‘My hands cramp, fingers arching backward. / Arthritis. Two Advil daily. / My lower back aches, stooping my spine. / My arches continue their path to flat. / It feels like betrayal this revolt. / I was supple and graceful once upon a time. / First a disco queen and then a yoga diva …’
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MEMOIR: ‘The Garden and the Grief’ by Connie Kinsey
Gardens usually signify growth and the boundless, restorative invention of Nature. Yet what happens when they fall into tangles as life's misfortunes overwhelm and distract us from turning their soil? Connie Kinsey's short memoir on on the dance between her garden and her grief.
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VIDEO READINGS| “Terracotta Tile,” a prompted tale by Connie Kinsey
"He was rage and she was ennui. She picked up her glass and took a sip. The wine tasted bitter. She couldn’t remember when he had last been happy. He stood in front of her. Silent, but radiating a need to speak. “What?” she said softly.
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COVID CHRONICLES | One in Eight Million
We begin our new occasional series 'Covid Chronicles' with a personal report from WestVirginiaVille's Minister of Paragraphs, Connie Kinsey, who was just recently diagnosed with a—we pray it stays that way—mild case of Covd-19.
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PRESS RELEASE: Our ‘Office of Paragraphs’ Ministers Up
Connie Kinsey of Ona, W.Va., will be joining the WestVirginiaVille Office of Paragraphs. She will offer advice and consultation on the best paragraphs of non-fiction and fiction prose to include on the site.
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CHARACTERS | A visit with a ‘cozmic’ polymath prof and his harmonium
Marshall U. prof Bill Price has a Ph.D. in Biomolecular Physics, reads Sanskrit (but says he's not fluent), and has pages of peer-reviewed publications on his Curriculum Vitae. He also plays the harmonium, had a Naval Academy appointment and began yoga at age 11.
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EDITORS/NOTE: What’s up with an all-poetry edition, man? Isn’t that weird?
When I conceived of devoting an entire issue of this monthly WestVirginiaVille web magazine to poets or poems with some connection to West Virginia I didn't realize that when all was writ and done it would end up being quite so ambitious. And ... um, large ...
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INDEX: Guide to stories in September 2022 Poetry Edition
Here's a clickable guide to all the poetry and features in the special September 2022 edition of WestVirginiaVille.com
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EDITORS/NOTE: About our ‘Memoirs of Daily Life’ Issue
to devote so many pages and pixels to writers, poets, and memoirists, who issue dispatches from the front lines of their lives or the imagined lives of characters, is not to take a step away from Important Things and Essential Matters. At their best, poetry and prose are no less a form of truth-telling ...
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MEMOIR: Why ginseng hunters & trappers bearing bloody hides wanted in my house
One morning, I stumbled down to the kitchen when I heard a noise. There standing was an unkempt man holding bloody hides and smoking a cigarette. "Excuse me?"
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SPOKEN/WORD: “The Cold Visitor” by Bobby Lee Messer
The autumn leaves brighten the rolling hills with a kaleidoscope of colors. Yet in the wings of all such beauty awaits The Cold Visitor. Watching. Waiting. Always present. | A Spoken Word multimedia performance of an original work by Bobby Lee Messer.
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MEMOIR: ‘Memory of a Waitress’
One night in West Texas, taking refuge from a motorcycle ride through buckets of rain, fleeing a broken heart, an empty diner ahead. A beaten-down waitress finally appears ...
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EDITORS/NOTE: Hellzones & Heroes | Painters & Clouds | Gardens & Grief
A look at the lineup for the August 2021 issue of WestVirginiaVille, ranging from global bodhisattvas from the West Virginia hills, to painters, artists, actresses, and memoirists delving into their lived experiences in the Mountain State.
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EDITORS/NOTE: Elephant Ankles, a Dad’s love, Natural Sonatas, CROWN Act-ing & More
Welcome to the June 2021 issue of WestVirginiaVille. This edition covers lots of ground. It helps to have good people as guides, leading the way.
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ELEPHANT ANKLES: Life with Long COVID
"This is a good day. I have been sick for months, but I did not die. I am happy to be here. I can do this, but I reserve the right to whine. I also reserve the right to be angry.'
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THE FEMALE GAZE: How a West Virginia Artist Captured 100 Badass Women
Overwhelmed by the headlines, by Donald Trump, a pandemic and winter coming, West Virginia artist Sassa Wilkes couldn't get herself to her easel. Then, RBG died and Sassa found she wished to get to know the legal legend by painting her portrait. She kept on going with 99 more portraits of badass women.
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COVID FAMILY PROJECT 1: Remain Vigilant, Plus a Recovery Tale
We launch WestVirginiaVille's year-long COVID Family Project 2021, featuring articles, videos, and audio stories from the pandemic frontlines—stories of family loss and recovery, plus people working hard to stop the rising tide of infections and death.
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READINGS | Looking Back on a Hindu Hillbilly Upbringing
"There is the constant question asked every time our brown-skinned family attends a gathering of White West Virginians. "Have you been saved?" Neema Avashia looks back on growing up "a motley crew, this band of Hindus, gathering once a month to pray in southern West Virginia in the mid 1980s."
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READINGS | “One Cup At a Time: A National Coffee Day Memoir”
Coffee has punctuated my life as exclamation points, commas, periods, and missed periods. Coffee has born witness to the great events and the tiny ones, the happy and the sad. The momentous and the mundane.
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CHARACTERS: A Portrait of the Artist in Her Garden
Sassa Wilkes paints every day. Now, she is painting in a different fashion, using the Earth as a palette. A portrait of a West Virginia artist growing things in a big way for the first time, thanks to Covid-19.
