On November 7, Tennessee author Jared Sullivan will visit Oxford to discuss his new book about one of the biggest environmental disasters in United States history.
Valley So Low: One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe tells the dramatic story of the 2008 Kingston coal ash spill and the ensuing legal battle between the disaster’s cleanup workers and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Valley so Low is a legal thriller set within an environmental and public health fiasco (think Erin Brockovich and Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action). For over 50 years, a power plant in the small town of Kingston, Tennessee burned 14 tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste 60 feet high and covering 84 acres, all contained only by an earthen embankment. In 2008, that embankment broke, unleashing a billion gallons of coal sludge that covered 300 acres, damaged nearly 30 homes, and led to a cleanup effort that would cost over $1 billion—and the lives of 50 cleanup workers who inhaled the toxins from the coal sludge. Hundreds more workers fell ill after exposure to the waste. The workers and their families turned to Jim Scott, a local personal-injury lawyer who agreed to represent them in legal battle against the colossal, federally owned power behemoth, the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Sullivan spent five years following Jim Scott, the workers, and their families, uncovering documents with damning implications for the TVA and federal government during his reporting. The resulting book is a propulsive courtroom drama about blue-collar workers taking on the C-suite; a self-described “hillbilly lawyer” going toe-to-toe with elite corporate defense attorneys; and strong evidence being measured against fat pocketbooks.
Jared Sullivan was previously an editor for Men’s Journal and Field & Stream. He has written for The New Yorker, Time, Garden & Gun, and USA Today, among other publications. He lives outside Nashville, Tennessee, with his family.
“Valley So Low is more than a tale of unrepentant corporate evil and incomprehensible environmental destruction. It’s more, even, than a spellbinding courtroom drama. This brilliant, necessary book is a testament to the power of perseverance and a blueprint for challenging industry’s shrugged-off human costs. Valley So Low is a ballad, yes, but it’s also an anthem. And a triumph.” —Margaret Renkl, author of The Comfort of Crows
“Jared Sullivan’s Valley So Low is a gripping legal thriller documenting the power and greed behind this appalling and deadly environmental disaster. Not since Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action has a book so compellingly documented one man’s Herculean efforts to force accountability through the courts.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove
“Jared Sullivan brings to mind a young William Langewiesche in his skill at following human stories through the dense fact-field of long, careful reporting on major events.” —John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead
“An unassuming book that proves it is easier to imagine the death of capitalism than it is to imagine the death of our better angels. This is the book we should be reading, the book we should all be trying to write. Valley So Low is a masterpiece.” —Nico Walker, author of Cherry
Join Thacker Mountain Radio for a true story of justice-pursued following a power plant catastrophe in Tennessee, a ‘real-deal’ bluesman John Primer, and original jazz/soul by Teneia. Admission is FREE.
Doors: 5:30 pm – Refreshments
Show: 6 pm
The Powerhouse is located 413 S 14th Street (Phone: 662-236-6429)
