Description: To Belong Here delves into how queer, trans, and Two-Spirit Appalachian people make sense of life in the mountains. Featuring contributors whose identities across race, gender, and socioeconomic background make for a uniquely intersectional look at the area, this collection provides a nuanced understanding of Appalachia and what it means to represent it. Themes of erasure, environmentalism, violence, kinship, racism, Indigeneity, queer love, and trans liberation course through the volume and exemplify the writers' resilience in reconciling their complex and often contradictory connections to home. A collective exploration of rejection and acceptance, To Belong Here calls for a more inclusive future in Appalachia--one where everyone can thrive.
Brief description: Rae Garringer is a writer, oral historian, and audio producer living on S'atsoyaha (Yuchi) and Saawanwaki (Shawnee) lands in southeastern West Virginia where they were raised. They are the founder of the multimedia oral history project and podcast Country Queers, and the author of Country Queers: A Love Letter.