High Country Humanities

International Education Week (IEW) at Appalachian State University is a celebration of the global engagement that happens throughout the year through our clubs, courses and conversations. Students, staff, faculty, and community members are encouraged to participate in programming throughout the week. IEW on the national level is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education and part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.

Maria Dahvana Headley is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and editor. Her novels include Magonia, Aerie and Queen of Kings, and she has also written a memoir, The Year of Yes. With Kat Howard, she is the author of The End of the Sentence, and with Neil Gaiman, she is co-editor of Unnatural Creatures. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and by Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where the first draft of The Mere Wife was written.

Shot almost entirely in black and white, the film follows two journeys made thirty years apart by the indigenous shaman Karamakate in the Colombian Amazonian jungle, one with Theo, a German ethnographer, and the other with Evan, an American botanist, both of whom are searching for the rare plant yakruna. It was inspired by the travel diaries of Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes, and dedicated to lost Amazonian cultures.

Maria Dahvana Headley is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and editor. Her novels include Magonia, Aerie and Queen of Kings, and she has also written a memoir, The Year of Yes. With Kat Howard, she is the author of The End of the Sentence, and with Neil Gaiman, she is co-editor of Unnatural Creatures. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and by Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where the first draft of The Mere Wife was written.

Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her books include How To Be Happy, You and a Bike and a Road, Why Art? and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her latest graphic novel, The Hard Tomorrow, won the LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels and Comics. She lives in Athens, Georgia.

Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her books include How To Be Happy, You and a Bike and a Road, Why Art? and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her latest graphic novel, The Hard Tomorrow, won the LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels and Comics. She lives in Athens, Georgia.

Juliet Escoria is the author of You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud (CLASH Books, 2023) and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019). She lives in West Virginia. Scott McClanahan is an author and filmmaker based in Beckley, West Virginia. He’s written eight books including Crapalachia, Hill William and the Sarah Book. He’s a co-founder of Holler Presents, a production company and small press.

Juliet Escoria is the author of You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud (CLASH Books, 2023) and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019). She lives in West Virginia. Scott McClanahan is an author and filmmaker based in Beckley, West Virginia. He’s written eight books including Crapalachia, Hill William and the Sarah Book. He’s a co-founder of Holler Presents, a production company and small press.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press), which received the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Anna Rabinowitz prize for interdisciplinary work and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. They are also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press), which received the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Anna Rabinowitz prize for interdisciplinary work and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. They are also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.