Celebrating Aviation And Appalachian Literature

On this West Virginia Morning, we remember flying over Appalachia with an audio postcard featuring voices of aviators from the region. Also, in this show, we hear a conversation with Appalachian Literature professors Katherine Ledford and Theresa Lloyd, and we listen to this week’s Mountain Stage Song of the Week.

Our Inside Appalachia team is working on an upcoming episode about aviation. We’ve been asking people about their first, or favorite flight memory. Here’s a taste of what some have already submitted. We’ll hear from Benny Mallory first. He built the airport in South Charleston in 1973, and to this day operates a flight school. This audio postcard was produced by our Southern Coalfields reporter Caitlin Tan.

Appalachian writers produce a tremendous amount of work, but finding it isn’t always easy. Katherine Ledford and Theresa Lloyd are professors of Appalachian Literature at Appalachian State University and East Tennessee State University respectively. They decided to create an anthology that they could use in their classrooms. The effort took more than a decade, but it is finally available in the form of the 745 page “Writing Appalachia Anthology” from the University Press of Kentucky. Eric Douglas spoke with Lloyd and Ledford by Zoom to learn more about the book.

The first family of the banjo returns to Mountain Stage this week when Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn perform songs from their 2017 release, “Echo In the Valley.” Our Song of the Week is the couple performing “Bloomin’ Rose.”

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.

Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from CAMC and Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Glynis Board, Caitlin Tan, Jessica Lilly, Kara Lofton, Liz McCormick, Dave Mistich, Brittany Patterson, Eric Douglas, Corey Knollinger, Emily Allen, and Roxy Todd.

Andrea Billups is our news director. Glynis Board produced and hosted this show.

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