Will the Real West Virginia Please Stand Up?
Despite its reputation, West Virginia is a surprisingly rich and diverse state, with many different regions with their distinct identities (and claims to be authentic West Virginia).
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If you’ve read my debut queer Appalachian rom-com Country Road Romance, you’ll know that it takes place in two distinct regions of West Virginia: the lower Ohio Valley (Huntington, specifically) and the Northern Panhandle (unspecified but essentially near Wheeling). Now, to an outsider these two places might be essentially the same but, to those who grew up in the Mountain State, they are very different. Indeed, one of the most surprising things about West Virginia is just how diverse it is, at least in terms of how many different types of West Virginia there are.
Let me explain.
Unlike other regions of Appalachia, which at least have the dignity of being host to a major urban center–Kentucky has Lexington, Tennessee has Knoxville, Virginia has Roanoke, North Carolina has Asheville, etc.--West Virginia doesn’t really have one. The closest we have are our two biggest cities, Charleston (the capital) and Huntington, but neither of these are above 50,000 residents these days. Moreover, there’s a pervasive belief that there’s a certain cultural homogeneity to the state, that everyone there is just one type of West Virginia. That is to say: everyone who lives there is a redneck or white trash or backward or White. While there are a lot of White people, and there are more than a few rednecks, there’s so much more to the state than that, particularly if you’re willing to look beneath the surface.
Indeed, as I try to explore in my debut Appalachian rom-com, Country Road Romance, there are actually several different regions of the state, all with their unique traditions, histories, and understandings of what it means to be a West Virginian.
Take, for example, the Northern Panhandle. This is the part of the state in which I was born and raised and in which my family has lived for generations (as early as the 1770s, in some cases). In many ways it has a genuine claim to be the heart and soul of the state, since independence was first declared in Wheeling on June 20, 1863, and Wheeling was actually the capital of the state two separate times. Of course, there are many in the state who would say that Wheeling, and by extension the entire Northern Panhandle, is nothing more than southeast Pennsylvania. It’s worth pointing out, though, that to many people in Pennsylvania, particularly those in urban centers like Philadelphia, the southeastern state is basically West Virginia (or, to put it somewhat differently, Pennsyltucky).
Huntington, on the other hand, has its own claim to being an authentic part of the Mountain State. To begin with, there’s the fact that it’s below the Mason Dixon Line–you’ll find that that’s a key distinction when it comes to WV–and for another it’s home to Marshall University, one of the two major universities in the state (the other, of course, being West Virginia University in Morgantown, a city with its own claim to being authentic West Virginia). Even here, though, you’ll find there are those who say that it’s too close to the Ohio River, that it’s more Eastern Ohio or Kentucky than West Virginia, as well as a whole host of other reasons why it shouldn’t be considered the real thing. (As a side note, this whole discussion about what constitutes real West Virginia extends to Appalachia as a whole, and there have been entire books written about who and what does, and doesn’t, count as Appalachia).
The fun thing about being from and writing about a state like West Virginia is that, no matter what region we’re in, we’re absolutely convinced that we’re the real West Virginia and that everyone else is a poser. If you’re from Beckley–in the heart of coal country–you’re likely to see people from the Northern Panhandle as basically Yankees, while if you’re from the Eastern Panhandle you’re likely to see yourself as an avatar of Mountaineer free-spiritedness while everyone else looks at you as if you’re essentially from DC. All of this is usually in good fun, of course and, if there’s one thing that’s also true about West Virginians it’s that they’ll fight anyone from outside who tries to tell them that they’re not good enough or that West Virginia is just a state full of dumb rednecks.
In Country Road Romance this all manifests in a number of ways. Jared has an ambivalent relationship to his West Virginia identity for a number of reasons, and the narrator points out that he doesn’t have much of an accent (except for when pretends to have one to mess with Sheri, Charlie’s publicist). Charlie, on the other hand, is much more traditionally West Virginian, having grown up in a holler south of Morgantown. As a result, he has a thicker accent–to Jared, everyone south of Moundsville is essentially southern, which is why from his point of view Charlie has a “southern West Virginia” accent–even though he’s also tried to sand that away as he’s pursued a career in Hollywood.
Writing Country Road Romance and using it to explore issues and themes relevant to my fellow Mountain Staters was one of the things that I loved most about writing it. Our state is far richer and more complicated than outsiders are ever willing to give us credit for, and if my book can do even a little wto work against those pernicious assumptions, then that alone will have been reason enough for writing it (though also showing that queer people can find happiness in Appalachia is also a key part of the book’s central purpose).
I know one thing’s for sure. I literally wouldn’t trade being from West Virginia for anything in the world. Sure, we might sometimes get the short end of the stick, and sure, we have our problems, but damn it there’s something about those hills and hollers that continues to call to me, even though I haven’t lived there in well over a decade (or two). It was, is, and always will be, my forever home.
If you’d like to order a copy of Country Road Romance, here are some places to do so (please order from an indie bookstore or directly from me if you can!)
The Buzzed Word (MD)
Romance-Landia (MD)
Capricho’s Books (MD)
Booktenders (WV)
The Inner Geek (WV)
Four Seasons Books (WV)
Love Stories OKC (OK)
Signed copies are also available on my website.