About the Book
Tenth anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Darnell Arnoult, Sandra L. Ballard, Marianne Worthington, and Gillian Berchowitz and a new afterword by Beth Macy
First published in 2015, Trampoline introduced readers to Dawn Jewell, a fierce, funny, and unforgettable fifteen year old navigating the complexities of family, activism, and identity in eastern Kentucky. With a voice as raw and real as the Appalachian landscape she inhabits, Dawn becomes an unlikely fighter in her grandmother’s crusade against mountaintop removal mining-while wrestling with her own need for escape and self-discovery.
This tenth anniversary edition celebrates the enduring power of Robert Gipe’s illustrated debut novel, the first in the acclaimed Canard County Trilogy, rounded out by his later novels Weedeater (2018) and Pop (2021). Gipe’s storytelling-rooted in oral tradition and punctuated by his signature hand-drawn illustrations-captures the grit, humor, and heart of a region too often misunderstood. His portrayal of Appalachia is both unflinching and deeply loving.
The new edition features an afterword by bestselling author Beth Macy (Dopesick, Raising Lazarus). It also includes an collective introduction by Darnell Arnoult, Sandra L. Ballard, Marianne Worthington, and Gillian Berchowitz, offering insight into the novel’s place in Appalachian literature and its influence on a generation of readers and writers.
Limited to 1,000 copies, this commemorative edition is a tribute to a beloved book and its visionary author. Whether you're discovering Dawn Jewell for the first time or returning to Canard County, Trampoline remains a vital, vibrant portrait of a young woman-and a region-fighting to be heard.
About the Author :
Robert Gipe is the author of the award-winning Canard County Trilogy – Trampoline, Weedeater, and Pop – published by Ohio University Press. His debut novel, Trampoline, received the Weatherford Award for outstanding Appalachian novel, and the trilogy was honored with the Judy Gaines Young Book Award. Gipe's illustrated storytelling and unforgettable characters have made him a leading voice in Appalachian literature. He is the founding producer of the Higher Ground community performance series and his creative work extends to film and television, including contributions to Hulu's Dopesick and the feature film The Evening Hour. Gipe grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, and lives in Harlan County, Kentucky, where his writing continues to celebrate the complexity, humor, and resilience of Appalachian life.
Review :
Trampoline, Weedeater, and Pop collectively address with wit and complexity the trials of white working-class life in Appalachia: the struggles with addiction, but also the corporate exploitation of the region and its inhabitants; the violence but also the beauty. (Margaret Renkl, The New York Times) I fear this book. I’m in love with this book. I’m laughing out loud at this book. I am knocked to my knees in grief by this book. One of the most powerful works of contemporary fiction I’ve read in years. I’ll never forget Dawn Jewell. I’ll never escape Canard County. (Ann Pancake, author of Strange as This Weather Has Been and Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley) Dawn Jewell is one of the most memorable and endearing narrators I have ever read. She's like a combination of Scout Finch, Huck Finn, Holden Caulfield, and True Grit's Mattie Ross, but even more she is completely her own person, the creation of Robert Gipe, an author who has given us a novel that provides everything we need in great fiction: a sense of place that drips with kudzu and coal dust; complex characters who rise up off the page as living, breathing people we will not soon forget; and a rollicking story that is by turns hilarious, profound, deeply moving, and always lyrically beautiful. I think Trampoline is one of the most important novels to come out of Appalachia in a long while and announces an important new voice in our literature. I loved every single bit of this book. (Silas House, author of All These Ghosts and Clay's Quilt) Canard County is a fictional county in Eastern Kentucky. It's rural, poor, and white. Coal mining, unemployment, drug addiction, and religious fervor dominate the landscape and the culture. It is, in other words, straight-up Appalachia. But as Trampoline embraces its Appalachian-ness, it also questions commonly held notions of what it means to be Appalachian. Its combination of prose narrative and quirky illustrations delivers a unique storytelling form, and the insightful, hilarious, and honest protagonist Dawn Jewell makes Trampoline unforgettable. (Carter Sickels, author of The Prettiest Star) A story that left my heart at once warmed and shattered, Trampoline rides the razor’s edge of raw beauty. This is Appalachia illuminated with a light uniquely its own. I dare say Robert Gipe has invented his own genre. (David Joy, author of Where All Light Tends to Go) Rare is the novel that delivers on all that is promised by fans or by the carefully curated blurbs featured on its cover. But, in my mind, Trampoline fulfills these promises, portraying Appalachia in a manner that falls prey neither to the demeaning stereotypes nor the romanticized clichés that are commonly associated with the region and its literature. (Zackary Vernon, Cold Mountain Review) Trampoline is a moving account of working-class Kentucky mountain people who live in an environment dominated by mountaintop removal coal mining. Trampoline is also the most innovative American fiction to appear in years. The story, the characters and the writing style are startlingly new, as in: original. Trampoline adds a fresh consciousness to the enduring conversation about the Appalachian region. Pathos and humor are present in about equal measure. (Gurney Norman, author of Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks) Robert Gipe has the most original voice to emerge on the literary landscape since Lewis Nordan. Dawn Jewell is a delicious heroine, whether she’s shouldering her way through a community conflict or a family scrimmage. Geographically anchored, yet universally relevant, Trampoline is funny, serious, dark, radiant, and amazingly honest, filled with rich characters and a culture wracked with contradiction and heartbreak, but also strength and resilience. An excellent debut from a gifted and insightful writer. (Darnell Arnoult, author of Sufficient Grace) There are the books you like, and the books you love, and then there are the ones you want to hold to your heart for a minute after you turn the last page. Robert Gipe’s illustrated novel Trampoline is one of those-not just well written, which it is; and not just visually appealing, which the wonderfully deadpan black-and-white drawings make sure of; but there is something deeply lovable about it, an undertow of affection you couldn’t fight if you wanted to. …Gipe deftly avoids every single cliché that could trip such a story up, which includes having a pitch-perfect ear for dialect and making it into something marvelous. (Library Journal) Robert Gipe’s powerful sense of place will seep into teen readers’ lives. This is a killer debut of one teenager’s flight from destruction-strong stuff tempered with humor and love. (School Library Journal)
