Yes, the editor of this book on the opioid epidemic is a professor of musicology at West Virginia University who has written several books on country, bluegrass, and old-time music. So, what’s going on? In one sentence this book is about how users, recovered users, counselors and activists have marshalled their creativity to respond to the crisis. For example, “Turning the Blood of Appalachia’s Opioid Epidemic into Ink” is one of the essays here that examines the literary output of addiction. And two essays look at rap and hip hop’s response. “A wholly unique and timely approach to understanding the ways that opioids have become entangled with the lives of users and of US culture at large, and a needed complement to public health, sociological, and criminological approaches to this particular problem.”-- Travis Linnemann.
Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020. 289 pages with an Index and photos. Several essays have their own notes. Trade paperback