By Iris Castillo | On the narrow, winding roads of Southwest Virginia, distance has never been measured in miles alone. Here, distance is felt in whether a car starts on a cold morning, or whether a neighbor can afford to take time off work to drive someone to an appointment three counties away. In central Appalachia, a mile “as the crow flies” can take hours to traverse by road. Geography has always shaped access to health care. 

Rick Van Noy is the author of four books, including Borne by the River: Canoeing the Delaware from Headwaters to Home (Cornell 2024) and Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in a Climate-Changed South (Georgia 2019). He is a professor of English at Radford University. 

By Tess Lloyd | When we buried Mamaw at the southwest corner of our new pre-fab log cabin, I worried about pushback. The ritual was Cousin McCaslin’s idea. His folklore professor at the state university.