Abandoned

What do places keep after we're gone?

Abandoned: Cumberland Mountains Authors' Guild is an anthology of original fiction and lyrical prose from the writers of Alice Lloyd College, current students and alumni, crafted under the guidance of Guild founders Kala Thornsbury and Alex Hall. United by the theme of "abandoned places," these pieces range from intimate hauntings to cosmic ruin, each asking what remains when people, purpose, or hope have slipped away.

Crossing counties, continents, and even star fields, the collection moves from a Kentucky cemetery that hums with a child's song, to San Francisco's poisoned shipyard, to Venice's forbidden plague island. It lingers in a rust-choked Appalachian salvage yard, freezes time in an 1874 coal camp, and drifts with derelict vessels one on black water, another between galaxies. Whether grounded in folk memory or venturing into speculative dread, every story offers a distinct voice and a different answer to the same, unsettled question: when a place is left behind, does it learn to live without us or does it learn to live on us?

For readers of Appalachian Gothic, folk horror, and liminal-space fiction, Abandoned delivers atmosphere in spades: quiet chills, aching beauty, and the shock of recognition when a ruined room suddenly feels like home. Step through the gate. Walk the road fewer people travel. Listen for what still remains and what is waiting to be found.