Reaching from the Southern Tier of New York to the pine forests of northern Alabama, Appalachia is home to more than 25 million people. This means nearly ten percent of the US population resides somewhere within the confines of Appalachia. Yet no other region of the country is so likely to be defined in terms of reductive and harmful stereotypes rather than celebrated for its rich chorus of voices.
Appalachian Lit, the literary journal of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA), serves as a forum for our region’s literary community—celebrating both its excellence and its racial, gender/orientation, class, and geographic diversity. Sourcing work from the suburbs of Pittsburgh to the hollers of Kentucky and everywhere in between, we seek to bring our readers the very best in Appalachian fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, artwork and commentary.
We hope you enjoy our inaugural issue.
Damian Dressick, Editor-in-Chief

Damian Dressick is the author of the novel 40 Patchtown and the flash fiction collection Fables of the Deconstruction. His writing has appeared in more than fifty literary journals and anthologies, including W.W. Norton’s New Micro, Electric Literature, Still: The Journal, Post Road, New Orleans Review, Cutbank, Smokelong Quarterly, and New World Writing. A Blue Mountain Residency Fellow, Dressick is the winner of the Harriette Arnow Award and the Jesse Stuart Prize. He co-hosts WANA: LIVE! a (largely) virtual reading series that brings some of the best Appalachian writers to the world. For more, check out www.damiandressick.com
Michael Dittman, Poetry Editor

Michael Dittman lives and writes near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania surrounded by the palimpsest of the Appalachian Rust Belt and its ghosts. He’s worked at bike shops, in newsrooms, and on top of roofs, but today he can be found more often at the front of a classroom. He is the author of Jack Kerouac; A Biography, Small Brutal Incidents, and Who Holds the Devil. His short stories and poetry, as well as his journalism and non-fiction, are widely published. Contact him at www.Michaeldittman.com.
Laura Roberts, Creative Non-fiction Editor

Laura Roberts is an environmental writer, essayist, and humorist. A lifelong West Virginian, she grew up in Wheeling and attended Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. After returning to West Virginia, she attended Chatham University in Pittsburgh and received an MFA in Creative Writing. She has written for Wonderful West Virginia magazine, West Virginia Living magazine, and Weelunk, a northern panhandle publication. Her essays have appeared in places like Terrain, Brevity, Hippocampus, Still, and Bayou Magazine. Her humor has been published in Defenestration, Halfway Down the Stairs, and Animal, among others. Her humor series, “Roberts Ruminates,” appeared in Weelunk Magazine from 2016-2020. Laura serves on the board of West Virginia Writers, Inc, the state’s largest writing organization.
Karen Weyant, Book Reviews Editor

The author of two poetry chapbooks, Karen J. Weyant’s poems and essays have appeared in Barren Magazine, The Briar Cliff Review, Chautauqua, Crab Creek Review, Crab Orchard Review, Fourth River, Lake Effect, Rattle, River Styx, and Whiskey Island. She is an Associate Professor of English at Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York. She lives, reads, and writes in northern Pennsylvania.