Living with Curious Pain

"Living with Curious Pain" is a collection of poems written between August 2004 and March 2006. This collection largely focuses on the broad mining history of Southern West Virginia, and some of the pieces closely examine the lineage of the Vances, a mining family still living in the area. "Living with Curious Pain" is divided into two parts, which delineate the poems by their content. "Breathing Lessons" concerns itself with unearthing the hidden histories of mining families, kept silent by cultural constructions. "Body Lessons" shifts the focus away from history and looks deeply at the effects of such history on the contemporary female Appalachian body.