Union Ave Books and Positively Living welcome medical anthropologist Lesly-Marie Buer to discuss her new book RX APPALACHIA: Stories of Treatment and Survival in Rural Kentucky. Lesly-Marie will be joined by Elizabeth Catte author of WHAT YOU ARE GETTING WRONG ABOUT APPALACHIA. This free virtual event takes place on May 21st @ 6pm on Zoom, please send an RSVP to RSVP@unionavebooks.com to attend. Please include the the title of the book RX APPALACHIA in the subject line. We will send the zoom link the day of the event.
About the Book
Using the narratives of women who use(d) drugs, this account challenges popular understandings of Appalachia spread by such pundits as JD Vance by documenting how women, families, and communities cope with generational systems of oppression. Prescription opioids are associated with rising rates of overdose deaths and hepatitis C and HIV infection in the US, including in rural Central Appalachia. Yet there is a dearth of studies examining rural opioid use. RX Appalachia explores the gendered inequalities that situate women's encounters with substance abuse treatment as well as additional state interventions targeted at women who use drugs in one of the most impoverished regions in the US.
About the Author (s)
Lesly-Marie Buer, an expert in the field of harm reduction and medical anthropology, holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and a graduate certificate in gender and women’s studies from the University of Kentucky and master’s degrees in anthropology and public health from the University of Colorado. A Knoxville native, Buer is passionate about the region and is donating 100% of the book’s proceeds to the Hellbender Fund, which supports harm reduction efforts in Appalachia.
In her capacity as research director at Choice Health Network, Buer ensures Positively Living offers practical strategies and access to quality treatment methods that meet the individualized needs of clients. Her work at Choice Health Network spans a variety of services, all rooted in providing nonjudgmental care to East Tennessee’s most vulnerable populations.
To learn more about how Positively Living provides compassionate care to empower, promote and inspire wellness, visit https://choicehealthnetwork.org/positively-living/.
Elizabeth Catte is a writer and historian from East Tennessee. She is the author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia and the forthcoming Pure America (Belt, February 2021). She writes about history, politics, and culture and her work has appeared in the Guardian, Washington Post, Guernica, The Nation, McSweeney’s, In These Times, Boston Review, Gravy, and is reviewed in the New York Times, Bookforum, New York Review of Books, and the Lost Angeles Times. She's currently an editor-at-large for West Virginia University Press and the co-founder of Passel, an applied history firm. She has a PhD in public history from Middle Tennessee State University.
