This award-winning, unforgettable collection is written in the voices of people living and working in the coal camps during the West Virginia mine wars of 1920-1921, featuring poems that illustrate how a community responded to a time of danger.

Written in the voices of people living and working in the coal camps during the West Virginia coal mine wars of 1920-1921, these vivid poems show how a community responded to a time of danger. KETTLE BOTTOM imagines the stories of miners, their wives, children, sisters, and mothers; of mountaineers, Italian immigrants, and African American families -- people who organized for safe working conditions in opposition to the mine company owners and their agents. The poet, Diane Gilliam, whose family was part of the Appalachian outmigration from Mingo County, West Virginia, and Johnson County, Kentucky, has created a book of poems that address a violent time with honesty, levity, and compassion. At its core, KETTLE BOTTOM is about how a community lived in the presence of multiple risks and the choices the residents made.

Poetry. History. Family & Relationships. Women's Studies.