My reading and book talk at Panorama, a retirement community in Lacey, Washington, went well. Much of the discussion centered on race, as it often does when talking about Tupelo. I said that although race was an underlying theme in the book, it’s really about much more than that. It’s about Kevin Lumpkin and his … Read more
From Ricker Winsor: “I am out drawing in ink with my portable table. It is easier now than with all the oil paint and I think my ink drawings are my strongest expression in any case. I am in Surabaya not far from home, in an area called Kenjaran which has a huge golden Buddha … Read more
“Hell can’t be no hotter than a Mississippi July. The heat don’t bother a kid, though. Not the heat nor the scratches nor the bugs. She don’t know how it is killing her. It takes all of the flexibility out, it scrapes you like scraping a plate to the dogs.” – Jack Butler, “Country Girl” … Read more
I have no formal education in writing other than a single class, which I vaguely remember as being called Creative Writing 101. Students wrote short stories; teacher critiqued them. I recall writing one story that wasn’t too bad and one that was terrible. My first attempt at novel writing came between undergrad and grad school. … Read more