As the political season kicks into hyperdrive, WVU Press is announcing the launch of Matthew Ferrence’s new book, “I Hate It Here, Please Vote For Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay.”
This memoir, threaded with cultural commentary, chronicles the (mis)adventures of a writer and college professor running for state office in the northern Appalachian community of Meadville, Pennsylvania.
While the book is imbued with Ferrence’s quick-witted charm, this does not belie the political gravitas of the work, which is a plea for politicians of both parties to acknowledge the complexity of rural voters and not settle for the easy tropes and pat answers.
Ferrence, a professor of creative writing at Allegheny College, ran an inspired campaign with a platform focused on the environment, education, health care, and poetry while always emphasizing the importance of storytelling.
He maintains this focus in “I Hate It Here” by highlighting the way stories told about rural America are a source for the bitter divide between Red America and Blue America.
He then delves further, describing the importance of teaching how to tell stories — specifically the need to teach disciplines such as poetry and writing, which provide space for people to dream and imagine new places and outcomes. Depriving people of these opportunities, Ferrence argues, influences who is allowed to dream and imagine and who is not. “We live the stories that we tell,” he said. “We desperately need new stories, which rural communities should be encouraged to write.”
The release of “I Hate It Here” was accompanied by high-profile opinion pieces in Newsweek and Yahoo! News, and the book was featured as the “Book Trailer of the Day” by industry news site Shelf Awareness.
Ferrence has also been interviewed by book blogger Deborah Kalb and will continue promoting his book with an appearance at the Shepherdstown Book Festival in mid-September.