
strip miners and other corporate pirates. I am reminded of the
fighting spirit of the Eastern Kentuckians when I visited these
embattled pioneers in their hills and hollers. Here, Jean Ritchie
and others speak out in the fighting tradition of the 1930s and
1960s. It is oral history at its best." -- Studs Terkel
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