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We All Live Downstream: Writings about Mountaintop Removal
WE ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM is a multi-genre anthology of noted authors and young writers speaking out against mountaintop removal coal mining. There is the fifth-grader who vows to fight the destruction until he's "laid in the ground," the college student who recalls her shock and heartbreak at first seeing a mountaintop removal site, the best-selling novelist who believes that "to destroy mountains is to spit in the face of God." This startling collection includes writers from 17 states and features material from celebrated artists and activists such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Wendell Berry, Earl Hamner, Ashley Judd, Silas House, Denise Giardina, Erik Reece, Bobbie Ann Mason, Bob Edwards, Penny Loeb, Hal Crowther, Jean Ritchie, Terry Tempest Williams, Jeff Biggers, Ann Pancake, George Ella Lyon, Ben Sollee and many more. Edited by journalist & activist Jason Howard (coauthor of Something's Rising), this book presents a rallying chorus of dissent against a reckless industry and drives home the point that energy (particularly domestic coal) is everyone's issue ... not only at the source but all the way "downstream." (www.MotesBooks.com)
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Jason Howard
3 books26 followersJason Howard is the author of A Few Honest Words: The Kentucky Roots of Popular Music (The University Press of Kentucky, 2012), a collection of profiles of contemporary roots musicians that explores how the land and culture of Kentucky have shaped American music through the years--and continues to do so today. Focusing on modern musicians who live everywhere from Manhattan to Los Angeles to Nashville to small towns across Kentucky, A Few Honest Words shows how the spirit of the state has taken up residence in the hearts and songs of an eclectic group of musicians including multiple Grammy Award winner Dwight Yoakam, multi-platinum soul singer Joan Osborne, rural rap pioneers Nappy Roots, indie rock god Jim James of My Morning Jacket, legendary country music star Naomi Judd, and many others.
Howard is the coauthor of Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal, which was hailed by the late Studs Terkel as “a revelatory work” for its unflinching look at the destructive mining practice through the eyes of thirteen environmental activists including acclaimed novelist Denise Giardina, country music singer Kathy Mattea, and the late Judy Bonds, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize. As the editor of We All Live Downstream, Howard gathered writings from artists and activists such as Wendell Berry, Ashley Judd, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Terry Tempest Williams into a multi-genre anthology that the Huffington Post called “an extraordinary testimony to the resiliency of Appalachians.” His features, essays, reviews and commentary have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Nation, Sojourners, LGBTQ Nation, Paste, No Depression, the Louisville Review, and on NPR.
As former senior editor and staff writer for Washington, D.C., based Equal Justice Magazine, he wrote investigative articles on such subjects as the efforts of Eastern Kentucky miners to receive black lung benefits, assisted adoption cases in Manhattan, and an eminent domain case before the Supreme Court.
In recognition of artistic excellence, Howard is a recipient of the 2013 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction from the Kentucky Arts Council, the state agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Named a 2010-2012 James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky, he was chosen as a finalist for the 2011 Roosevelt-Ashe Society Outstanding Journalist in Conservation Award and as one of five “up and coming” writers by Kentucky Monthly in 2010.
In wide demand as a writing workshop teacher, Howard specializes in sessions and courses in creative nonfiction, including memoir, personal essay and literary journalism. He holds an M.A. in History from the University of Kentucky and a B.A. in Political Communication from The George Washington University, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Howard is the coauthor of Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal, which was hailed by the late Studs Terkel as “a revelatory work” for its unflinching look at the destructive mining practice through the eyes of thirteen environmental activists including acclaimed novelist Denise Giardina, country music singer Kathy Mattea, and the late Judy Bonds, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize. As the editor of We All Live Downstream, Howard gathered writings from artists and activists such as Wendell Berry, Ashley Judd, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Terry Tempest Williams into a multi-genre anthology that the Huffington Post called “an extraordinary testimony to the resiliency of Appalachians.” His features, essays, reviews and commentary have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Nation, Sojourners, LGBTQ Nation, Paste, No Depression, the Louisville Review, and on NPR.
As former senior editor and staff writer for Washington, D.C., based Equal Justice Magazine, he wrote investigative articles on such subjects as the efforts of Eastern Kentucky miners to receive black lung benefits, assisted adoption cases in Manhattan, and an eminent domain case before the Supreme Court.
In recognition of artistic excellence, Howard is a recipient of the 2013 Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction from the Kentucky Arts Council, the state agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Named a 2010-2012 James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky, he was chosen as a finalist for the 2011 Roosevelt-Ashe Society Outstanding Journalist in Conservation Award and as one of five “up and coming” writers by Kentucky Monthly in 2010.
In wide demand as a writing workshop teacher, Howard specializes in sessions and courses in creative nonfiction, including memoir, personal essay and literary journalism. He holds an M.A. in History from the University of Kentucky and a B.A. in Political Communication from The George Washington University, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 13, 2010
This book was completely amazing! My favorite piece was probably Jane Hicks' poem, though I found Erik Reece's essay to be very informative, and I also enjoyed seeing Ann Pancake's piece (an early draft of her novel.) And Rebekah Ainsworth's piece really spoke to me in that she is doing the sort of work which I might like to do. The inclusion of younger writers into the book also made it a unique and hopeful book.
July 29, 2015
Love this collection. This collection is a representation of the Appalachian South's finest authors who write about the effects of a ruinous practice.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews