A Field, A Quilt, A Novel

admin Accidental Birds of the Carolinas, Ekphrastic Art, Fiction Writing, Nature, North Carolina Artist, North Carolina Arts Council Fellow, North Carolina Writers, Quilts Accidental Birds of the Carolinas, AJ Coutu, Ambler County, Field, haunting, history, Indigo Field, NC history, Regal House Publishing, story quilt, Thomas Wolfe 0 Comment

In his seminal novel Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe gave us an extraordinary place.

In writing my new novel, INDIGO FIELD, I was inspired in part by Wolfe’s lush and vivid prose descriptions of extraordinary North Carolina places. To me, Indigo Field is a place so full of layers of history and mystery, plants and animals, people and hauntings, that it shimmers with life in my imagination.

Over the many years of drafting, my talented friend AJ Coutu has been listening to my frustrations, my wine-infused rhapsodies, my struggles and triumphs on the page. We go on regular retreats together, where I tear out my hair and write, and she calmly quilts, draws, makes other kinds of art. Read more

The Dutch House

admin Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Kitchen Table Writers, Marjorie Hudson, North Carolina Writers, Summer Reading List, Warren Wilson MFA, Women Writers Memoir, Washington DC 0 Comment

When I was young, my family lived with my grandmother for a time in Washington, D.C. , in one of the old neighborhoods with houses of colonial brick and Italianate stucco. Grandmother’s house was a colonial, with perfect symmetry: a window on each side of the front door, three windows across the top, and a little pediment decorating the top of the entry. The house was in a neighborhood with a dizzying array of similarly designed houses, on blocks and blocks of numbered and alphabetically-named streets. I memorized the address – as every city child should do – and can recite it to this day.

Free Summer Writing Camp

admin Chatham County Arts Council, Creative Writing, Independent Bookstores, Kitchen Table Writers, Marjorie Hudson, Summer Reading List, Uncategorized #KTWWritingCamp, Dannye Romine Powell, Flyleaf Books, Free Summer Writing Camp, Kevin Morgan Watson, Kitchen Table Writers Workshop, McIntyre's Books, Nebraska University Press, Press 53, Prompt Writing, Thomas Wolf, Writers Workshop 0 Comment

I have been, like all of us, desperate to make a difference, escape isolation, connect during this time of coronavirus. I have observed during my spring classes on Zoom what a tremendous difference it makes for me and others to simply connect through writing–even on social media. I am not good at making masks. But I’m good at making prompts. So that’s the public service offering I make here, to help us get through this time:

Kitchen Table Writers Summer Writing Camp on Facebook

12 weeks. 12 prompts. 12 reading suggestions.

Another practice I’ve returned to in recent months is reading for pleasure – every day. I have allowed my early morning hour to be consumed by sitting in an upstairs room in a comfortable chair, a pillow on my lap, a lamp shining down, and a favorite book – or a new book – propped there. Books from my shelves – and new releases by authors I admire – will provide the inspiration for the weekly prompts. Read more

Summer Writers Plan

admin Chatham County Arts Council, Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Fiction Writing, Kitchen Table Writers, Literary Journals, Marjorie Hudson, Submitting your story, Summer Reading List, Uncategorized C.S. Lewis, Clifford Garstang, David Jauss, Emily Pease, Fiction, Jessica Handler, Kathryn Schwille, Scott Huler, Writing Community 0 Comment

Dear Kitchen Table Writers,

Below is a list of summer reading I plan to do — and I recommend for you. I’ve dipped into each of these and am eager to find a hammock somewhere and read for hours on end. Share your reading list in the comments!

Summer Reading List

Let Me Out Here, by Emily Pease, What Luck, This Life, by Kathryn Schwille, The Shaman of Turtle Valley, by Cliff Garstang, Magnetic Girl, by Jessica Handler, Nice People, by David Jauss, A Delicious Country, by Scott Huler (nonfiction). I’m sure I’ll read more!

Do you have a book you read every summer? Mine: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis. Read more

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