In the coal town of Justice, many people rely on the coal industry for jobs and food for their tables, but their corporate supervisors rarely have their best interests at heart.
For Arlie, a young, idealistic, recent graduate and budding journalist, Justice is home. Her homecoming is marred by the horrific death of a close friend and worry about the environmental disasters coal mining has brought upon the town.
Author Vicky Hayes worked at a small-town newspaper in Paintsville, Kentucky, covering labor and culture. Hayes used real-life experience, events, and research as the basis for Leaving Justice. Her environmental passion has created a stirring indictment of the many unsustainable and inhumane practices prevalent in the coal industry.
She has studied the history of the United Mine Workers' in Eastern Kentucky and used the events of the strike as a foundation for Leaving Justice. Readers will gain a new appreciation for Appalachian culture and unsettling knowledge about the environmental and economic impact of the coal industry.
About the Author: Vicky Hayes was born in Paintsville, Kentucky, and spent her childhood in the heart of coal country.
She started writing songs, poetry, and fiction when she was eleven. The bookmobile gave her the first taste of great literature. Hayes has been published in Mountain Life and Work, A Gathering at the Forks, Appalachian Journal, and Appalachian Heritage.
Hayes received her master's degree in Appalachian Studies with a focus on literature at Appalachian State University. She has spent decades studying the region and witnessing its challenges. Hayes researched the United Mine Workers' strike and, like the protagonist of Leaving Justice, worked at a small-town newspaper. She teaches writing and Appalachian Culture at Berea College.
Hayes now lives with her husband on a farm outside Berea, Kentucky. She and her husband direct an art nonprofit, Bobtown Arts.
