What It Done to Us

The following creative thesis is a scorched-earth march through Southern Appalachia. There are no heroes here, nor any easy moral lessons. As contemporary imaginings of the Southern Gothic, the poems use bold images, sprawling lines, biblical allusions, feminist and Marxist theories, and unaffected diction to illuminate the implications of the region’s violent heritage in a globalized world. They seek to raze political, religious, and sexual norms with kerosene and a lit match—exposing a bare and often brutal truth that cannot be burned away. This thesis is a trial by fire.