This essay is dedicated to all the teachers, parents and students, who face one of the biggest challenges in our country’s history as this school year begins. Not since the polio epidemic of the 1950s and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, have we had a more dire situation regarding the health and welfare of […]
Back to School 2021: Whose Turn Is It for Show and Tell? Read More »
I love words. All sorts of words, and the weirder the better. I learn new ones all the time, even getting a word delivered each day to my inbox so I can increase my vocabulary. My favorite part of words is their etymology, and if I had a chance to study word origins specifically, I
There is a Hand, my friends, which guides our destinies toward other ends than we planned. And I wish He’d cut it out. Bill Veeck, Thirty Tons a Day Talking recently with my publisher and friend, I said that I found most conspiracy theories tough to embrace, because in my experience people were unable to
When I started writing fiction, I was told that, as a southerner, I’d been imbued with an appreciation for “my land” and “my people” and they therefore must be part of any story I set out to write. Imagine my confusion when I found that, despite reading vivid descriptions of endless varieties of red dirt,
What I Don’t Write (About): A Writing Mini-Manifesto from a “Southern” Writer Read More »
May 28, 2001, my 35th birthday, started out like any other day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the only blot on the day was my attendance at a Celebration of Life service for my teaching mentor who had passed away due to brain cancer. But I figured that if the memorial
Did you ever notice as you get older that you are turning into your parent? Surprising things come out of your mouth that only they would have said? Even if the mirror doesn’t reflect it, I am turning into my dad. Genes and DNA account for some of it. I have his short body build