Dr. Jessica Cory is the newly appointed editor of the Appalachian Journal. Before she became the editor, she previously edited a creative collection called Mountains Piled Upon Mountains, co-edited a volume of scholarly essays titled Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place, and a special issue of the Journal of Appalachian Studies. She enjoys curating content and the nitpicky side of editing and writing, like using the Oxford comma.
In our interview, Jessica highlighted that a special issue on visual Appalachian arts is set to come out next month. It is the first-ever issue with full-page color art. There will be series features in it with many different artists. The Appalachian Journal and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts are going to be partnering because they’re hosting the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition.
Before her role at the Appalachian Journal, Jessica was hired in 2023 at Appalachian State as a lecturer in the English Department. She is still teaching a Global Indigenous Literature class at the Hickory Campus and an online class about African American literature. When asked what she liked about teaching at App State, she said she enjoys the connections she builds with students, and watching how students make connections between readings. Jessica also emphasized, “One of the things that I really like about App State is that everybody is so supportive.”
Jessica obtained her PhD from UNC Greensboro and highlighted how her experience was different from others in her cohort because she worked full-time. Her dissertation focused on how 20th and 21st-century African American and Indigenous women writers engage in environmental place-making through multidimensional means. An example she discussed during our interview was the concept of the tesseract, “which is a form of the fourth dimension that’s invisible, but still real.” She discusses how a character may use a tesseract to engage in place-making.
She is currently working on three different book projects. One is called Appalachian Texts and Cultures, and the other is Unsettling Appalachia, which discusses 20th and 21st-century native women poets who have ties to the region. The third is a collection of poems.
Jessica lives in western Wilkes County. She enjoys the milder weather there. In her personal time, she loves to garden. Her goal for the year is to have a big garden and learn to can and jar her own food. She also likes to hike and watch the birds at her feeder from the living room when she’s home.
Written by: Jacey Widner
Jessica Cory
Jessica Cory