{"product_id":"testament-a-rural-anthology-paperback","title":"Testament: A Rural Anthology - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBelle Townsend\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor in Chief), \u003cb\u003eSurabhi Balachander\u003c\/b\u003e (Foreword by), \u003cb\u003eTrish J. Gibson\u003c\/b\u003e (Managing Editor)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTestament: A Rural Anthology\u003c\/em\u003e gathers the voices of 84 writers from 30 states, each holding a place for their communities and in the wider landscape of rural America. These poems, essays, and stories bear witness to what endures despite erasure, isolation, and the narratives that seek to divide us: the bonds between neighbors, the inheritance of memory, the stubborn beauty of ordinary lives, and a quiet wisdom that outlives storms and stacked decks alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpanning hollers and prairies, desert towns and coastal backroads, these pieces reach across regions, histories, and identities to capture the multiple intersecting truths of rural life-Black, Brown, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, immigrant, working-class, disabled, Southern, Midwestern, Appalachian, and far beyond. \u003cem\u003eTestament\u003c\/em\u003e offers a counter-narrative to the flattening stereotypes often imposed on small towns, illuminating instead the complexity, humor, grief, tenderness, and grit found in the places many call home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcross its pages, readers will find stories of labor and lineage, of the landscapes that formed us, and of shifting definitions of family, identity, and community. The writers gathered here explore what it means to stay, to leave, to return, and to walk on land that remembers everything-soil shaped by generations of hands and histories, including those the United States has tried hardest to bury. Many pieces navigate the intersection of the personal and the political, grounding social realities in lived experience and in the language of kitchens, fields, churches, union halls, and long stretches of road.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith urgency and heart, \u003cem\u003eTestament\u003c\/em\u003e creates a space to listen to one another across distance and difference. It asks what we owe to the places that shaped us. It asks, too, what we owe to the people who continue to build a future there. More than an anthology, this book is a record of inheritance and imagination-an offering of connection in a time that asks us to remember who we are to each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 246\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.67 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 10, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45417267036204,"sku":"9798218942885","price":19.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/6260\/8940\/files\/m74r3HUMEd9798218942885.webp?v=1781789573","url":"https:\/\/littleredgeneralstore.com\/products\/testament-a-rural-anthology-paperback","provider":"Little Red General Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}