ACHIEVEMENTS

I’m so excited! I got accepted into the Deep South Convening on the Future Success of American Writers. Only 100 of us, by invitation or application. I’m going as a proselytizer for using writing groups to create community. A tad daunting. But my passion will propel me forward. We’ll be meeting in Birmingham at the end of May. I can’t wait. 

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Yay, y’all! Literary Wanderlust will be publishing my fantasy WHEN WE WERE MURDEROUS TIME-TRAVELING WOMEN! The literary fantasy is the story of my ancestral grannies, exaggerated…a bit. When our heroine Etoile inadvertently brings the last Dauphine of France back to life in modern-day New Orleans, she enlists her ancestral grannies to help fix the mess she’s made. But calling on three murderous time-traveling women might not be her best idea. Lovingly characterized as “Confederacy of Dunces” meets “The End of the F***g World,” the story asks in the most comic way possible: how do we recover after we’ve been forced to kill? Happy to be part of the Literary Wanderlust party!

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Nice to start out 2025 with the Mississippi Episcopalian publishing my essay, Dialogue in Action, on the commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Vicksburg Massacres. https://www.msepiscopalian.com/tme-january-2025/dialogue-in-action/

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Thanks to Exterminating Angel Press for publishing, “The Blank Spot in Our Brains.” This essay, another excerpt from my memoir in progress, can be found on the EAP website. https://exterminatingangel.com/the-blank-spot-in-our-brains/

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So pleased the Mississippi Free Press published my essay on my journey of familial discovery. Nearing Vicksburg: Examine What You Think is True is an excerpt from my memoir in progress.  https://www.mississippifreepress.org/opinion-nearing-vicsksburg-examine-what-you-think-is-true/

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Thoroughly enjoyed being a presenter on Contemplative Writing at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina!

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The year 2024 continues to bring the unexpected. In May, WHEN WE WERE MURDEROUS TIME-TRAVELING WOMEN, a novel, was named a semi-finalist in the Big Moose Prize novel contest hosted by Black Lawrence Press. It makes me think I should do something to get this story published….

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More contest news: IN THE NAME OF MISSISSIPPI was named a Long List Finalist in the Grindstone International Novel Competition, the biggest debut novel competition in the UK. That’s 22 out of 1200 entries. After the first of the 2024 year, contest “winners” will be submitted to a group of affiliated literary agents. Keep your fingers crossed! 

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Good news! The first page of THE BONE TRENCH was selected in August 2023 as one of 11 Honorable Mentions out of 793 submissions in the Page One Prize contest. The page was selected by Joan Dempsey in her Gutsy Great Novelist contest.  You can read about it here.  

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Yay! Two short stories in my new collection have been published. One in Lunar Station Quarterly, another in unleash Lit. The working title of the collection they are from is “Aftermaths,” as all the stories pivot on the aftermath of a storm. A topic I know too much about…

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Proud to have my essay included in Ellen Ann Fentress’ Admissions Project. I write about my experience in Charlotte’s attempt to achieve school integration through busing, the first class in the country to do so under Judge McMillan’s order.  

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Good News: I will be co-facilitating a Contemplative Writing workshop on August 26, 2023, for the School of Contemplative Writing. During this Saturday morning workshop, we’ll be focusing on using contemplative tools to expand our writing and using writing to enliven our contemplative practice. In person and zoom (hopefully!) Stay tuned for the flyer with details.

ps. this contemplative approach to writing is ACTIVE! I love it, and hope you will too.

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I just received word that IN THE NAME OF MISSISSIPPI  was a Finalist (Mainstream) in Killer Nashville. I was really pleased, though it forced me to rethink what I was pitching as a literary novel (see the news about being runner up in the William Faulkner Literary Competition below). It must be a literary thriller, which, believe it or not, is a thing. 

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Second Saturdays continue through the summer at the 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis. The storied location is the perfect venue to pump up your creativity and learn new writing skills. Come one month, come every month. From 10am to 1pm, we enjoy three hours of instruction and guided writing. All are welcome—established writers and those just starting their writing journey. And it’s free!

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Wednesday evening April 19th , 2023, at 5:30, I’ll be talking about creativity at the Coastal chapter of the Mississippi Writers Guild. The meetings are free and open to the public.The group meets at Gulfport Arts Center – 1300 24th Avenue in Gulfport. If you want more info, use the Contact page to send me a message.

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I’ll be leading a mini-writing experience at Arts Alive! in Bay St. Louis Saturday April 15. You can read more about it at the Arts Alive website (which I can’t seem to link here!)

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I’ve been named the Writer-in-Residence at 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, and it’s so much fun. We have Saturday morning writing sessions where I give mini-instruction and share excerpts illustrating the writing point. We then write together for two thirty-minute sessions and share if we want. So nice to be back in the writing group saddle. You can read more about the famous Hall here. 

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One of my essays, I Never Saw the System, is up at The Admissions Project, a site dedicated to race and education. The stories include segregation academy stories and public school stories. My story falls into the latter, but with a twist. Go here to read it. Take the time to read several–a great conversation going on over there. 

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Y’all, IN THE NAME OF MISSISSIPPI won Honorable Mention in the 2022 William Faulkner Literary Competition. The contest awards 1st place and the HM, so that’s like 2nd place (and the winner has published 4 novels with great houses.) I was so pleased.

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If you have a chance to attend The Glen Workshop, take it. Hosted by Image Journal, it’s fantastic. And, at least for the near future, it’s taking place in Asheville, NC., easy to get to in this part of the world. Like the journal, it combines art and religion, great combination.

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Another excerpt from my novel manuscript The Bone Trench has been published in EAP in 2022. If you’re counting (I am), that makes 4 excerpts from the novel published in literary journals. Read it here. Perhaps an agent will read it and….

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I was thrilled to be able to participate in the Community of Writers Fiction Workshop held this summer in the Virtual Valley (COVID, y’all). The 7 day conference was a wonderful learning experience where I worked with some of the best writing participants I’ve ever had the pleasure of workshopping. The improvement in my manuscript, IN THE NAME OF MISSISSIPPI, was extraordinary. 

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This summer I led 4 weekly Righting Group workshops at Annunciation Episcopal Church during Adult Formation Hour. Use the Contact form today if you’d like for me to lead a Righting Group workshop for your organization or speak on the power of Righting Groups to form community.

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Two more short story excerpts from my  novel manuscript  “The Bone Trench” have been published in 2019, one in Exterminating Angel Press and one in Connotation Press. That makes 3 excerpts from the novel that have seen the light of day—Yay!

I also had a personal essay published in Literary Orphans (so proud) earlier this year. You can read “Atomirotica” here.