Dr. Ron Roach
JOHNSON CITY – The East Tennessee State University Appalachian Studies program is set to launch an online magazine later this spring. Appalachian Places will continue the program’s long literary tradition of highlighting the people, places, issues and themes relating to the Appalachian region.
The new magazine will help continue that tradition by following the example of its print-version forerunner, Now & Then magazine, which, with the exception of a two-year hiatus in the early 2000s, ran from 1984 until it ceased publication in 2017.
“For nearly 30 years, the ETSU Appalachian Studies program published a high-quality print magazine devoted to our region,” said Dr. Ron Roach, chair of Appalachian Studies and director of the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services. “After much planning and preparation, I am so pleased that we are preparing to launch a new, digital publication that will continue this part of our mission.”
Roach said that the digital format will allow Appalachian Places to reach a broader audience with a wider range of content examining many different aspects of the Appalachian region. This new format will also allow editors to post fresh content for readers more frequently than the print publication, as well as enable the creation of more multimedia content.
Coming up with a new name for the online magazine was one of the first items of business.
“The name Now and Then served us really well for 30 years, but we felt like it was time for a change and a name that would perhaps not only signal a new era in the magazine’s history as we relaunched it, but also something that would be more forward-looking,” Roach said. “We solicited suggestions from students, faculty, staff, our department and administrators, and we landed on Appalachian Places.
“Sense of place is so important in Appalachia and Appalachian studies. The people of Appalachia historically have had that strong tie to the land and to the mountains. It’s the defining characteristic of where we live. It’s a special place.”
Roach said the new title does not necessarily limit editors and contributors to physical places within Appalachia.
“In addition to highlighting the unique people and places of Appalachia, the new magazine will be a platform for presenting similar issues and themes experienced among other highland regions around the world,” Roach said.
Former readers of Now & Then magazine will be pleased to find many familiar voices among contributors to Appalachian Places, Roach said. The new format will enable wider accessibility to the same types of feature articles, poetry, book and music reviews, and photography that former readers of the print product enjoyed.
“One of the newer aspects that we’re excited about implementing with the new magazine is more student involvement,” Roach said. “The digital platform will make it much easier for us to involve the young scholars from our Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies program, as well as our fast-growing graduate program in Appalachian Studies.”
In addition, the Archives of Appalachia and the Reece Museum from the Center of Excellence in Appalachian Studies and Services are interested in providing material from their collections for the publication.
Newspaper journalist and ETSU alumnus Mark Rutledge has been named managing editor for Appalachian Places. He will serve in the part-time position in addition to his full-time job in the Office of Marketing and Communications at Walters State Community College in Morristown.
Rutledge’s weekly human interest column has been published in the Johnson City Press and several other newspapers since 1996. The Gray resident earned degrees in journalism and sociology at ETSU, and is an alumnus of the university’s Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies program. The former editorial page editor at The Daily Reflector in Greenville, North Carolina, left a long career in newspapers in 2015.
“I am very proud to be a part of the new Appalachian Places online magazine,” Rutledge said. “I have admired its former print presence as Now & Then magazine since its beginnings when I was an undergraduate at ETSU.
“Knowing well the magazine’s history of excellence under former editors like Fred Sauceman, and most recently Randy Sanders, I consider it a great honor and an awesome responsibility to have this opportunity.”
Rutledge said that former contributors to Now & Then magazine — as well as potential new voices — are encouraged to submit works to Appalachian Places before and after its launch later this spring. The magazine plans to issue a call for submissions very soon.
In addition to Rutledge, Charlie Warden will serve as photo editor. Warden is the lead photographer in Video and Photographic Services in the ETSU Office of University Relations.
Updates concerning the launch will be posted on theETSU News siteand the Department of Appalachian Studieswebsite. Questions about the magazine may be directed toappalachianplaces@etsu.edu.
