Mountain Voices: The 2021 Anthology from the Appalachian Authors Guild

By Appalachian Authors Guild

Join the Appalachian Authors Guild on a journey through the remarkable variety of our Mountain Voices!

 

Featuring poetry, essays, and fiction spanning many genres, this anthology takes you on a trip across our beautiful Appalachian Mountains and beyond.

 

With contributions from Jason A. Adams, Cyrus Alderwood, Mary Ann Artrip, Bobbie Cyphers, Adda Leah Davis, Victoria Fletcher, O.R. Frazier, Linda Hoagland, Jason C. Houghton, T. Byron Kelly, Kari Kilgore, Rose Klix, Amy-Ellen Laws, Damean Mathews, Gina McKnight, Bunny Medeiros, Ellen Myatt, Sylvia Nickels, Delilah O'Haynes, J. Adam Perkey, Betty Jamerson Reed, Rachel Riggsby, Madelyn Rohrer, Tammy Robinson Smith, M. Lynne Squires, Daniel C. Swanson, Connie Wohlford, and Lauvonda Lynn Young.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Appalachian Authors Guild
• Release date: May 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201236427

Book preview

A Story with No Beginning and No End

Madelyn Rohrer

This story was included in my 2020 book Touched by Tennessee, Stories from the Heartland

It was May 10, 1876, and bells were ringing out all over Philadelphia. The city was rippling with excitement as President Ulysses S. Grant arrived to formally open the first day of the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine. After years of planning and news coverage, most people simply referred to it as The U.S. Centennial Exposition. It was the largest fair the world had ever seen, and it was in celebration of the 100 th birthday of the United States. Over 186,000 people streamed through the gates on the first day alone to take part in the historic event, including representatives from all of our 37 states and dozens of foreign countries.

It was also not quite twelve years since the end of our Civil War, the assassination of a president, the impeachment of another president, reconstruction, and healing a war-torn country—and the world was watching.

More than 200 buildings and pavilions dotted the Expo grounds, surrounded by a fence nearly three miles long. The Main Exhibition Hall, designed by architect Henry Petit and engineer Joseph M. Wilson, was now the largest building in the world by area, a whopping 21.5 acres of floor space.

Companies from around the globe vied to have a presence at the expo—an opportunity to showcase new products, inventions, and their latest technologies. Attendees marveled at a 650-ton, 1,400 horsepower, 70-foot-tall Corliss steam engine that ran thirteen acres of machines in Machinery Hall. They watched a much smaller machine called a typewriter magically tap out words at the touch of fingertips. They stood in awe of one of the first demonstrations of an electric light and smiled with delight at hearing a distant voice coming through another strange contraption called a telephone. The public enjoyed the taste of root beer for the first time, while a new condiment topped some of their favorite