Belonging: A Culture of Place

Hooks explores what it means to claim the identity of a Kentucky writer, reflecting on the tension between her rural roots and the academic and literary worlds she later entered. She describes how leaving Kentucky meant entering spaces that viewed her “backwoods sensibility” with suspicion or condescension. Her honesty, spiritual grounding, and vernacular—shaped by rural life—were often interpreted as signs of ignorance or lack of sophistication. Nevertheless, these early influences remained central to her worldview and continue to inform her ethics, writing, and spiritual practices.

Hooks describes how, in intellectual spaces, she learned to suppress the ways of thinking and speaking she had inherited from her upbringing. Returning to Kentucky and embracing her regional voice allowed her to reconnect with the values and language of her childhood and to write from a place of greater authenticity.

A significant portion of the chapter is devoted to hook’s reflections on the work of Wendell Berry, whom she admires for his environmental ethics and his commitment to place. She praises Berry for his thoughtful and sustained attention to Kentucky land and culture; however, she also critiques the racial limitations of his work.

Hooks embraces the values of honesty, integrity, and spiritual independence passed down through her community and family.