More grit from Gipe

Robert Gipe's art forms—illustrated fiction and musical stage productions—are informed not only by the Appalachia he knows, but also from the reality of how the regional community is shaped by and navigates injustice.

His award-winning illustrated novel Trampoline was published in 2015 by the Ohio University Press and has since been hailed as a landmark event in Appalachian literature. The book is a pointed and compassionate depiction of life in eastern Kentucky, written in dialect that is as true as its characters. Its scrappy and unapologetic heroine and narrator, 15-year-old Dawn Jewell, emerges from the pages as one who learns to listen to her instincts, no matter the costs.

Now, Gipe is back with the sequel, Weedeater. In Trampoline, Dawn learns how to rise up against wrongdoing from her beloved Mamaw, a champion against mountaintop removal mining, much to the irritation of her community. In Weedeater, set six years later, the looming danger is the opioid epidemic, which has Dawn’s mother in its grip. Dawn, meanwhile, now has 4-year-old Nicolette, who has inherited her mother’s and great-grandmother’s spirit.

For years, Gipe has produced the Higher Ground community performance project in Harlan County, where participants create theater pieces based on personal histories. These influences stand out in his books, where characters process their own stories by addressing readers through Gipe’s ear for authenticity and his simple but unforgettable drawings.

Gipe let Dawn speak in response to an interview question about this issue’s theme, “grit.”

“I hear you’re asking around whether or not I have grit. My grit is none of your business.” Luckily, Gipe intervened with an answer.

“Dawn Jewell is eat up with grit,” he said. So is he.