Casey Clabough and "The Warrior's Path"
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In early 2007, associate professor and official overseer of Lynchburg College’s department of graduate studies in English, Casey Clabough, made what he has categorized as a bizarre and high risk gamble. Fascinated—perhaps even obsessed!—with the migration of his ancestors (a troupe of hardy Germanic pioneers who, swearing off the domesticity of Virginia’s tidewater region, cut out for the Smoky Mountains in the late 1700s), Clabough decided to follow in their footsteps, to seek out—if there was such a thing to be found—the spiritual resonances of their 500- plus mile trek through the ancient, mythic hills of Appalachia.
The path his 18th Century forebears traveled along had been dubbed, originally, by the Iroquois, Athowominee, or “The Warrior’s Path,” a trail formed by migrating game and the fierce, swarthy hunters that stalked them. In its entirety, the centuries old route spanned from New York State to the Cherokee country of what is now Tennessee and North Georgia, and was, in many ways, an early (albeit much more survival-oriented) precursor to the Appalachian Trail. (Clabough’s own meditative investigation led him to travel from Southern Maryland, through Virginia’s Shenandoah region, and into Tennessee.)
“Despite its historical importance as a great highway,” explains Clabough, “Athowominee is now, by and large, with the notable exceptions of certain congested stretches, a route obscure and lonely, a network of paved secondary highways rendered quaint by the massive twentieth century construction of interstates.”
Check Out Casey's Website
And herein lies the weirdness, novelty, and wise beauty of the backpacking adventure Clabough would later write about in his memoir, The Warrior’s Path, Reflections Along an Ancient Route. He was going to be, ah, in many places, road-hiking.
“Despite the comparative lack of traffic,” he elaborates, “such derelict roads do not lend themselves well to foot travel.”
What Clabough means is: while long-distance wilderness backpacking has become a popularized, folksy, and even patriotic endeavor, the sight of a tall, bearded, long-haired, and basically Viking looking fellow tromping along the shoulder of some cracked and obscure back-road tends to provoke certain criminal suspicions—a bum! a junky! a serial-murdering sociopath!
The feature article Eric J. Wallace has in mind will, through textual excerpts (Clabough has written over 30 Appalachian themed essays, as well as 13 books), and personal interviews (i.e. time spent hanging out on his backwoods, Appomattox, VA farm/homestead), tell the tale of the ideas, internal yearnings, and experiences that led to, shaped, and informed the pilgrimage, its memoir, and Clabough’s many subsequent outdoors/conservationist adventures.
The piece will be published in the award-winning southeast based magazine, Twisted South. As a smaller publication, Twisted South has a limited budget for a story of this magnitude. Their content is great and no-holds-barred which allows us full artistic freedom. So, to be able to cover the costs of delivering some high-quality, top-notch journalism--that's for such a worthy cause--I'm asking you for a small financial contribution. With your assistance myself (Eric J. Wallace), and my photographer, Anabel Amour, will have the funds necessary to ensure this story is given the proper treatment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twisted South
Thanks in advance for your time and support!
We truly appreciate you. Check out our Donor Rewards Shedule to see just how much. If you should want something different, feel free to contact me ([email redacted]) and I'll try my damnedest to accomodate your wishes.)
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Casey Clabough is the author of the novel Confederado, the travel memoir The Warrior's Path: Reflections Along an Ancient Route, the memoir SCHOOLED: Life Lessons of a Professor, a biography of legendary southern writer George Garrett, five scholarly books on southern and Appalachian literature, an edited collection of women's Civil War writing, and a creative writing textbook. Clabough serves as series editor of the multi-volume "Best Creative Nonfiction of the South," as editor of the literature section of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities' Encyclopedia Virginia, and as general editor of the literary journal James Dickey Review. His work has appeared in over a hundred anthologies and magazines, including Creative Nonfiction, the Sewanee Review, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. Clabough’s awards include the Bangladesh International Literary Award, an artist's fellowship from the Brazilian Government, and several U.S.-based fellowships. He lives on a farm in Appomattox County, Virginia and teaches at Lynchburg College.
Eric J. Wallace is a writer, journalist, teacher of Composition and Literature, and occasional spiritual provocateur living in Hampton, Virginia. Studying under the irascible and fiercely intelligent Ryan Boudinot, he earned a Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College. He believes in brave, daring, and, above all, ecstatic writing. He loathes all forms of oppression, including, foremost, ignorance and its abominable spawn: stupidity. His passions are the most intense known to man: Zen and Poetry.
Anabel Amour, of 621studios.com, thinks of her work as exploring extremes of emotion and imagination, at times dark, but always spirited. A solid heart beat for her vision is nostalgia. She is inspired by love and what it takes us to endure--the beauty and strength in enduring and in surviving. Aggressive and raw are adjectives commonly associated with her work. Her photos features simple color pallets, enabling the images to speak loudly for intent and emotion.
Twisted South:
Thanks to all of our readers, fans, artists and folks that have supported us from the start. We are again excited about the new path of Twisted South and our efforts to keep Southern culture intact so the next generation of Southern artists will not base their heritage on the perverted vision of the South currently being generated by mass media. Twisted South was born in a swamp, raised in Austin, educated in East Tennessee, lives in the Mississippi Delta and is New Orleans street-smart. That is our pedigree. That is our heritage. Our path is still true. We are so proud to have the chance to re-launch our brand. We never dummy-down our readers and assume their interests end at the Mason-Dixon Line. We welcome the weird, odd and eccentric. We embrace the culture that allows these individuals to exist and live peacefully among us. We are the Twisted South.
The path his 18th Century forebears traveled along had been dubbed, originally, by the Iroquois, Athowominee, or “The Warrior’s Path,” a trail formed by migrating game and the fierce, swarthy hunters that stalked them. In its entirety, the centuries old route spanned from New York State to the Cherokee country of what is now Tennessee and North Georgia, and was, in many ways, an early (albeit much more survival-oriented) precursor to the Appalachian Trail. (Clabough’s own meditative investigation led him to travel from Southern Maryland, through Virginia’s Shenandoah region, and into Tennessee.)
“Despite its historical importance as a great highway,” explains Clabough, “Athowominee is now, by and large, with the notable exceptions of certain congested stretches, a route obscure and lonely, a network of paved secondary highways rendered quaint by the massive twentieth century construction of interstates.”
Check Out Casey's Website
And herein lies the weirdness, novelty, and wise beauty of the backpacking adventure Clabough would later write about in his memoir, The Warrior’s Path, Reflections Along an Ancient Route. He was going to be, ah, in many places, road-hiking.
“Despite the comparative lack of traffic,” he elaborates, “such derelict roads do not lend themselves well to foot travel.”
What Clabough means is: while long-distance wilderness backpacking has become a popularized, folksy, and even patriotic endeavor, the sight of a tall, bearded, long-haired, and basically Viking looking fellow tromping along the shoulder of some cracked and obscure back-road tends to provoke certain criminal suspicions—a bum! a junky! a serial-murdering sociopath!
The feature article Eric J. Wallace has in mind will, through textual excerpts (Clabough has written over 30 Appalachian themed essays, as well as 13 books), and personal interviews (i.e. time spent hanging out on his backwoods, Appomattox, VA farm/homestead), tell the tale of the ideas, internal yearnings, and experiences that led to, shaped, and informed the pilgrimage, its memoir, and Clabough’s many subsequent outdoors/conservationist adventures.
The piece will be published in the award-winning southeast based magazine, Twisted South. As a smaller publication, Twisted South has a limited budget for a story of this magnitude. Their content is great and no-holds-barred which allows us full artistic freedom. So, to be able to cover the costs of delivering some high-quality, top-notch journalism--that's for such a worthy cause--I'm asking you for a small financial contribution. With your assistance myself (Eric J. Wallace), and my photographer, Anabel Amour, will have the funds necessary to ensure this story is given the proper treatment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twisted South
Thanks in advance for your time and support!
We truly appreciate you. Check out our Donor Rewards Shedule to see just how much. If you should want something different, feel free to contact me ([email redacted]) and I'll try my damnedest to accomodate your wishes.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Casey Clabough is the author of the novel Confederado, the travel memoir The Warrior's Path: Reflections Along an Ancient Route, the memoir SCHOOLED: Life Lessons of a Professor, a biography of legendary southern writer George Garrett, five scholarly books on southern and Appalachian literature, an edited collection of women's Civil War writing, and a creative writing textbook. Clabough serves as series editor of the multi-volume "Best Creative Nonfiction of the South," as editor of the literature section of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities' Encyclopedia Virginia, and as general editor of the literary journal James Dickey Review. His work has appeared in over a hundred anthologies and magazines, including Creative Nonfiction, the Sewanee Review, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. Clabough’s awards include the Bangladesh International Literary Award, an artist's fellowship from the Brazilian Government, and several U.S.-based fellowships. He lives on a farm in Appomattox County, Virginia and teaches at Lynchburg College.
Eric J. Wallace is a writer, journalist, teacher of Composition and Literature, and occasional spiritual provocateur living in Hampton, Virginia. Studying under the irascible and fiercely intelligent Ryan Boudinot, he earned a Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College. He believes in brave, daring, and, above all, ecstatic writing. He loathes all forms of oppression, including, foremost, ignorance and its abominable spawn: stupidity. His passions are the most intense known to man: Zen and Poetry.
Anabel Amour, of 621studios.com, thinks of her work as exploring extremes of emotion and imagination, at times dark, but always spirited. A solid heart beat for her vision is nostalgia. She is inspired by love and what it takes us to endure--the beauty and strength in enduring and in surviving. Aggressive and raw are adjectives commonly associated with her work. Her photos features simple color pallets, enabling the images to speak loudly for intent and emotion.
Twisted South:
Thanks to all of our readers, fans, artists and folks that have supported us from the start. We are again excited about the new path of Twisted South and our efforts to keep Southern culture intact so the next generation of Southern artists will not base their heritage on the perverted vision of the South currently being generated by mass media. Twisted South was born in a swamp, raised in Austin, educated in East Tennessee, lives in the Mississippi Delta and is New Orleans street-smart. That is our pedigree. That is our heritage. Our path is still true. We are so proud to have the chance to re-launch our brand. We never dummy-down our readers and assume their interests end at the Mason-Dixon Line. We welcome the weird, odd and eccentric. We embrace the culture that allows these individuals to exist and live peacefully among us. We are the Twisted South.
Organizer
Justin Wallace
Organizer
Lynchburg, VA
