Welcome to my World. . .

Rainbows, sequins, The Moth, and More. Shared with you via FIRST EVER NEWSLETTER!

Hello, Friends!

If you’re receiving this, you’re either my pal IRL, or you’ve taken a class I’ve taught, or you’ve asked me to stay in touch, or you made the mistake of saying something nice about my work (THAT will teach you!  You’ll never do THAT again!). I’m not a big social media person (I only joined Facebook after my editor ordered me—truly—to do at least one form of social media). But I’ve always adored letter writing. And I do enjoy getting newsletters from other writers (for example, I like Kelli Russell Agodon’s The A-List: Notes from my Electric Typewriter and Maggie Smith’s The Good Stuff).  And I can’t seem to find another way to keep people who’ve asked for class info, etc., in the loop, so here goes!  I imagine this newsletter will go out only twice a year but if it’s annoying, feel free to unsubscribe. 

What I’ve been up to

Greetings from sabbatical land!  I’m not teaching this semester, in order to help care for my mom, who has Alzheimer’s. I’ve gotten to do some fun readings, including visiting swanky Blackberry Farm in TN, in an event honoring my pal, John T. Edge (whom you might know from his books or his fabulous show on the SEC network, True South). Here’s a pic from Blackberry:

with husband Tom Franklin, John T. Edge, and Blair Hobbs

Next I had a fabulous class with the MFA students at the UGA nonfiction program, where the bookstore photographer snapped my boots

and last week I visited Auburn University, visited a class and read at the Pebble Hill Humanities Center. The Auburn U Museum was a lovely spot to spend the afternoon, and my favorite piece there was alone, in a dark room, curtained off with black curtains. From the door it didn’t look like much. Only when you get quite close and peer down do you see a mirror which reflects the rainbow neon above your head: GOD MADE ME TO IMPRESS HIS FRIENDS. The artist, Monsieur Zohore (Ivorian-American, b. 1993) was new to me.

And on my way home from Auburn, I gave myself the gift (and emotional challenge) of a day in Montgomery to visit The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration as well as the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. This photo of the memorial shows the stone stelae, one for each county in the US where victims of racial terror were lynched. The lynching victims’ names were engraved on the stelae.

Coming Up

Eeek—Have you ever listened to The Moth, the storytelling podcast? Sometimes the stories are so powerful that I’ve done that thing where you get home but sit in your car to finish the story. Despite my enjoyment and background WRITING stories, I’ve never imagined I could stand on a stage without notes and tell a story. Yet the creative director called me on the phone in the fall, telling me that she’d read my piece in The New York Times and had read my last book and thought I might be a good Moth storyteller. She invited me to tell her a story. I had a week to think up a few, and eventually picked one that was important to me and told her the story on the phone. Now I’ve been invited to NYC to tell the story on The Moth Mainstage, at NYU's Skiball Auditorium, on Wednesday. April 12, to an audience of 800 (gulp). If you’ll be in NYC, come along— And if you won’t be, I’ll be sure to let you know when the podcast appears. And send up a prayer that I can pull it off.

Study Writing with Me?

I’ve been having so much fun teaching folks about micro-memoirs.  I am grateful to the form for many reasons, but one is it’s so teachable.  In a short zoom class I can introduce folks to the form, give examples that have inspired me, share tips, give a writing prompt, and let the participants draft and share a piece.  Even though I’m not a big tech person, I’ve crafted, bit by bit, a pretty kick-ass powerpoint with some fabulous examples of the form. If you’d like to zoom me via the magick of the internets, I’m teaching a Zoom class for the Rowe Center Sunday March 26 from 12-6:30 EST. Check it out—and please let any friends/writers/teachers of writing know!

Or—even better—let’s hang out in person in Maine this summer! I’ll be teaching for 5 days in lovely Rockport Maine, July 17-July 21. We’ll be looking at differnent kinds of short form nonfiction that I love (zuihitsu, etc.) On the ocean! We will be writing hermit crab essays and we will be eating lobster!

What I’m Looking Forward to

I was asked by Garden & Gun to write a few sentences about what forthcoming Southern book I am excited to read, and I wrote about Harrison Scott Key’s The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told.    I’m also looking forward to hosting the poetry panel at the Oxford Conference for the Book, where people will have a chance to listen to Tarfia Faizullah, James Hoch, and Mahogany L. Browne. Immediately prior, textile artist Cathy Fussell will be giving a talk on her “Southern Lit 101” quilts—OMG I love them. Can’t we crowdsource to buy me this quilt of Dee and Maggie from “Everyday Use”?

And as a member of the Board for the MS Book Fest August 19 I can’t wait until the final line-up is released. I think I’ll be moderating a panel on memoirs about marriage. If you’re anywhere close, you should come!

From the archives

I am sorry to learn that one of my favorite nonfiction magazines, Creative Nonfiction, is on hiatus.  I’ll be curious to see what the magazine transforms into, moving forward.  Meanwhile, here’s a piece I published in the “Sunday Short Reads” section called “I Survived the Blizzard of ‘79” cthat will make you glad spring is here.

Thank you

to the Mississippi Arts Commission which awarded me a mini grant ($500) to start acting like a grown up (I think the official category was “promotional materials”) to have my Website redesign. The designer added a button for folks to sign up for my newsletter, which meant I finally needed had to write one! And THANK YOU to you for reading it! Share with your people, and comment below to tell me what’s working or ask any questions about upcoming classes!

And remember, GOD MADE YOU TO IMPRESS HIS FRIENDS.