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Who Are You?
Hello there! I’m Kendra Winchester, a disabled Appalachian living in the South Carolina Upstate. I write and podcast about all things books, audiobook, and disability.
I’m a Contributing Editor for Book Riot where I edit True Story, their nonfiction newsletter, and co-host their mystery thriller podcast, Read or Dead. I review audiobooks for AudioFile Magazine and appear as a regular contributor for their podcast Behind the Mic.
From 2016 to the end of 2021, I served the Co-founder/Executive Director of Reading Women, a podcast with Lit Hub Radio which featured books by or about women. My most recent passion project is Read Appalachia, a bookish multimedia platform that celebrates Appalachian Literature & Writing, which received the 2023 e-Appalachian Award from the Appalachian Studies Association.
What is this newsletter about?
That is the million dollar question, isn’t it? Part of this newsletter is about living life as a disabled millennial trying to recover from severe burnout. I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen next, but I’m learning to sit with the quiet. Thank you for keeping me company while I figure things out.
The rest is just . . . life. The videos I make, the articles I write, the food I cook—whatever I happen to be doing at the time. And like any content creator/consumer worth her salt, I’ll make sure to include plenty of interesting links.
Where did the name come from?
Truth is stranger than fiction.
I grew up on Winchester Ave, a short street in Sciotoville, Ohio, a small town that sits nestled into Appalachian mountains right on the banks of the Ohio River. My family went fishing at the Greenup Dam, and every summer I went white water rafting on the New River over in West Virginia. My life overflowed with everything outdoors and small towns.
Years later, I married into the Winchester family, a group of Northern Californians used to wandering the streets of San Francisco and buying their wood from the grocery store. They showed me place that couldn’t be more different than how’d I’d grown up, but I loved it anyway.
Winchester Ave is a tribute to both parts of my family.
Will there be Corgi content?
Do you really need to ask? :)
