What would we learn if we listened to the people who have left our churches?
Emilee Hackney had never written a book before. She doesn’t have a substack or a social media following, nor does she write op-eds for the New York Times or The Atlantic. But her debut memoir, All That’s Unseen, has become a New York Times bestseller, was named a finalist for the 2026 Southern Book Prize, and had feature reviews in the Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and more.
The topic? Appalachia, faith, poverty, and her journey from Virginia coal country to Harvard.
Remarkably–despite having left the Christian faith as an adult–Hackney doesn’t speak poorly of the church, instead she remembers the beauty and freedom she experienced growing up in a Pentecostal tradition. And yet, she recounts the devastating failure of that same community when she found herself in an abusive relationship as a teenager engaged to an older man.
Hackney’s story is indeed complex, but familiar for so many of us who once had genuine spiritual experiences in a church home, but were failed by that same community when it seemed to really matter. While some continue in the Christian faith despite the devastation, many choose to leave. You might know some of them. You might be one of them.
This shared experience is part of what drew Russell to Hackney’s story, especially with her tone of hospitality and high regard for a tradition in which she experienced great devastation.
Emilee joined Russell from her office in Virgina, with a Dolly Parton poster peeking over one shoulder, and a Loretta Lynn poster above the other. Their conversation spreads from church hurt to class and belonging, even to parenthood. Through it all, Emilee resists the invitation to dilute or flatten Appalachia, her family, or even the church that wounded her into something easily dismissed. Instead, she asks what it might mean to see the people and places we think we already understand.
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