Abstract:
I’m from near Grayson, in Carter County, in eastern Kentucky, in Appalachia, but left
after college. This thesis examines aspects of my relationship to Appalachia through a set
of essays, each of which addresses some aspect of my experience. In compiling the
essays, I realized that most of scenes happened along roads, and that the roads could be
thought of as memory palaces. The essays are loosely organized by the road they
occurred along. There are two main sections: Hitchins Road, with essays mostly about
my life through high school, and The Gravel Road, with essays about my experiences on
my grandparents’ farm.
