Hilda Downer

Our conversation this week is with Hilda Downer. She's an Appalachian poet, retired psychiatric nurse and English instructor at Appalachian State University, member of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative, and most importantly, a child of Bandana, NC. 

In this episode we talk about Hilda's love for Bandana, the mica and feldspar mines as a haven, seeing beauty in what others see as ugly, walking and tasting nature, seclusion as a reason to get together, an infinite connection through landscapes and music, poets projecting themselves into the future, finding her place at Wiley's Last Resort and SAWC, the life and legacy of Jim Webb, poets as legislators of the world, and attention as the rarest form of generosity. 

Location: Hilda's home in Sugar Grove, North Carolina

Read Hilda's work:

Wiley's Last Resort

When the Light Waits for Us

Sky Under the Roof

Bandana Creek

Mentioned this episode:

Groundglass by Kathryn Savage

Jim Webb

Wiley's Last Resort

Battle at Blair Mountain by Hilda Downer

Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Literary Magazine

Mitchell County Historical Society: Bandana

Roan Highlands Ecology

The Year of My Life by Issa Kobayashi

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

Southern Appalachian Writers Collective

Pauletta Hansel

Legislators of the World by Adrienne Rich

Mountaintop Removal 101 - Appalachian Voices

Appalshop