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Does humanity have enough reverence for life to cope with the atom? Poet Awiakta poses this question in Abiding Appalachia, which was first published in 1978, shortly before the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. Subsequent nuclear issues have continued to make her question one that is asked by concerned people everywhere. Fusing her Cherokee-Appalachian heritage with the experience of growing up on the atomic frontier in Oak Ridge, Awiakta "unites seemingly opposing worlds: the ancient and the contemporary, the past and the future, the sacred and the scientific. It is a spiritual union, the reconciling of opposites, to which her poetry gives full expression." --Parks Lanier, Jr.

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Poet Marilou Awiakta fuses her Cherokee-Appalachian heritage with the experience of growing up on the atomic frontier in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to explore humanity's reverence for life.

An internationally respected poet from Appalachia, Awiakta writes under her middle name. She was born in Knoxville, Tenn., and moved with her parents to Oak Ridge in 1945. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, she has received awards: Distinguished Tennessee Writer, Educational Service to Appalachia, and the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award. She is profiled in the 1994 Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States.