Writer Ellen Morris Prewitt Blog

My New Righting Group Book

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 30, 2019. Posted in General, HOMELESSNESS, Writing. No Comments on My New Righting Group Book

Y’all, I’ve been so busy getting my new book into the hands of folks who can use it, I haven’t stopped long enough to tell you about it. Most of y’all know for 8 years I was part of a weekly writing group of Memphians who had personally experienced homelessness. We wrote; we held public readings; we hosted...

Our Federal Court System

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on July 15, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. No Comments on Our Federal Court System

I’m biased, I admit. I grew up in a time when the sea wall against the flood of fascism was our federal court system. In Mississippi in the 1960s, the state had lost its mind over the end of segregation. Officials declared federal law null and void inside Mississippi. According to this myth, anything the state did in response to the...

Two Mississippi Women Authors

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 17, 2025. Posted in General, Writing. No Comments on Two Mississippi Women Authors

I can’t remember how much I’ve told you about these two Mississippi women authors. Doesn’t matter. I’m saying it again because I want you to know about them. Ellen Ann Fentress Ellen Ann Fentress has been a friend since we both showed up to pledge the Jackson Junior League and draped our wooden name tags around...

Granddaughter of the Instigator

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 16, 2025. Posted in Featured, Racism to Reconciliation. 9 Comments on Granddaughter of the Instigator

We get many names during our lives, some given to us and some assumed. I didn’t ask for “granddaughter of the instigator,” but it’s true. Here’s the origin story: https://www.salvationsouth.com/granddaughter-of-the-instigator-vicksburg-massacre-ellen-morris-prewitt

The Unveiling

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 13, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on The Unveiling

Down to the Lick Log

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 12, 2025. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 14 Comments on Down to the Lick Log

Sometimes, the rubber hits the road. Or, to use a more personal metaphor, sooner or later, we get down to the lick log. I know a lick log because the cows at Mamo and Papo’s farm had salt licks. My Uncle Jimmy put the blocks of salt on stumps in the field behind the barn. The cows, for God knows what reason, liked salt. They would low...

Keeping the Murderous Grannies Straight

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 3, 2025. Posted in Featured, When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women, Writing. 6 Comments on Keeping the Murderous Grannies Straight

I’m deep in revision, y’all. My editor at Literary Wanderlust completed her developmental edits on When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women and sent me her comments. They were not a big deal, two main ones and an adjustment to a scene at the end. The one I’m most interested in involves keeping the murderous grannies...

Too Far from Memphis

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 30, 2025. Posted in General, LOVE. 4 Comments on Too Far from Memphis

While I sit on the couch with my husband, outside the window, the orange ball of sun stands firm. No matter how the end of day looks, we know it’s the earth rolling into night. The incandescent star is too far from Memphis to cast a flame onto the Mississippi River. Instead, the water’s surface has a sheen like ice. Arkansas is...

Fix the Creative Writing Workshop

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 15, 2025. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 6 Comments on Fix the Creative Writing Workshop

Are you a writer? In the course of “learning to write,” have you participated in a writing workshop? How did it go? Was it fun? Did it make the piece you were workshopping better? Did you learn something profound that stuck with you? Or were the teachings smothered by the acidic emotions of being “critiqued” by those who...

Katrina Byrd

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 12, 2025. Posted in Writing. 6 Comments on Katrina Byrd

Where have I been? In the bin, as they say on the BBC, which we watch so much we talk about the need to “sort” this and biscuits instead of cookies. We do not go to the loo, because we have some self-respect. (WordPress is going to hate this post. It’s gonna yell at me, make your topic clear in the first paragraph! P-shaw.)...

Lenten Bookmarks

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 19, 2025. Posted in General, GOD. 10 Comments on Lenten Bookmarks

For Lent, I fasted from the morning news and made Lenten bookmarks. The news was making me mad—it’s supposed to be financial news, but one of the anchors was parroting political propaganda—and I didn’t want to start the day that way. But if I give something up, I need to put something new in its place. My niece had given me a...