Writer Ellen Morris Prewitt Blog

My New Righting Group Book

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 30, 2019. Posted in General, HOMELESSNESS, Writing. Leave a Comment

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 full-day...

White Christian Fear of Racism

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 4, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, GOD, Racism to Reconciliation. 7 Comments

I’ve hit a conundrum I can’t understand. I’ve been Christian since the moment my mother hit her knees and, against every fiber in her being, gave up her motherly control over me to have me baptized as “God’s own forever.” As such, I know sin as separation of God. I also know the good news that repentance leads...

The Bishop Came to Our House

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 1, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, GOD, LOVE. 6 Comments

Yesterday, in church, the Bishop came to our house. She wore her gold hat and white robes. She carried a carved shepherd’s crook, because she is the shepherd of our souls here on earth. At her side stood a tiny woman called the Bishop’s chaplain, as if the Bishop gets to travel with her BFF spiritual friend always. The Bishop was...

The Devil You Know

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 25, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, In the Name of Mississippi novel, Racism to Reconciliation. 7 Comments

I saw the book at Novel Bookstore in Memphis. Its vivid orange and black cover drew me in. I realized the author was Charles Blow, who I had followed on Twitter before I got off Twitter. I always liked what he had to say. In the back of my brain, I seemed to recall he had moved from somewhere in the North to Atlanta. I picked up “The Devil...

Matters of the Heart

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 23, 2023. Posted in Featured, General. 4 Comments

We kids loved Pogo. The old comic books were stacked in the attic of our duplex on Belhaven Street. They lived there with everything else from Mother’s “Before Us” life. Her heavy bowling ball from her competitive bowling days. Her very own ice skates she wore to glide on lakes so frozen you could drive a car across them. That...

White People’s Fake Fear

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 20, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 11 Comments

One of the major rites of passage in my young life was finally getting old enough to shop with my friends in downtown Jackson. We spent many a Saturday morning planning where we would shop as we walked up and down Capitol Street, the city’s main commercial artery. The plan was to ride the bus from our Belhaven neighborhood to downtown—all...

Writing Can Bring Us Together

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 15, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. 4 Comments

This morning, preparing my space, I spread out my index cards, fanning them onto the folding table. To mix it up, I alternated cards written in red Sharpie with cards written in green or blue or black. On each card, I had written the start of a sentence: I always smile at… Or, If you tickle me… My best friend is… I’ve always...

Where Do We Go Now?

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 14, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, GOD, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 8 Comments

Where do we go now? The Guns and Roses refrain keeps traveling through my brain. I’m in flux. We’re re-establishing a presence in Memphis, renting an apartment downtown until we can hopefully find a condo. I’m so place oriented, y’all. This splitting back into three parts—New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and Memphis—has...

What We’ve Made of Christianity

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 9, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, GOD. 14 Comments

The Easter service was lovely, it really was. My favorite person was in church, and she tootled her fingers at us during the passing of the peace. And yet it wears me out, what we’ve made of Christianity. Today, the Gospel reading on the most momentous day of our religious year began with Mary Magdalene. Early in the morning, Mary Magdalene...

The Lie We’ve Made of Mary

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on March 26, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, GOD. 2 Comments

Is there any worse hatchet job in history than the lie we’ve made of Mother Mary? “Meek.” “Mild.” “Obedient.” It’s all over our theology. Even the hymn we sang today on the Feast of the Annunciation claimed that Gabriel came to “meek and lowly Mary,” made his proclamation, and “gentle...

Banned Books are Just A Tool

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on March 25, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 6 Comments

Recently, two things came together. A wonderful Mississippi author and friend recently won a prestigious award. Congratulating her, I mentioned I was going to the Mississippi Banned Book Festival. Then I thought: oh, lord, have your books been on those lists? She didn’t know, but her books, which include Civil Rights truths, experienced a...