Working Class Love Notes #16: The "Redneck" Pre-Order Package Has Arrived
Pre-Order 'Song For a Hard-Hit People' and get your very own red bandana
Hi friends!
I hope wherever you are that you’re cozy, cared for, and heading into a holiday season that is whatever you need it to be. Whether you have your home decked out with trees, lights, and reindeer or you’re hiding away counting the days until it’s over, or somewhere in between, I hope you feel love, safety, and warmth. We all deserve that.
As for me, I’m in a celebratory mood this year because my book Song For a Hard-Hit People: A Memoir of Antiracist Solidarity From a Coal Miner’s Daughter has her own “redneck” red bandana right in time for the holidays.
The “Redneck” Red Bandana Pre-Order Package is Here!
This pre-order package is a collaboration between Haymarket Books, The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), and CoffeeTree Books because we believe in the power of publishing, preserving, and promoting working-class people’s stories. Along with an author-signed book, each pre-order package will include SURJ stickers and a book-themed screen-printed red bandana designed by Emily Robinson at Black Gum Printshop - a symbol of Appalachian working-class solidarity (see the gorgeous bandana above).
CoffeeTree Books will ship all of these items to arrive at your door on book release day April 21st 2026.
A West Virginia Mine Wars Museum Membership, too.
I am a proud card-carrying member so we are also offering an opt-in discounted $15 annual membership to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum which gives members free admission and access to museum events, a subscription to the biannual museum journal In These Hills, and a one-of-a-kind West Virginia Mine Wars Museum membership card. With your support, the museum can continue to connect the legacy and impact of people organizing and risking their lives for their human rights, civil liberties, and labor justice in Appalachia to the movements and struggles of all people, past and present. You can opt into membership when you pre-order through CoffeeTree Books.
I am so grateful for this collaboration because I think it exemplifies a key theme of the book: collectivity. Song For a Hard-Hit People is my story, but I didn’t do this on my own. It takes publishers like Haymarket Books and organizations like SURJ investing in working class people’s movements and stories. It takes movement historians and cultural keepers like the good folks at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum who keep our history alive and spark new movements. It takes artists like Emily Robinson at Black Gum Printshop creating beautiful art that inspires and reflects our dignity. And, it takes small-town independent booksellers like Grant Alden and Susan Thomas at CoffeeTree Books where rural people can gather, read stories, and explore big ideas that change lives.
I’m grateful to have these folks and organizations by my side and I’m hopeful that you pre-order my book, get involved, and support them, too. We’re all stronger together.
My friends, it’s been a big year with so many ups and downs, but knowing we’re in this together keeps me going. Thank you for reading, subscribing, organizing, reaching out, fighting back, and for being in it with with me.
In revolutionary love, from my heart to yours, Happy Holidays.
Love, Beth
This sounds like something I need to read.