Grit Lit

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I don’t know who first used the term Grit Lit, but I like to think it was Barry Hannah, a great grit-lit novelist and short story writer who used the term in reference to Larry Brown, another great novelist and short story writer. Both Hannah and Brown lived in Oxford, Mississippi, and both died young. … Read more

Kickback – a dramatic reading

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Please join PFLAG-Olympia and Mud Flat Press for a free dramatic reading from the young adult novel Kickback – a Max Prescott Murder Mystery by Tracy Gunn -at Olympia Family Theatre – Friday, June 21, 7 p.m. Kickback is set mostly in Olympia, Washington. A Capital High School student is found dead in the woodworking … Read more

Ricker Winsor featured in RISD magazine

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The Rhode Island School of Design featured an essay by Mud Flat Press author Ricker Winsor, “What I Know about Art,”and some of his paintings and drawings in their bi-annual magazine RISD XYZ. Congratulations. Ricker Winsor is the author of Pakuwon City, The Painting of My Life, Tik Tok: Poems and Francine.

The Day the servants Left

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from Ricker Winsor’s book Pakuwon City             Muslims fast during Ramadan. For a month between sun up and sun down, no water, no food. Caddies pass out on the golf course or quit after nine holes. Some don’t fast and pretend to do so. Some fast quietly. Some swoon dramatically. For the ruling class this … Read more

Why in the world would a white boy from Mississippi presume to write about race

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It’s a good question: Why in the world would a white boy from Mississippi presume to write about race. I’ve been pondering it a lot. Especially after the Academy Awards and the many comments swirling around comparisons between Spike Lee’s Black Klansman and Best Picture winner Green Book, which reminded everyone of when Lee’s Do … Read more

Cover models

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This is old but worth sharing. Artist Brian Roche, who painted the cover illustration for Return to Freedom, book two of the Freedom Trilogy, posted this photo on Facebook shortly after the book came out. It is the couple who modeled for the cover holding a copy of the book. Click title to see photo.

Self-doubt

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We all have self-doubt, creative people probably more so than anyone. I’ve considered myself an artist of one sort or another since before I was old enough to go to school and my mother set up an easel for me next to hers and I made my first oil painting. I majored in art in … Read more

Walking the Line

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In my new novel, This Is Me, Debbi, David, I try to walk the line—hopefully with some success—between formulaic writing and being original and honest. It is formulaic in that it is a quest story and a road story, original in the uniqueness of the characters, and honest in that all the characters are flawed … Read more

Alec Clayton readings from This Is Me, Debbi, David

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Olympia, Washington author Alec Clayton, author of The Backside of Nowhere and the “Freedom Trilogy,” kicks off his latest novel, This Is Me, Debbi, David, with a series of readings and book talks with actor Amanda Kemp. Amanda Kemp In addition to her second year with Animal Fire Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park, Amanda has … Read more