Marshall professor receives national award for book on Appalachia

A professor at Marshall University received a special award for his book about Appalachia.

 Chris Green, associate professor of English, received the Weatherford Award for his book, "The Social Life of Poetry: Appalachia, Race and Radical Modernism."

Green said there are two types of Weatherford Awards, one in non-fiction and the other in fiction and poetry. He received the non-fiction award. The award began in 1970 to honor Willis D. Weatherford Jr. and Sr. for their contributions to the region.

Green received the award March 19 at the Appalachian Studies Association's 33rd Annual Conference. The conference took place at North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, Ga.

   The non-fiction award is given annually to the work that best illuminates the challenges, personalities and unique qualities of the Appalachian south, according to the news release.

Green said he has always followed the Weatherford Awards. Some of the books awarded in the past inspired him in writing his book. One in particular is "Appalachia on Our Mind" by Henry D. Shapiro.

Several of Green's teachers and mentors in Appalachian studies have won awards. Green said winning an award he had always admired and thought to be very important, was a huge honor to him.

"I'm a mixture of glowing and blushing for having won it, glowing because I'm really excited and blushing because I get embarrassed by my own excitement," Green said.

"The Social Life" explores American racial history and reveals how mountain whites helped shape America's understanding of African-Americans, Anglos, Jews, southerners and immigrants. It then describes how poetry books by Jesse Stuart, James Still, Don West and Muriel Rukeyser affected American understandings of Appalachia and race.

Green said he started the book in 1999 and it is an on-going process with getting the book sold to stores and libraries as an effort to get the book well known. He said he wants people to pick up his book and be interested in learning about Appalachia. 

"It's an authentication that what I do and believe about Appalachia and about poetry is more than just a personal obsession, but there are other people that have looked at it that see that it might make a difference of how we see our world, and that's my goal," Green said.

Edwina Pendarvis, professor emeritus, has worked with Green on several occasions.

Pendarvis said the Weatherford Award is the most important award someone could get in terms of Appalachian studies. She said she respects Green and thinks he deserves the award.

"As a person, he is kind, generous and thoughtful," Pendarvis said. As a teacher he is the same way."

"He is so committed to making life better in the community, his classroom and the university. He cares about the social life around him and tries his best to make it as fair and good as it can be. As an author, he's really creative and articulate. He sees things in ways other people don't see them."

He recently finished a proposal for a book about the history of Appalachian literature, Green said. If the proposal is accepted in May, he estimates the book will be finished in about four years.

Green said he did not write the book as a step for promotion.

Laura Hatfield can be contacted at hatfield120@marshall.edu.