Author(s): Zhi Wei Bao

Abstract: Southern Appalachia has experienced a severe ecological crisis as a result of long-term deforestation and resource extraction, and it offers a clear example of the “resource curse” in the history of Western modernity. Against this background, Appalachian environmental crisis fiction develops a distinctive way of writing about trees that reveals the interweaving of capitalist violence, ecological trauma, and the ethical problems of the Anthropocene. Focusing on Ron Rash’s Serena and Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, this essay uses close reading to examine the multiple meanings attached to trees in these works and to show the warning force and ethical value of Appalachian environmental crisis fiction in an Anthropocene context.

Keywords: Appalachia, environmental crisis fiction, tree writing, Serena, Flight Behavior

Article Info: Received: 23 Feb 2026; Received in revised form: 21 Mar 2026; Accepted: 27 Mar 2026; Available online: 02 Apr 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.45