Luke Lyman Barner is a doctoral candidate in literary and cultural studies at West Virginia University. He studies 20th century and contemporary literature and media with an emphasis on Appalachia and the social and cultural impacts of the coal industry on the region. He strongly recommends watching Harlan County USA and Matewan, reading Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake and Affrilachia by Frank X Walker, and playing Scarlet Hollow.