I expected a quick read on Appalachian folklore and history. What I got was so much deeper and more lovely. Hillard did a great job depicting Appalachia, specifically West Virginia. As someone born and living Appalachia, I very much appreciate and respect Hillard for their work.

As someone with a passion for cultural histories and folklore, this book immediately grabbed me. The stories Hilliard collected were fascinating and vibrant, and I can't wait to jump back in soon. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in West Virginia, history, and folklore more broadly.

Thank you so, so much to University of Carolina Press and Netgalley for giving me a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this well researched and informative book. it made me learn about the Appalacchian culture and was easy to follow.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This book is a well-written, scholarly book in an area that many people may have heard of but few actually know much about. While I can say that I was one of those people once, I now feel like I have learned so much about the Appalachian community Hilliard discusses in this book. Well-written, exciting stories, and is an engaging book.

OKAY, this one took me to places I've never visited nor read much about. The fascination I've held for Appalachia has always been there though. The few stories I've heard were nowhere near as in-depth as this book was. It was also very eloquently and smartly written, so much so that at times I had to use as much concentration as I could to really piece together the info dump chapter after chapter. Although please don't think that's a bad thing, I actually quite enjoyed it.

I admit, I misread the description that this was for an academic press, and the cover was so cutesie that I thought it just another regional nonfiction overview of folklore, an easy read. I quickly realized I did not have the spoons or IQ to adequately decipher most passages, and the pre-publication kindle formatting left a lot to be desired in readability. That said, the effort put into it was clear.

This is much, much more than a quick book on Appalachian folklore, and very dense and scholarly, so be ready to commit if you pick this up! I was not prepared for how this was presented but I can appreciate the lovingly-crafted project that it was, and so much respectful work was invested.

I'm not sure the general public would love this sort of book but I hope regional scholars find and enjoy. Four stars for content value, maybe a little less for accessbility/readability to a larger audience.

I loved the stories and the writing in this book. With family that originated in Appalachia, this book was an interesting mix of things I had heard about as a child and fascinating new stories that I had never come across. Truly enjoyable book.

Emily Hilliard's forthcoming book is the rare academic press book that not only exists within and outside academic modes of discourse, but also has objects and descriptions that are exciting as its theory (the second one is somehow rarer, in my experience). Making Our Future is a sort of survey of Hilliard’s time serving as the West Virginia State Folklorist. Folklore, for Hilliard, can be better described as folklife, and is deeply present in every sense of the word. Each chapter focuses on a different folklife object—and these range from hot dogs to wrestling matches to the stories of Breece D’J Pancake to Swiss sweets to a speculative video game—through which contemporary West Virginians negotiate local and regional identity in relation to tradition.

West Virginia is most often portrayed in the media as a state in decline—bleeding population, poor and white, a bastion of conservative politics. The West Virginia Hilliard finds is diverse and defiant, with interracial communities and concerns. A particularly fascinating chapter looks at the state teachers’ strikes as a rhetorical example of folklife. I’d recommend this book for anyone with an interest in rural, regional, or Appalachian life—or, frankly, anyone who wants to read stories about vibrant communities.

I love this book, an account of West Virginian folklore created through collaborative means and with an eye on how folklore and regional customs are being preserved. Author Hilliard writes in an easy, everyday voice, devoid of jargon or too much academic writing. The work she's done as a scholar and partner wi people in t he state involved in various, wide-ranging traditions is outstanding. Folklore isn't just stories told around a fire by elders--although that still happens--but is the content of a video game, the way a certain kind of food is cooked, the places--some of them now destroyed--that appear in a writer's work. It's a fascinating read, and I hope other folklorists follow Hilliard's lead.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

What an interesting book! While not a West Virginian myself, being in the South and near the foothills of Appalachia, some of the folk expressions carried over and it was interesting too to see how they varied by region.

This book covers more modern folk, specifically what the author terms as "folklife", hearkening not necessarily to history, but to the adaptability of traditions and other expressions of culture and self that can be found. Going through topics like hotdogs (next time I'm passing through Bexley I'll have a stop to make for sure), to a museum where the townsfolk having a Sat. chat is part of the draw, to a video game that expresses different interesting notes of WV lore and place (I now need to play this video game), it covered a wide array of topics you wouldn't necessarily put together as "similar". But in the author's way of describing how culture can be generated, it makes sense.

There is some jargon that goes along with the topic (I, with no shame, don't mind looking up terms and concepts and had to do that a few times in this one), but I would expect that from any non-fiction book in a person's specialty area. In general, the vibe and purpose of the book came through and is a great way to explore the people of West Virginia while also understanding some of their history, sociology, and paths forward.

Review by M. Reynard 2022

I couldn't stop myself from reading sections of this book aloud to my roommates as I went. I'll admit I didn't have a particular interest in West Virginia specifically going in. It was the "visionary folklore" part of the title that caught my eye. I took a couple oral history classes my senior year that touched on modern folklore work and fell in love. Hilliard's book had me falling in love all over again. If you enjoy nonfiction, if you're at all interested in folklore or the structure of small town communities, or if you grew up in a small town, give this a read.

There's a staggering breadth of topics covered, from local songwriting and recipes to the teachers' strike and labor struggles; from hot dogs to West Virginia-based video game Fallout 76. I can't say I had a favorite chapter either- they were all equally compelling, even on topics I didn't have much interest or background knowledge in, like the culture and practices surrounding Pro Wrestling.

I've now got several tabs open searching for the literature referenced (you can't read this book and not go looking for Breece D'J Pancake's book). Overall, a fresh and intimate look at Appalachian life, and compelling proof of the necessity of ethical, collaborative folklore.

(As a side note on my personal experience reading, I just finished playing through the 2017 indie game Night in the Woods, a narrative with shockingly similar themes: the slow death of old coal mining towns, labor and class issues, unemployment, religion, and tradition. A couple chapters into Hilliard's book I finally pulled up a search and found that the two main writers of NITW were from Pittsburgh: just across the border.)

If I were to try to describe Emily Hilliard's "Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia" in a single word that word would be "joy."

Joy is the word that keeps coming up for me as I reflect upon my several days of reading "Making Our Future," not so much because it's an impossibly happy book because, in all honesty, it actually tackles some rather serious subjects. The word "joy" comes to mind mostly because Hilliard writes with such complete and utter enthusiasm for contemporary folklore and culture that you can't help but get caught up in her incredibly intelligent and spirited writing and her ability to vividly portray the worlds in which she's planted herself.

In other words, I loved every page of "Making Our Future."

From 2015-2021, Hilliard worked as the West Virginia State Folklorist and Founding Director of the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council. She currently is the Program Director for Folk and Traditional Arts at Mid Atlantic Arts, managing the Central Appalachia Living Traditions program.

Folklore is her area of expertise and it shines through on every page of "Making Our Future," not just in terms of the intelligent discourse she puts forth but in the way she's able to bring this all to life in a way that is accessible, engaging, and delightfully entertaining.

"Making Our Future" was a book that I selected that honestly fell out of my comfort zone. Hilliard drew me and within a few pages I felt completely comfortable with Hilliard's immersion into visionary folklore and her ability to immerse me in everyday Appalachian culture.

I will confess that Appalachian culture is not completely unfamiliar to me despite the fact that I'm a lifelong Indianapolis, Indiana resident. My own paternal grandparents were from the Appalachian parts of Kentucky and I spent many of my childhood summers on their tobacco farm where I've returned as an adult to officiate weddings, funerals, and visit the few relatives who survive.

Seldom, if ever, have I experienced Appalachia explained with such delight as it is in "Making Our Future." Hilliard challenges stereotypes and common misperceptions of folklore and Appalachia by presenting Appalachian culture through the lens of visionary folklore that is forward-thinking, future-focused, materialist, and collaborative.

"Making Our Future" is entirely set in West Virginia and offers chapters on the expressive culture of the West Virginia Teachers' strike, the cultural significance of the West Virginia hot dog, the practice of nonprofessional women songwriters, the post-apocalyptic vision presented in the video game Fallout 76, and the foodways of an Appalachian Swiss community along several other chapters.

It would be hard to pick favorites, though I found myself smiling throughout Hilliard's exploration of the West Virginia hot dog and utterly captivated by her discovering of West Virginia's nonprofessional women songwriters. Perhaps the only chapter I didn't quite click with was the chapter on the video game Fallout 76, though I will openly admit that many post-apocalyptic discussions leave me in a cognitive haze.

Hilliard argues that folklore is a unifying concept that puts diverse cultural forms in conversation, as well as a framework that helps us reckon with the past, understand the present, and collectively shape the future. After reading "Making Our Future," count me as among the newly convinced. Hilliard's writing gave me such enthusiasm for folklore I'm practically beaming even as I write this review and she gave me a deeper appreciation for Appalachian culture and West Virginia.

As someone who has spent much of my life traveling the roads by wheelchair as an activist, I resonated with so many of the observations made by Hilliard because she actually slows down enough to see the people around her, the landscape, and the tiniest cultural landmarks that many people would miss.

Destined to be one of my favorite reads for 2022, "Making Our Future" is a shining example of public scholarship presented in a way that it can be celebrated by the public.

Hilliard has been a faculty member of the University of Michigan's New England Literature Program, and currently teaches in Marshall University's Graduate Humanities Program.

Her research and writing interests include foodways, vernacular music, occupational folklife, feminism and domestic space, and the intersections between traditional, experimental, and radical culture. She is also a musician and a co-founder of the feminist record label SPINSTER.

"Making Our Future" is without a doubt one of 2022's truly "must read" titles.