After receiving the Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship in 2005, with a $75,000 grant attached, Affrilachian Frank X Walker began to realize a long-held dream to publish a magazine. In the spring of 2007, he launched the first issue of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture.

Just as the Affrilachian poets and writers formed to give voice to a silenced people in Appalachia, namely African American Appalachians, Pluck! celebrates Appalachian diversity and provides a forum for various groups in the region to contribute to a cultural dialogue. A combination of scholarly articles, poetry, prose, and current events coverage, Pluck! appeals to a wide audience, one that even stretches beyond the region.

In the inaugural issue, Crystal Good contributed a piece titled, “Hip Hop in Them There Hills,” a look at the thriving hip hop music scene in West Virginia. In the upcoming issue, to be released the first of December, readers will be treated to a historical piece on Anne Spencer, a Harlem Renaissance poet who grew up in Bramwell, W.Va.

For an annual subscription to Pluck! individuals may send $30 to Duncan Hill Press, P.O. Box 14057, Cincinnati, OH, 45250-0057.  Institutions may subscribe for $100/year. For more information about Pluck!, visit its Web site at www.pluckonline.com.