Department of English

Academic Specialty:

American literature, Appalachian literature

Education:

• B.A., Appalachian State University
• M.A., University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Ph.D., University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Selected Publications:

• "Gurney Norman." Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 399. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage, 2016. 149-249. [Academic advisor for entry].
• Voices from the Headwaters: Local Stories from Meat Camp, Tamarack, and Sutherland, North Carolina. Liner notes, Audio CD. Boone, NC: Center for Appalachian Studies, 2016. 
• Voices from the Headwaters: Stories from Meat Camp, Tamarack (Pottertown) & Sutherland, North Carolina. Eds. Patricia D. Beaver & Sandra L. Ballard. Boone, NC: Center for Appalachian Studies, 2013.
• "Introduction." Flowering of the Cumberland by Harriette Simpson Arnow. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2013.
• "Introduction." Seedtime on the Cumberland by Harriette Simpson Arnow. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2013.
• "Introduction." The Kentucky Trace: A Novel of the American Revolution by Harriette Simpson Arnow. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2012.
• "Introduction." The Weedkiller's Daughter by Harriette Simpson Arnow. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2012.
• "Introduction." Mountain Path by Harriette Simpson Arnow. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2012.
• Appalachian Journal Edition of The Southern Mountaineer in Fact and Fiction by Cratis D. Williams, with a Foreword by Robert Morgan. CD-ROM, 2011.
• Neighbor to Neighbor: A Memoir of Family, Community, and Civil War in Appalachian North Carolina. Eds. Sandra L. Ballard and Leila Weinstein. Boone, NC: Center for Appalachian Studies, 2007.
• The Collected Short Stories of Harriette Simpson Arnow. Eds. Sandra L. Ballard and Haeja Chung. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2005.
• Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia. Eds. Sandra L. Ballard and Patricia L. Hudson. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
• "Tracing Trips to Hindman." Crossing Troublesome: 25 Years of the Appalachian Writers Workshop. Eds. George Ella Lyon and Leatha Kendrick. Lexington: Wind Publications, 2002. 95, 125.
• "Where Did Hillbillies Come From? Tracing Sources of the Comic Fool in Literature." Back Talk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes. Eds. Dwight Billings, Gurney Norman, and Katherine Ledford. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1999. 138-49.
• "Introduction." Hunter's Horn by Harriette Arnow. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 1997. v-xv.
• Smithsonian Guide to Historic America: The Carolinas and Appalachian States. With Patricia L. Hudson. New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 1989. Revised edition, 1998.

Sandy Ballard joined the English Department faculty and the Center for Appalachian Studies in 2000 as the editor of Appalachian Journal, a peer-reviewed scholarly quarterly founded in 1972. She is the author of essays and reviews in American literature, with special interest in Appalachian authors. She has written introductions to editions of Harriette Simpson Arnow's books published by Michigan State University Press. With Patricia L. Hudson, she co-edited the anthology Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia (2003), and she has co-edited The Collected Short Stories of Harriette Simpson Arnow (2005). She received the Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award from the Appalachian Writers Association (2007) and the Educational Service to Appalachia Award from Carson-Newman College (2011). She is active in the Appalachian Studies Association.