Author of UA Press's 'Hipbillies' to Speak at Fayetteville Roots Festival

Photo Submitted

Jared Phillips, author of Hipbillies

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Jared M. Phillips, author of Hipbillies: Deep Revolution in the Arkansas Ozarks ($27.95, paper), will be part of a panel discussion and book signing in a featured event of the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

The panel discussion will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25, at the Fayetteville Public Library.

The discussion, titled “I Was Cornbread When Cornbread Wasn't Cool: Nouveau 'Zarks and How Hipbillies Revolutionized the Ozarks,” will also include Crescent Dragonwagon and Guy Ames and will be hosted by KUAF's Jacqueline Froelich.

The event is  free and open to the public.

Hipbillies documents how back-to-the-landers created their own haven off the beaten path in the Arkansas Ozarks in the 1970s. The book combines oral histories and archival resources to weave the story of the Ozarks and its population of country beatniks into the national narrative, showing how the new arrivals engaged in “deep revolution” by sharing their ideas on rural development, small farm economy, and education with the locals — and how they became a fascinating part of a traditional region’s coming to terms with the modern world in the process.

Phillips is assistant professor of international studies at the University of Arkansas. He lives and works on a small farm outside of Prairie Grove. Dragonwagon, who wrote the forward for Hipbillies, is the author of more than 50 published books and a winner of the James Beard Award and Coretta Scott King Award. She has lived as a “hipbilly” and is a co-founder of Dairy Hollow House, now the non-profit Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow. Guy King Ames operates Ames Orchard and Nursery and has sought alternative lifestyles in harmony with nature in Northwest Arkansas.

About the University of Arkansas Press: The University of Arkansas Press advances the mission of the University of Arkansas by publishing peer-reviewed scholarship and literature of enduring value. The Press publishes books by authors of diverse backgrounds writing for specialty as well as general audiences in Arkansas and throughout the world.

About the Fayetteville Roots Festival: Fayetteville Roots Festival is a multi-day, intimate, urban music and food festival taking place Aug. 21-25 in Northwest Arkansas. The festival features multiple music stages and culinary events. The festival features nationally known musicians and bands paired with undiscovered regional and local talent. The Roots Festival is a showcase of many of the elements that make the Fayetteville community and Northwest Arkansas region a beloved cultural hot spot.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2.7 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.