2009 gave us more releases of books, films, plays and music about mountaintop removal.

The book Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop Removal Mining was officially released on Dec. 1, 2009. The book features the work of such prominent contributors as Ashley Judd, Wendell Berry, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as well as OVEC members and supporters.

The book is a companion volume to the Coal Country documentary. The other part of the package is the CD Coal Country Music, which includes performances by Willie Nelson, Ralph Stanley, Natalie Merchant and John Prine. Sales of the CD benefit the Alliance for Appalachia, of which OVEC is a member.

Remember another music CD that benefits groups working to end mountaintop removal Aurora Lights Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home. Go to www.auroralights.org/journey/ to learn more.

A member of the group Heartwood, which is in the Alliance for Appalachia too, says that another new book, Treespiker, by Mike Roselle is "excellently written, succinct and interesting, recommended highly."

Look for more in 2010, which opened with Dragline, a collection of striking photographs by photojournalist Antrim Caskey, and Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland by award-winning journalist and cultural historian Jeff Biggers.

Another book hot off the presses is The Southern West Virginia Photovoice Project.

The book chronicles the efforts of 40 women, living in five different areas of Southern West Virginia, who participated in an eight-month "Photovoice" project, which was facilitated by Shannon Belle.

The womens "photostories" (photographs with written narratives) depict life in their region. Our Sludge Safety Project worked closely with the Photovoice Project. See www.wvphotovoice.org/ to get your copy.

Producer David Novack, who made the film Burning the Future, which features OVECs Maria Gunnoe, is working on a new documentary, Climate Chess. He says this will be an "intense year following the human stories behind the carbon story."

Just Google the titles of any of these releases to find out more or to order your own copies, or contact the OVEC office at (304) 522-0246.