My friend, colleague, and fellow native Alabamian, Gary Walker, wrote an excellent USR essay reflecting on being a writer who just happens to be from the South. Despite others’ expectations that he write about red dirt, hunting, fishing, football, the land, and the people, Gary confessed that he doesn’t really feel motivated to write about […]
Follow the Red Dirt Road: Some Thoughts on Being a Southern Writer Read More »
A Response to Frost’s “Mending Wall” Sorry I weren’t in a talking mood when we was fixing the wall. I was pretty wore out from helping Hiram cut stove wood after his boy sawed off his hand and died and my son’s wife run off again. Don’t think Amy ever will git over losing that
An Old Stone Savage Speaks Read More »
(In today’s column, I feature “A Christmas Memory,” a short story written by a fellow native Alabamian, the late Truman Capote. I first heard this story forty years ago. In December of 1977, Mr. Randal Simmons, my seventh-grade English teacher, read it to our class. Even then, I admired its simple and elegant beauty as
My Favorite Holiday Story: Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” Read More »
(A Found Poem) Dear Applicant: Please provide the requested information so this office can make a Medicaid eligibility determination for the above claimant currently confined to a skilled nursing home facility. If the requested information is not received within twenty (20) days, the claimant’s Medicaid eligibility will be denied or… Terminated.
Death by Bureaucracy Read More »
“May one be pardon’d and retain the offense?” King Claudius, Hamlet The Outback startles them every morning when I crank up and head down the driveway, though they don’t act annoyed that I’ve interrupted their vegan breakfast. They dash off to a safe distance, turn, and stare at me, the last lovely, tranquil scene I’ll
Antelope Grazing in My Front Yard Read More »
Blowhard. Buffoon. Dotard. Egomaniac. Madman. Warmonger. If you’ve been following American political news lately, you might think I’m referencing the gossipy allegations from Michael Wolff’s new book about President Donald Trump that leftist media and anti-Trumpers have glommed on to in their latest quixotic attempts to find something—anything—tangible to confirm the view they’ve held since
Art Meets Realpolitik: Winston Churchill and Darkest Hour Read More »