Denali Sai Nalamalapu

Denali’s debut graphic novel, Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance, is out May 13, 2025 from Timber Press!

A graphic memoir—and living history of climate justice—based on the stories of six frontline resisters to the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia, offering a portrait of the diverse people and places of Appalachia, and the creation of a hopeful movement.

Real people are standing up for both their communities and the planet. Drawing from original interviews with the author, Holler is an illustrated look at six inspiring changemakers whose stories should be better known. Denali Nalamalapu, a climate organizer in their own right, introduces readers to six ordinary people who became resistors of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that spans approximately 300 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia—a teacher, a single mother, a nurse, an organizer, a photographer, and a seed keeper.

Here’s what folks are saying:

“Within the simplicity of this format lie so many beautiful complexities—the motives that make someone an activist, the skills that make them good at it, the intersectionality of the issues that motivate this book’s protagonists, the politics and peril of pipelines, the nature of campaigns…. Holler is an engrossing introduction to one pipeline struggle and valuable for thinking about many things beyond it.”  Rebecca Solnit, author of Orwell’s Roses

Holler is a truly beautiful account of the beautiful people who have waged a beautiful fight for a beautiful piece of a beautiful planet. Read it and learn how to fight!” Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

“Denali Nalamalapu’s Holler is a crucial contribution to contemporary visual storytelling and a stellar guide for all seeking change in their community and the world. The art is accomplished and assured, the use of interviews deft and effective. Holler tells a gentle, hopeful tale that neither ends happily nor ends. The work goes on, and Holler reminds us of the joy inherent to that work.” Robert Gipe, author of Trampoline

“Central to survival during these troubled times is the art of listening. In Holler, Denali Sai Nalamalapu invites readers into the living rooms of those who have been heartfully fighting the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for years. Few books illustrate what collective resistance looks like––the pain that sparks it, and the love that fuels it––Holler is a thoughtful addition to this growing, and necessary, canon.”  Elizabeth Rush, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Rising