Pauletta Hansel\, poet\, memoirist\, teach er\, winner of the 2026 Judy Gaines Young Book Award\, and the first poet laureate of Cincinnati\, celebrates the release of her latest book\, U nderstory: A Women&rsquo\;s History of Appalachia. \;Hansel blend s poetry\, memoir\, genealogy\, and history to chronicle the untold story of her foremothers. \;Poet Sara Henning praised \;Understory as a book that\, "is changing the landscape of what poetry and memoir can do."
\nAbout the Author:
\nPaulet ta Hansel \;is a poet\, memoirist\, teacher\, and editor who has authored ten poetry collections\, including \;Heartbreak Tree< /em>\, \;Palindrome\, and \;Will There Also Be Singin g? \;She is the winner of the \;2026 Judy Gaines Young Book A ward \;from Transylvania University and served as the first poet laure ate of Cincinnati. \;Hansel's eleventh book\, \;Understory: A Women's History of Appalachia\, blends poetry\, memoir\, genealogy\, and history and is due out in October 2026 through University Press of Ken tucky.
\nAbout the Book:
\nFor Pauletta Hanse l\, who grew up in southeastern Kentucky\, the history of her ancestors tr aces back to her tenth great-grandmother\, a "tobacco bride" shipped from England to Jamestown\, Virginia\, in exchange for 150 pounds of tobacco le aves. After the Revolutionary War\, the family migrated from the Chesapeak e area to the mountains of North Carolina\, and eventually\, into the Appa lachian coalfields. As Hansel explored archives and artifacts\, she found this ancestry was incomplete\, remembered solely through the lives of men.
\nWith a captivating and contemplative voice\, Hansel's \;Under story \;weaves history\, genealogy\, and poetry to chronicle the untol d story of her foremothers. Hansel does not shy away from hard truths\, su ch as her family's enslavement of people of African descent\, their suppor t for the Confederacy\, and their displacement of Indigenous people. Throu gh research\, her travels across the US\, and her own family stories and m emories\, she makes visible those whose lives were hidden between the line s of documents left behind.
\nIn revealing generations of women whos e experiences have only been glimpsed within others' narratives\, \;Un derstory \;is not simply one family's story&mdash\;it is a microcosm o f the history of Appalachian American women.
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