Author: Kendra Winchester

Dr. William H. Turner introduces readers to the history of Black Appalachian coal towns, places that many outside the region may not have even realized existed. He describes daily life and the economic boom they experienced after WWII. They were also cultural centers with their own magazines and organizations. And, of course, he also follows the region’s decline, which deeply affected these towns and was eventually their downfall. Dr. Turner strives to ensure that these places, the places he loves, are not forgotten.

Jeanna Kadlec gives us a peek into her life growing up in conservative Christianity. She always wanted to be the perfect Christian girl. She married a pastor’s son and waited to have sex until she was married. But doing all of these things didn’t make her happy. She eventually realized that the faith she had been told was the only true way to live was actually very flawed and abusive to her, emotionally and spiritually. She filed for divorce, came out as queer, and completely changed the direction of her life. Like she says in the beginning of the book, she didn’t just leave the church because she’s a lesbian — long before she realized that she was queer, Kadlec understood that the Christian culture she grew up in was incredibly harmful. From this starting point, Kadlec gives readers a more complex view of her faith experience.

Alissa Quart follows several different working-class and lower-middle-class families as they try to navigate a world growing more and more expensive. From childcare to healthcare, American families can barely afford the necessities, let alone anything “extra” that might come up. Quart really pushes the idea that our country should better value caregiving, both for early childhood and for seniors. You can really tell a lot about a country by how it treats its less wealthy citizens, and for America, it’s not always looking good.

Marie Mutsuki Mockett is a biracial Japanese American writer whose family has been farming in Nebraska for generations. So, Mockett decides to follow the migrating wheat harvesters on their journey through Texas, Oklahoma, and eventually back to her family’s farm in Nebraska. As someone who has spent most of her life in urban centers, Mockett begins to reevaluate the assumptions that she has about the wheat harvesters. She begins to realize that there is a lot more to these men and women than she first thought.

Zahra Hankir edited a collection of Arab women journalists reporting from the Arab world. Palestine, Egypt, Yemen, Syria — these journalists report on wars, uprisings, and protests. From their vantage point, they are able to tell stories that male journalists would never have access to in their own work. They center women’s experiences as they write about sexual assault or trying to travel without a male relative. Western society often carries a lot of assumptions about the Middle East. These brave Arab women are here to tell their own stories, risking everything to bring a much-needed perspective of their home regions.

Back when Nicole Chung was the editor of Catapult Magazine, she noticed that there were a lot of essays around the themes of immigration. She teamed up with fellow editor Mensah Demary, and they brought together 20 essays by first and second-generation immigrants. These writers share the complex experience of moving to the U.S. Each writer describes their experiences living between cultures and how that has impacted their sense of self.

Raechel Anne Jolie grew up as a working-class kid on the outskirts of Cleveland. When she was just a girl, her father was hit by a drunk driver, which ended their way of life forever. From there, her childhood was spent moving from home to home, never seeming to stay for long. She finds the alt scene downtown and begins to discover a whole new world that she feels irrevocably drawn to. This tiny memoir is a shining testament to a love of working-class people, the Midwest, and queer culture.

Brian Broome couldn’t wait to leave northeast Ohio. He spent his childhood as a queer, Black kid never fitting in. But no matter where he moved, he still faced racism and homophobia. He describes how he coped with sex and drugs, always trying to forget the trauma he’d experienced while searching for belonging. Broome’s prose is incredible, with every word chosen for a reason. His memoir is full of heart and a deep sense of longing.

Literary powerhouse Morgan Parker is out with a new collection of essays that examine Parker’s feelings of alienation in just about every part of her life. She describes living with depression and a deep sense of loneliness. Her experience with disability impacts every aspect of her life. She shares stories of her white therapist, who proved unhelpful in Parker’s experiences as a Black woman with mental illness. In other essays, she expands from ideas of the personal, giving her readers a bigger picture of Black life in America. Morgan Parker is truly a gem of a writer, one with a unique perspective always worth reading.

Ann Gazmarian grew up as a devout evangelical, but when she’s diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she finds that many of the Christians in her community are far from supportive. Some people think that she must have done something wrong to have warranted such a diagnosis, while others don’t believe that mental illness even exists. Her diagnosis starts her journey away from the evangelical church to a spiritual place wholly new to her. Gazmarian’s writing is contemplative, and constantly examines her faith, her place in the world, and how she can move forward with her life.

Iliana Regan grew up on a small farm in Indiana, going out on foraging expeditions with her family members and learning how to live with the land around her. As she grew older and began to realize she was queer, she tried to bury that knowledge with alcoholism and an intense amount of work in the food industry. As she worked her way up through the restaurant world, she discovered her calling, the thing that gave her purpose. She began to focus more on ingredients, remembering her childhood spent searching for ingredients with her family. Regan writes about her complex inner world, struggling to stay sober and create a better world for herself where she accepts who she is and becomes her best self.

I’ve had my eye on this cookbook for years, so you can imagine how excited I was to receive it as a gift. Bottom of the Pot is the winner of the IACP 2019 First Book Award, presented by The Julia Child Foundation. It combines essays and recipes to create that unique pairing of cooking from a very personal place. Deravian gives us a diverse collection of Persian recipes, adding sections about how to treat individual ingredients so we get the best results.

If you love books about cults and how the mind works, Cultish is right in your wheelhouse. This book delves into the details around the language of cults and how everyday exposure to this language influences how people view the world. Through her narrative storytelling and incredible research skills, Montell takes us deep into the influence of cults and the words that help build them.

I first read Roxane Gay after her essay collection Bad Feminist hit shelves. Since then, Gay has written essays, celebrity profiles, and advice columns. Opinions includes the best of Gay’s writing, giving readers little snapshots of Gay’s life over the course of the last decade. There’s a profile of Janelle Monae describing how Afrofuturism influenced their album Dirty Computer. Gay writes about #MeToo from her perspective as a survivor of sexual assault, and pushes it further, discussing what it’s like to be well-known for being a survivor of sexual violence. In other, less serious pieces, Gay includes her delightful sense of humor and a practical take on what’s going on in the world.