I’m proud to announce that I’ve just had a craft essay (for you fine reader folks who aren’t writer folks, that’s an essay on and about the craft of creative writing) published in the Winter 2015 issue of Appalachian Heritage magazine.

It focuses on one of my favorite characters in literature, Father Damien (or Agnes) from Louise Erdrich’s novel, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. Father Damien is a woman who’s disguised herself as a man and a Catholic priest, in order to minister to her flock of magical ones and misfits on the Ojibwe reservation of Little No Horse.

The full essay is available only in the print version of the issue–the online version has only a portion–but this Winter 2015 issue is chock-full of incredible stuff: short stories, poems, interviews, book reviews and essays. There’s in essay in there by Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry!

If you love the Southern Appalachians, have lived there once or live there now, just hold the spirit of such wild places in your heart, of simply enjoy daggum. good. writing, you should consider subscribing to Appalachian Heritage. I promise, it’ll be worth it!