Published: 10/10/2025 | Author: Eric Owens

Native Appalachian author Barbara Kingsolver has opened a new center focused on women’s opioid recovery in Virginia. Kingsolver won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Demon Copperhead, a novel about Appalachia’s opioid addiction crisis.

Now she is opening Higher Ground Women’s Recovery Residence in Lee County, Virginia, which provides a stable home for women who are learning to live sober after release from incarceration or inpatient substance abuse treatment centers.

Witnessing the Devastation

As a native Appalachian who lives on a farm in southwestern Virginia, Kingsolver knows firsthand how the national opioid epidemic “has changed so much of the texture of this place.” She has witnessed the devastation wrought by the pharmaceutical industry’s targeting of central Appalachia with sales of falsely proclaimed addiction-resistant prescription painkillers.

In the author’s words, “They came to harvest our pain when there was nothing else left.” 

Desperately Needed Recovery Services

In the process of researching for Demon Copperhead, Kingsolver delved deeply into the real life stories of individuals struggling with addiction and the loved ones who are often their caregivers.

The facility Kingsolver has opened in response to those stories, funded by proceeds from her Pulitzer-winning novel’s overwhelming success, offers desperately needed services to a region that has been ravaged by the opioid crisis.

Higher Ground fosters a safe and welcoming environment for healing from substance abuse, with private and semi-private bedrooms, a shared kitchen and a communal den. Perhaps most importantly, the center has helped to create a tight-knit support system of women who understand each other and the destructive impact of addiction on families and communities. 

Figuring it Out Together

This past June, an audience gathered at the Lee Theatre in Pennington Gap, Virginia to celebrate the center’s opening. When Kingsolver invited current residents onstage to share their experiences, they were more interested in discussing the bonds they have forged with housemates and staff members. 

35-year-old Syara Parsell, one of the center’s first residents, has already found work and enrolled in college classes. She says, “Together, we figure it out.” As Kingsolver says, in the end, the benefit to residents of the center “is not just sobriety, but belief in themselves.”

Finding NA Meetings

One of the best tools for achieving long-term recovery is meeting with like-minded people who are also sober.

You can find NA meetings in your area or call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) today.