By Hilary Hirtle

If you’re eager to hear more from Urban Appalachian writers, then look no further because there are some exciting book launches coming up this fall! For this feature, I’m highlighting Pauletta Hansel and her upcoming book, Understory: A Women’s History of Appalachia. I’ll also be revisiting my conversation with Omope Carter-Daboiku, whose work is being featured in Black Appalachia: Race, Place, and Identity, set to be released in late September.

A Q&A with Pauletta Hansel, author of the upcoming book, Understory: A Women’s History of Appalachia

In Understory, Pauletta Hansel combines poetry, prose, and memoir, as well as genealogical and historical research, to chronicle the untold story of her foremothers. Going all the way back to her 10th great-grandmother (who was sent from England to Jamestown, Virginia in exchange for 150 pounds of tobacco leaves), Pauletta traces her foremothers’ eventual migration from the Chesapeake region, to the mountains of North Carolina, and eventually to the Appalachian coalfields. Drawing on research and imagination, Understory not only follows a family’s story into Appalachia, but also seeks to bring to light the lives left hidden in historical traces. 

Here are the highlights from our conversation:

In your own words, what is Understory about?

It’s a microcosm of Appalachian history, told from women’s perspectives. My family came into the Appalachian region right after the Revolutionary War, when it was being settled by white colonialists and indigenous peoples were being displaced. So when I was doing research on my family’s history, I realized I wasn’t just looking at my own family’s story, I was looking at the larger story of Appalachia. 

Why did you decide to focus on your foremothers?

Because women’s stories are almost impossible to find and, even if they are found, they’re not necessarily told. I’ve had a career-long interest in writing the lives of women and helping women write their own lives through writing workshops and mentorship. This just felt like a natural development to that. Writing about each of these grandmothers was an act of regeneration, of reclamation. 

Why did you call the book Understory?

In ecology, an “understory” is the part of the forest floor that is not visible from the outside and often not noticed very much from the inside, but it’s still very important to the well-being of the overall forest ecosystem. That felt to me like a good metaphor for the story of Appalachian women who were invisible, yet necessary to the survival of the community. So, “understory”  worked as a metaphor. It’s the story underneath the story.

Did writing Understory give you a different perspective on Appalachia?

Understory explores my mother’s side of my family who, for the most part, stayed out of the coal mines for as long as possible. The history of Appalachia is often interwoven with the mining industry and it’s what I often thought of as being the history of my family. But when writing this book, I learned that my family was among those who avoided the mines as long as they possibly could. They kept a kind of independence (a very poverty-stricken one) from the mines as subsistence farmers. And that surprised me, how long my family survived like that. 

Did writing Understory give you a different perspective on yourself?

After writing Understory, I think I have a much greater sense of the female lineage that I come from, and the strength of those foremothers to survive and thrive enough in their time and circumstances that then allowed for more possibilities for their descendants. My mother is the first of my foremothers that I can document as being fully literate. To be a granddaughter of these 14 generations of women, writing their stories when they were unable to read or even sign their names, feels like a gift from them. Hopefully, it’s also a gift to the family line, to my ancestors, and I feel incredibly fortunate about being able to do that. 

What do you hope readers take away from reading Understory?

My hope is that people learn and reflect upon this nation’s history and the Appalachian regional history. Think about the place of Appalachia within these United States, here at our 250th anniversary. But think about it from the standpoint of stories that are not told, the stories that aren’t lifted up.

Understory: A Women’s History of Appalachia, forthcoming from University Press of Kentucky, is available for preorder and will be published on October 27, 2026. 

Readers can learn more about Pauletta and her work via her website. Pauletta will also be talking about Understory at upcoming events, including an October 20, 2026 book launch at The Mercantile Library in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she will be in conversation with Richard Hague and Sherry Cook Stanforth.

Coming in September: Black Appalachia: Race, Place, and Identity, featuring Omope Carter-Daboiku

Set to be released on September 22, 2026 and available for preorder is Black Appalachia: Race, Place, and Identity. Featuring more than twenty-five emerging and established scholars and creatives, this work explores, celebrates, and sheds light on the Black Appalachian experience. 

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of interviewing Omope Carter-Daboiku, whose creative work is included in this upcoming book. Omope is a born storyteller with an encyclopedic knowledge of her family’s history, an abounding love for Appalachia, and a deep attachment to her hometown, Ironton, in southern Ohio.  

In Black Appalachia, Omope’s poetry and prose include works such as Them Black Patent Leather Shoes, Lessons From the Edge of Appalachia, and Black Joy. Each piece explores the very themes in which her work is known—race, place, and identity. When I asked Omope what she thought about being included in Black Appalachia, she gave a deep belly laugh. “I get to be in that number? I get to sit at the big kids’ table? I think I’m just overwhelmed by it.”  

Omope’s work has contributed heavily to raising awareness on the presence of Appalachian culture and to the Black Appalachian experience. To learn more about Omope, her creative work, and this forthcoming book, check out our recent conversation on the UACC Blog.

Black Appalachia: Race, Place, and Identity will be published on September 22, 2026 by The University Press of Kentucky.