Contact Information:
Mailing Address:
request via email
Email:
emannon [@mhu.edu]
Mailing Address:
request via email
Email:
emannon [@mhu.edu]
Bio:
I was born and raised in rural, southwestern Virginia and I am an unapologetic Appalachian American. I lived the entirety of my life prior to college many miles from Floyd County’s one stoplight, and in my love for that place—my home—and in my speech patterns I bear the marks of “my raising.” Viewed from outside and juxtaposed against my years at Virginia Tech and Penn State, my early life would appear very pastoral. I lived on an expanse of family land—featuring green pastures and even sprinkled in places with sheep—which supplied me with what I later realized were unique luxuries. I could walk the two miles to my maternal grandparents’ home and never leave family land or see another home. Growing up on a farm also meant that employment was always at hand, and I learned a wide array of subsistence skills—from carpentry to canning, timber felling to baking—from my family. Finally, in my late teens and early twenties I enjoyed the companionship and use of an 1800 pound draft horse named “Babe.” Together we pulled out firewood from my mother’s woods and cultivated a garden, but our relationship transcended work.
When I began college at nearby Virginia Tech, I was not so much leaving home as expanding its boundaries and carrying my interests into adjacent territory. My lifelong love of the woods led me to obtain a minor in Forestry, and my English major allowed me to study environmental literature and exposed me to new works and authors.
Working on my Master’s degree (2010) and PhD (2014) in English at Penn State continued this broadening of my purview. But along with adding breadth, I was also able to add depth to my familiarity with and knowledge of my lifelong interests. For example, in the spring of my first year in graduate school, I learned about the georgic mode, and realized that this was the adjective that described my past as well as my future research interests. That is, both the labor and dwelling that characterized my family’s farming, as well as my specific interest in “nature” writing that deals with agriculture, food, and animals should be understood in georgic terms rather than pastoral ones. Interestingly, I’ve transitioned from a farm-hand with a work horse to a literary scholar with a doctorate in English and a current book project that examines the intersection of ecocriticism with farming, food, and laboring animals. But I still visit Babe when I’m home; I’m also still a gardener, and intend to remain so all my life.
I was born and raised in rural, southwestern Virginia and I am an unapologetic Appalachian American. I lived the entirety of my life prior to college many miles from Floyd County’s one stoplight, and in my love for that place—my home—and in my speech patterns I bear the marks of “my raising.” Viewed from outside and juxtaposed against my years at Virginia Tech and Penn State, my early life would appear very pastoral. I lived on an expanse of family land—featuring green pastures and even sprinkled in places with sheep—which supplied me with what I later realized were unique luxuries. I could walk the two miles to my maternal grandparents’ home and never leave family land or see another home. Growing up on a farm also meant that employment was always at hand, and I learned a wide array of subsistence skills—from carpentry to canning, timber felling to baking—from my family. Finally, in my late teens and early twenties I enjoyed the companionship and use of an 1800 pound draft horse named “Babe.” Together we pulled out firewood from my mother’s woods and cultivated a garden, but our relationship transcended work.
When I began college at nearby Virginia Tech, I was not so much leaving home as expanding its boundaries and carrying my interests into adjacent territory. My lifelong love of the woods led me to obtain a minor in Forestry, and my English major allowed me to study environmental literature and exposed me to new works and authors.
Working on my Master’s degree (2010) and PhD (2014) in English at Penn State continued this broadening of my purview. But along with adding breadth, I was also able to add depth to my familiarity with and knowledge of my lifelong interests. For example, in the spring of my first year in graduate school, I learned about the georgic mode, and realized that this was the adjective that described my past as well as my future research interests. That is, both the labor and dwelling that characterized my family’s farming, as well as my specific interest in “nature” writing that deals with agriculture, food, and animals should be understood in georgic terms rather than pastoral ones. Interestingly, I’ve transitioned from a farm-hand with a work horse to a literary scholar with a doctorate in English and a current book project that examines the intersection of ecocriticism with farming, food, and laboring animals. But I still visit Babe when I’m home; I’m also still a gardener, and intend to remain so all my life.