A review by kleonard
Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia by Emily Hilliard

5.0

I love this book, an account of West Virginian folklore created through collaborative means and with an eye on how folklore and regional customs are being preserved. Author Hilliard writes in an easy, everyday voice, devoid of jargon or too much academic writing. The work she's done as a scholar and partner wi people in t he state involved in various, wide-ranging traditions is outstanding. Folklore isn't just stories told around a fire by elders--although that still happens--but is the content of a video game, the way a certain kind of food is cooked, the places--some of them now destroyed--that appear in a writer's work. It's a fascinating read, and I hope other folklorists follow Hilliard's lead.