In 2020, Matthew Ferrence ran for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, in a deeply-red district, and lost quite badly. In his new book, I Hate It Here, Please Vote For Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay, Ferrence chronicles that thumping to explore how American political narratives refuse to recognize the existence and value of nonconservative rural Americans, and how losing offers insight into the political morass of our nation. That’s no surprise. But the story of how Ferrence loses and, more importantly, how American political narratives refuse to recognize the existence and value of nonconservative rural Americans offers insight into the political morass of our nation.
In essays focused on showing goats at the county fair, planting native grasses in the front lawn, the political power of poetry, and getting wiped out in an election, Ferrence offers a counter-narrative to stereotypes of monolithic rural American voters and emphasizes the way stories told about rural America are a source for the bitter divide between Red America and Blue America.
Ferrence is the author of two other books which, together, form a trilogy (of sorts) about rural American politics. Appalachia North: a memoir explores exiles of self and region, precipitated by the curious cultural position of being from Northern Appalachia and by the difficult personal reckoning that comes in the aftermath of the diagnosis and treatment of a brain tumor. All-American Redneck traces the literary origins and political implications of the American “redneck” figure.
Ferrence’s essays have appeared in literary magazines across North America, including The Fiddlehead, Gettysburg Review, and Best American Travel Writing 2018. He teaches writing and literature at Allegheny College, at the confluence of Appalachia and the Rust Belt.
Matthew Ferrence 