Everyone sat with excitement in the Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center on Thursday, Sept. 7. As people continued to file in the few minutes leading up to the start of the event, many struggled to find a seat in the already crowded room. Some had to stand, anxious for the event to begin.
Thursday kicked off the start of the Single Voice Reading Series for the 2024-25 school year. Typically, the event invites four to six writers per year to campus to allow Allegheny students the chance to interact with a variety of authors.
The first reader in this year’s series was Matthew Ferrence, an associate professor of English at Allegheny. The event was moderated by Center for Political Participation Fellow Anna Westbrook, ’26, who also serves as news editor for The Campus.
Ferrence read an excerpt from his book, “I Hate it Here, Please Vote for Me.” The book follows Ferrence’s journey of running for the House of Representatives in 2020, an election he lost, and discusses the state of politics in rural Appalachia.
The book is the third that Ferrence has published, alongside his previous books, “All-American Redneck” and “Appalachian North.”
Ferrence expressed his excitement of getting to speak at the reading.
“It’s a joy and a pleasure to spend time together thinking about the beauty of words and the context of this book in the moment of now when politics are happening, to think about the power of the poetic and the narrative as politically active,” Ferrence said. “I love it. It’s fun to be among friends.”
Ferrence started the night by having the crowd take a vote on the chapter he would read, and by popular vote he chose to read about one summer of his childhood when his family entered their goats into a competition at the county fair.
The story — which was about how Ferrence’s sister beat dairy goat farmers at the fair with her pygmy goat — was used to help readers understand politics.
Ferrence used the story of his sister and the bigger name dairy goat farmers to highlight how politicians often ignore rural areas. This served as one of the rallying points of Ferrence’s run, along with more personal reasons.
“The run was motivated by our current and continued state rep saying that he didn’t think that the state of Pennsylvania should give financial aid to students who study poetry or other ‘pre-Walmart majors,’” Ferrence said of his 2020 run for office. “The motivation of the run was being personally insulted as a creative writing professor, but then thinking about that and what it means for a politics that refuses poetry as a way of being in the world.”
The crowd listened with rapt attention as Ferrence read. The event maintained a light atmosphere despite the serious topics, with Ferrence using his humor and poetic phrasing to engage his audience of students and faculty.
“It went well,” Estrella Collins, ’27, said of the event. “There was a lot of engagement, which was nice.”
Some students related to the topics discussed, helping them connect to the reading.
“I like how he connected politics to a personal story,” said Xander Malin, ’26.
Malin went on to explain that as a person who owns animals, the story of the county fair was a good choice to connect to politics.
Ferrence hoped students would gain a new perspective after the reading.
“One of the cultural narratives that is hitting students all the time now is that you are one thing: a being who needs to get a job,” Ferrence said. “The message that I want to send is that even in something that is so transactional like politics, there is immense value and potential for change in doing creative work, in writing poems, in making art, in crafting stories.”
Ferrence described what he learned during his political journey. He discussed how he was not surprised that he lost the election, as he was running as a Democrat in a Republican area.
“But the thing that was a surprise is that the Democratic Party also doesn’t invest in rural America,” Ferrence said. “They see it as a losing space, so they’re not invested strategically.”
He also discussed how his book is gaining attention, and how some people have mentioned to him that it has changed their thoughts on politics in rural areas.
Finishing the night with a question and answer period, Ferrence had the opportunity to answer student questions about his book and experiences. He discussed the emotional journey of running for office, the state of political parties in America and the chickens he raised alongside his goats.
“We live in the stories we tell, and the stories they tell about us,” Ferrence said during the Q-and-A. He was optimistic that negative stereotypes surrounding Appalachia will one day disappear, creating a more hopeful future for the area.
“I hope that this can offer a tonic against that limitation,” Ferrence said. “And make people realize that rural America is worth investing in, socially and economically.”