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...

Can America be the Land of the Brave?

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on July 6, 2021. Posted in General, GOD, RACISM. 8 Comments

Y’all know this story, right? About how King David of Israel saw a woman bathing and asked who she was. David’s advisors told him she was the wife of Uriah, one of David’s soldiers. David’s messengers “brought Bathsheba to him.” They had sex. David then arranged for her husband Uriah to be killed in battle...

Don’t Die Needlessly

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on July 1, 2021. Posted in GRIEF. 6 Comments

During the years I volunteered at the Door of Hope, I knew several guests who had been kicked out of the house after being diagnosed with AIDS. All too often the family members did this—kicked out their loved ones—because their pastor told them the loved one had committed a sin. They were sinful. Someone to be shamed. Disowned. Kicked out. The...

A Random Sunday

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 27, 2021. Posted in General, GOD. Leave a Comment

Today at the Free Church of the Annunciation, we wrapped up the month of June doing We R Righting Group where, during the hour before church, we wrote about Re-Orienting Our New Selves after the discombobulating last eighteen months. We had fun. Fun, I say, if that’s what you think of the Holy Spirit appearing while almost-strangers share...

Oh, To Be a Dermatologist

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 24, 2021. Posted in General. 3 Comments

So I’m sitting in the cubicle and the doctor is peering at my skin while he dictates to the nurse who’s plinking away at her laptop, saying, “That’s an AK,” and then he adds, “Put a spot on that before we lose it,” (or something like that) and then he says, “Mind if I burn that?” and I ask, ...

Get Ready: It’s WTF Time, Y’all

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 22, 2021. Posted in General, RACISM. 10 Comments

I want to tell you a story. The characters in this story came from many lands, but eventually their view of themselves sorted around one fact: they did not come from Africa. Or China…or anywhere “that just doesn’t look white.” I’m a character in this story, the starring role, in fact. Fair warning: I’m not the hero. The Story Once...

Nekkid People

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 6, 2021. Posted in General, GOD. 4 Comments

This morning in church I was a lay reader for the first time in my life. You usually have to go through training or some such before they let you stand at the head of the church at the heavily-carved lectern with a microphone in front of you and read the word of God—we say that after the reading, intone it, actually: “The Word of God.”...

A Photo of Joy

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 4, 2021. Posted in LOVE. 6 Comments

One year ago May 29th, Mother passed into The Next Big Thing. Last week, the daughter of one of her closest life-long friends sent us a photo. The photo is from the Millsaps College yearbook. I’ve seen it before. We three girls spent hours (and hours and hours) as kids going through Mother’s college and high school annuals. Virginia...

Zoom Tomorrow to Meet John and Mary Margaret

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 3, 2021. Posted in General, RACISM. 2 Comments

There are several ways to explore the past. In John and Mary Margaret, Susan Cushman choses to see Mississippi’s 1960s racial turbulence of Mississippi through the eyes of an unlikely interracial couple at Ole Miss. Watching history through the eyes of young love, plus the mature reflection of a second chance, gives us an intimate look at...

Wiping the Slate Clean

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 17, 2021. Posted in General, RACISM, Writing. 16 Comments

You know when you’ve solved a complex calculus equation, and you take the eraser and literally wipe the slate clean? I did that last week with my writing career. Three acceptances triggered the erasure: First, I was accepted into the Community Writers Workshop in the Virtual Valley for July of this year. This fabulous writers conference...

For Those Who Mother

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 8, 2021. Posted in General, LOVE. 13 Comments

An Unexpected Dilemma The flower bins at Claiborne Hills, usually so skimpy in their offerings, were fat with flowers, and I realized the bounty was for tomorrow’s Mother’s Day. I studied the roses and whatever flower it is they falsely color pink so that it looks like when we children stood white spirea in a glass of water with...