“I grew up in the North,” Marjorie says, “but I got here as fast as I could.”
Marjorie Hudson was born in a small town in Illinois and raised in Washington, D.C., where she graduated from American University with a degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies. After serving as features editor of National Parks Magazine, she moved to rural North Carolina, working as a freelance writer with a column interviewing nature photographers as well as publishing articles in Garden & Gun, American Land Forum, Wildlife in North Carolina, Our State Magazine, and North Carolina Literary Review. As copyediting chief for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, she encountered the work of contemporary Southern writers such as Jill McCorkle, Kaye Gibbons, and Clyde Edgerton for the first time. Inspired, she turned her hand to fiction writing, and her first story won a statewide award judged by Shannon Ravenel. She earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband, Sam, and feisty small terrier DJ, on a century farm in North Carolina, where she mentors writers and reads poetry to trees.
More about Marjorie’s writing …
Marjorie Hudson’s writing these days explores the lesser known parts of Southern history and expresses a love of its people, its complexities, its transcendent places. Her debut novel, Indigo Field, from Regal House Publishing, digs into the hidden history of an abandoned field as well as the deepest secrets of its Black, white, and Indigenous neighbors. Her story collection Accidental Birds of the Carolinas was a PEN/Hemingway honorable mention, a Novello Literary Award Finalist, and Perpetual Folly’s Best Story Collection of the Year, and her creative travelogue/history Searching for Virginia Dare has become a favorite teaching tool in creative nonfiction writing programs from East Carolina University to the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She writes essays and articles on subjects ranging from early English explorers to traditional music, from Monarch butterflies to dogs who saved her life, from Sufi dancing to the aftermath of 9/ll. Her work has been anthologized in Idol Talk: Women Writers on the Teenage Infatuations that Changed Their Lives, ed. Elizabeth Searle and Tamra Wilson; Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas, ed. Ann Wicker; What Doesn’t Kill You, ed. Murray Dunlap; Topograph (Novello); and Birthed From Scorched Hearts: Women Respond to War, ed., MariJo Moore. She has collaborated with visual artists on installations, gallery shows, and many other projects.
Winner of fellowships from the Hemingway Foundation, Hedgebrook Retreat for Women Writers, Headlands Center for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, and the North Carolina Arts Council, Marjorie is also recipient of many awards and grants, including the Blumenthal Award, the Fiction Syndicate Prize, and Sarah Belk Gambrell Artist-Educator of the Year. Marjorie balances writing with community outreach, public speaking, and teaching.
A popular speaker for years with the North Carolina Humanities Council Road Scholar Program, Marjorie traveled the state inviting discussion on topics ranging from Virginia Dare to George Moses Horton, the first Black man to publish a book in the South. She has been a keynote speaker at Methodist College’s Literary Festival and a featured presenter at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, Kathryn Milam’s famous Readers On Roslyn Book Club for Women, and, in a musical reading with writer/muscian Susan Ketchin, at the North Carolina Literary Festival, as well as many other festivals and events.
More about Marjorie’s work in COMMUNITY …
Writers, I feel, should not try to live in isolation, although the work can require quiet focus for days and weeks on end. Rather, I have found that working to make a difference in my community is one of the richest sources of energy in my life. Maybe this work is a distraction; maybe it’s why it takes me so long to write a book, but it seems absolutely necessary to my process as a writer …
—Marjorie Hudson
Marjorie has been volunteering for community groups since college in DC, when she mentored runaway girls, manned the midnight shift on the student hotline, and worked for American Youth Hostels, helping with outdoor programs. In North Carolina, she joined the board of the local river conservation group, the Haw River Assembly, and was an instigator and volunteer crew for the organization’s ambitious Haw River Festival, an annual event now for more than 30 years.
She has since served on the board of her local Arts Council, creating a coffeehouse program that featured artists, writers, and musicians and helping to promote the annual Studio Tour. In 2000 she founded the George Moses Horton Project to inspire and educate children and adults about this enslaved man who sold his poems to buy his freedom. She has led efforts to recognize the poet statewide and locally, to place a historic marker, and to change the name of a historically segregated middle school to honor him.
Marjorie has served as a mentor and tutor to middle and high school students, and created and found funding for a role as Writer in Residence of the Siler City Arts Incubator, a community-building program offering free writing workshops to adults and Hispanic high schoolers, generating interviews and photo portraits of downtown town artists and businesspeople, and culminating in a reading, gallery show, and reception featuring student work, townspeople’s oral histories, and everyone’s favorite foods. “I didn’t know poetry could be so fun,” one participant said.
As president of her local Friends of the Library, and in collaboration with her local indie bookstore, McIntyre’s Books, Marjorie created two elaborate, year-long Community Reads, featuring Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees and then Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Discussion groups, local art challenges, scholar visits, and feasting were features of the events, along with a culminating author visit in the enormous barn venue near the bookstore. “When Khaled came,” she says, “it was like Woodstock. SRO with at least one 9-months-pregnant lady lying on the floor. I think we had 800 in attendance. Don’t tell the fire marshal!” She documented the experience in her essay “Going to Afghanistan.”
More recently, Marjorie has focused on serving writers directly, helping start a Creative Writing Certificate Program at her local community college, where she created curriculum and served as faculty. She staffed programs and conferences for the North Carolina Writers Network, and has served as chair of the NC Writers Conference, a group that brings together leading writers in the state, where she focuses on scouting new members and encouraging them to take leadership roles.
Marjorie was recently interviewed about her writing and her activism by her local arts council.
More about Marjorie’s work as a TEACHER …
There’s an idea that writers must work absolutely alone. Although the work often requires extended solitude, every writer needs a community who can support and critique her work. Hemingway had his writing group—Gertrude Stein and Co. You need one too. That’s what Kitchen Table Writers are for …
—Marjorie Hudson
In 2009, Marjorie needed a job. She turned to a friend in her yoga class and said, “Al, would you be interested in coming to a writing workshop?” Al surprised her by saying, “Why yes, Marjorie, I would.” Thus began the Kitchen Table Writers Workshops, set in artist galleries, cafes, bookstores, and finally in a bed and breakfast owned by one of her former students – now a published mystery writer.
Kitchen Table Writers Workshops, now on Zoom, provide rigorous but nurturing feedback on manuscripts, study craft, write new material, learn about form. Many of the participants are MFA grads, who have told her, “I never got anything this useful and practical in my MFA program.”
Workshops and Consultations
I’m booked up for classes and manuscript consultations. But sometimes space opens up! So please contact me to get on the wait list for classes or consultations.
Newsletter
Occasional news and stories about my writing journey. You can unsubscribe at any time. Sign up here.
Consultations
On Zoom:
- 1 hour consultation providing general advice
- 1.5 hour consultation on work reviewed in advance: markup and memo provided.
Outside In Person:
- I’ll read a complete story up to 12 pages while we sit and have coffee at a favorite outdoor café near me. I’ll give you instant response on areas for work, ask you pointed questions, point you in the direction of your final form. I have an instinct for this that is kind of spooky and very effective.
The Whole Enchilada:
- I’ll read your book! From consultation on rewrites to intensive editing. Contact me for rates. Kitchen Table Writers who have workshopped their books for more than 3 classes get a discount rate.
Kitchen Table Writers are publishing! Hudson’s yoga pal Al wrote a memoir of his life as a professional Santa. Other writers have published short stories, personal essays, and novels.
“A lot of what writers need is encouragement, insight, problem-solving, and someone who really “sees” both you and what you’re up to and reflects it back with respect and care,” Marjorie says. “That’s what I know I needed, and didn’t get much of when I was starting out. I became resourceful. Now I get to share what I’ve learned. It’s deeply satisfying.”
Jocelyn Nicole Johnston, a summer workshop participant whom Hudson encouraged, made it to the NYT best-seller list with her story collection, My Montecello.
Marjorie’s MEDIA and REVIEWS…
Media for Marjorie Hudson’s debut novel INDIGO FIELD, including podcast links, videos, reviews, interviews, and features.
Podcasts
Authors Over 50 with Julia Daily
New Books Network with Galit Gottlieb
Book Lovers Companion – With Edith and Teacup, all the way from Vienna, Austria
The Public Library – Podcast with Helen Little/iHeart Radio
Artist Soapbox Podcast – Interview with Tamara Kissane
Talking with Tamara Kissane of Pittsboro, NC about all things Indigo.
Charlotte Readers and Writers Podcast – Interview with Hannah Larrew
Hannah is so fun to talk to! Indigo Field, a novel of loss, injustice, and revenge.
Authoring Onward – Interview with Connie Dowell
What happens after publication? Authors and Editors Connie Dowell and Joy Howell and I talk about how I became a Southern writer, a builder of writing community, and the advantages of publishing later in life.
Talking about Indigo Field, reading poetry to trees, giant clouds of pollen, recognized crabbiness, whether you can ever really know someone.
WCHL: On the Porch with Randy Voller
Randy and I had fun talking about small towns, the Midwest, parades, libraries, and my new novel, Indigo Field.
What makes a Southern novel? Flannery O’Connor says the writer must find “where time and place and eternity meet.” A Regal House podcast with publisher Jaynie Royal, Regal House editor Pam Van Dyk, and fellow Regal House/Sour Mash Series author Culley Holderfield, about our two new novels, Indigo Field and Hemlock Hollow.
Dorrier/Underwood Empowering Leadership
Talking with business consultant and host Doug McVadon about George Moses Horton, the first black man to publish a book in the American South – and how he was part of the inspiration for my novel Indigo Field.
Videos
Interview by Michele Tracy Berger
Just hanging out with bff, kickass writer and scholar Michele Tracy Berger, talking about why I wrote Indigo Field and how I write about what bothers me, including the fact that what white people and Black people know about history are two different things.
Peter Mock / McIntyres Books Loves Indigo Field
Peter Mock, buyer at McIntyres Books, spearheads a national promotion of Indigo Field to fellow booksellers
I think this trailer by Donna Campbell absolutely captures INDIGO FIELD – and the fields and birds singing are from the pastures where I live.
As an activist promoting recognition of George Moses Horton, the first Black man to publish a book in the South, I tell his life story and ask audience members to read excerpts out loud that bring the poet’s voice to life.
Reviews, Interviews, and Features
Southern Literary Review “Indigo Field” review by Donna Meredith
“Hudson’s insights into the nature of love shine in the novel.”
“Indigo Field is the major work of fiction her fans have been waiting for.”
Time, place and eternity meet in Indigo Field, Review by Stephen E. Smith, PineStraw Magazine
“The literary world needs to know about Indigo Field, and readers need to snatch it off bookstore shelves or download it online.”
A North Carolina novel you won’t want to miss, Review by Linda Brinson
“Marjorie Hudson’s debut novel is so beautifully written, so powerful, so true and so haunting that it’s hard to come up with one adjective sufficient to describe it….”
Interview by Michele Tracy Berger
Just hanging out with bff, kickass writer and scholar Michele Tracy Berger, talking about why I wrote Indigo Field and how I write about what bothers me, including the fact that what white people and Black people know about history are two different things.
Interview by Lily Iona MacKenzie
What an interesting queue of ten questions – one of my favorites was about how I would review my own book. Part of my answer: I wish someone would ask me why I structured my characters in a certain order. It’s this: first, the character Rand slips us into the white world. Then, Miss Reba takes over the book. It’s a book about racism and trickery – about the way we tell history.
Women Writers/Women’s Books: Indigo Field – Review by Val Nieman
“Sometimes, the ties that bind are invisible as the mycelial networks that underlie field and forest. Without such support and communication with others, a living world will die. So will a community. Hudson’s tale takes us through grief to joy, turns our mourning into dancing as opposites are drawn together, past and present, old and young, dead and living, Black and native American and white.”
Southern Review of Books – Magic Mysticism, Hard Times in Indigo Field – Review by Jenny Maattala
“The world doesn’t contain one set of systems and beliefs that helps a person process their station in life or when death, loss, or trouble comes knocking at their door. Some turn to gods and holy texts. Others turn to hardcore facts and science. In between the worlds of science and religion is another realm where spirituality and cultural traditions guide the path. In her debut novel, Indigo Field, Marjorie Hudson effortlessly covers the scope of these elements, and so much more. . . .”
The Washington City Paper – Anatomy of a Southern Novel – Interview by Emma Francois
“In a very strange set of surprising coincidences, [my father] went to divinity school with Martin Luther King Jr. One day, when King was in town to speak, my dad wanted to take us to meet him. So all us children were dressed up in our Sunday best and we were trying to get to [King] through the crowd. He was scurried away by his bodyguards because at this time he was under death threats. So we never got close enough to meet, but then, three days later, he was assassinated. That had a huge effect on me. …”
I’ve Got Questions for Marjorie Hudson – Blog Interview by Clifford Garstang
“The Good Neighborhood, by Therese Fowler (Black and white neighbors feud) meets A Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (the spirit of a murdered child has conversations out loud with the main character) meets The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (nothing about Afghanistan, but a grown man needs to find a way to atone for his past).”
Chatham News Record – Hudson Debut Novel Earns Raves
“For me, it’s about how we ignore history and ignore crossing boundaries at our own peril,” Hudson said. “However, it’s also a story about personal growth and coming together as a community. The story has as many layers as life here does.”
NAACP/CRC News – Restoring George Moses Horton Freedom Path
I’ve been working with George Moses Horton Middle School and my local CRC committee of the NAACP to educate students and teachers about the George Moses Horton Freedom Path, now restored, a project created by students in 2000. Scan the qr code for educational materials about Horton, First Black Man to publish a book in the South, an enslaved man who was a genius of poetry. For many years after integration, the school forgot who it was named for. Now the poet and the alumni of the Black Horton High School on this site are celebrated every year. In 2021 the School Board agreed to adjust the name of the school to reflect the poet’s full name.
Eclectica Salon Read Local, by Marko Fong
Marko Fong, editor of Eclectica Journal, has an idea about how serious literary books like Indigo Field, lacking New York publicity machinery, could get more attention.
Essays
The Sweet Strangeness of Bynum, NC – by Marjorie Hudson – Garden & Gun
My aerobics teacher and artist friend Karen shows me her house next to the river, apologizes for the random placement of furniture. “Chairs move across the floor toward the river when it floods.”