I’m delighted to announce that on Wednesday, February 1 at 6:00 PM, I’ll be in (Zoom) conversation with my friend, fellow Brevardian, outdoorswoman, author, Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing alum, and warrior of the adjunct professor trenches: the memoirist Jennifer McGaha.
The event is free and open to all, hosted by Trinity University Press.
“Jennifer McGaha, author of Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out, in conversation with writer Katherine Crawford. Part writing memoir, part nature memoir, and part meditation on a life well lived, Bushwhacking draws on McGaha’s experiences running, hiking, biking, paddling, and getting lost across the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina to offer readers encouragement and practical suggestions to accompany them on their writing and life journeys. Free and online.”
That Imani Perry’s South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation just won the National Book Award is no surprise.
It kept me up at night for the weeks I read it, stirring, waking, honoring, and battling with every part of my Southern soul. My American being. My national identity, and my humanity. Which means, to me as a reader and writer both, that because it did this for and to me, it does this outward from me. I underlined, bracketed, starred, exclamation-pointed so many places in this book that when I lend it to friends it will annoy folks. And I can’t begin to choose one or two lines to quote here, because to say Perry mines the depths is too easy; it’d be better to say she takes a Hubble telescope to the galaxy of every bit of the story.
But here are some, because they are hers:
“The only real difference between a farm and a plantation is how it’s used and who uses it, nothing else.”
“Southerners are, generally speaking, both exacting in their judgment and good at alcohol.”
“We tend to think moments of pain provide reckoning. But pleasure might tell us even more. What shows up in the abandon of delight tells us a great deal about who we are, naked.”
“Staying alive on the grounds of your ancestors’ murder and abuse is no small matter. It requires a living witness to their alchemy. Go into a church, find the old woman singing, listen to how her voice, even if cracking, takes up much more space than that to which she has been resigned.”
This bright, beautifully real, laugh-out loud funny, relentlessly optimistic (heavy on the mystic), gift of a writer’s book has been bringing me an unexpected–and insanely necessary–jolt of joy in my daily reading, since the moment I picked it up. Writers, get your copies or put it on your wish lists. People of writers, it will make for a perfect gift.
I didn’t know what to expect when I pre-ordered. I came to Linda Siversten’s popular Beautiful Writers podcast late, during the pandemic, and didn’t know a thing about her. Listening to interviews with writers both known and (to me) unknown was a salve during an uncertain time. And just so much damn fun, because they laugh a lot and tell so many great stories! The book is MORE. Even authors, celebrities, leaders, and creatives I thought I knew, like Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry McMillan, Ann Patchett, Abby Wambach, Patricia Cornwell, share things in these pages I’ve never heard or read from them before–about writing, life, and being a creative in the world.
Sivertsen’s voice throughout as she shares her beautiful and messy life felt so familiar to me as a mom with young kids–the bumps in the roads of friendships and partnerships, the yearning for connection, the unceasing urge to heal and connect to the earth, the glorious and brutal challenge of motherhood. It’s all there, and done with such a bright, light hand you feel like you’ve been to a fabulous group yoga class where you not only found a bit of inner peace, you also dissolved into giggles on your mat because somebody cracked a joke under their breath.
Hi, all! To read about what’s been going on in my world–books, home renovation, podcasts, ponderings, and more-click the “Newsletter” tab above or here.
Sure hope y’all are well and enjoying the end of summer!
Hi, all! Happy July! I’ve launched the newest edition of my newsletter, and I sure hope you enjoy it. If you don’t subscribe and would like to, click here or at the Newsletter tab above.
(Yep, there’s a misspelling in it. But it’s launched, I’m living in Year 45 of a home renovation, and this is real life. Forgive me.)
Hi, y’all. I’ve just posted the June issue of my author newsletter, and it’s full of the small joys of summer: books, movies, articles, ponderings, and more. I hope you’ll consider subscribing, if you haven’t already, and maybe even sharing with friends.
Hi, all. My May 2022 newsletter has launched, just a wee bit late (because: life). This one’s about the books and podcasts keeping me sane during an inordinately tough spring. I may refer to Hamlet. It’s also about the zombie-walk many of us parents are doing these days as school winds down.
If you’ve not subscribed, I hope you’ll consider it. I only publish once per month, directly to your email Inbox. Just lick on the “Newsletter” tab above.
I know it’s been a minute. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, where I tend to spend most of my social media time, you’ll know that lately I’ve been shouting to the rooftops about my dear friend Kimberly Brock’s new historical novel, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare.
And so I can’t resist doing so here, either. I love this book. It’s a mother – daughter story set in the Georgia lowcountry during the waning days of World War II, there’s a dual timeline, a bit of magic and mystery, a centuries-old journey back to the lost colony of Roanoke and the real-life (or as much as we know) tale of the Dare stones. Remember Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the “new” world? Eleanor was her mother. Alice and Penn are a World War II – era mother and daughter, and we follow them from the north Georgia mountains to an inherited old mansion on the coast called Evertell. They are also Eleanor’s descendants.
The Lost Book… is all of this, and so much more. Kimberly Brock writes like an enchantress, and she sees deep into the soul of things, places, and people.
At a recent event with Kimberly Brock in Greenville, South Carolinaat the inimitable M. Judson Booksellers
And I’m not just saying this because she is a dear friend of mine, though she most certainly is. This is the kind of gorgeous historical novel so many of us have been waiting a long time to read. Trust me: you’ll love it, and so will your book clubs. Add it to your spring and summer reading lists.
We planted this metal sunflower just beside our front stoop. It’s our little family symbol of solidarity with the Ukrainian people as they continue to stand against a brutal, unjust war.
This morning, after dropping off my free, safe, healthy 8 year-old at her elementary school, I was listening to our local NPR station, WNCW88.7. The hosts interviewed two correspondents on the ground in the Ukraine who reported on the Ukrainian people’s dogged resistance: one said they were “fighting like terriers,” that neither Russia nor the rest of the world expected their resolve, that the Ukrainians have had years of experience battling Russian aggression on their eastern borders.
This is our world, in real time. Helping feels an impossible task in the face of such large-scale destruction. So we pray, we give, and we vote. By God, we vote: for leaders who recognize just how small, precious, and fragile our world is–and how human connections, through diplomacy, aide, and other actions, are everything.
Everything.
This sunflower is a reminder for me, more than anything, or anyone, else.
Here are a few places where your time and money will will matter:
(The first two organizations were shared with me by my friend and fellow writer, John Malik, who has been volunteering with the World Central Kitchen at the Poland-Ukraine border. John has been writing about his experiences at his blog, here.)
Ha. Writing that title above in the third person gives me the giggles. But, I get to announce this:
www.ncpoetrysociety.org
My poem, “Litchfield Beach,” was awarded First Place in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2022 Pinesong Awards (the Thomas H. McDill Award).
I’m thrilled, and honestly still a bit shocked. I’ve never thought of myself as a poet. I love poetry, and I love poets, and I’ve had the privilege of sitting at the feet of so many poets who are my friends in real life, and friends in books. I can’t wait to read all the work in the 2022 Pinesong Anthology when it is published, and I’m excited that we’ll get to read our work at the awards day in May.
