Writer Ellen Morris Prewitt Blog

This is Why I Write

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 29, 2018. Posted in General, Writing. 8 Comments on This is Why I Write

So, I’m working on an essay about my escaping to the family farm in response to Mississippi’s racial mores that constricted behavior in the 1960s, and I’m using a bull (yep) as the central metaphor, and I’m afraid folks might not get it because the bull is incredibly destructive and he’s the POSITIVE metaphor, so...

Odd but God

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 27, 2018. Posted in GOD, LOVE. 2 Comments on Odd but God

Can I talk about God for a minute? I mean the God that presents when we step out in vulnerability, trusting that the Spirit guided our first faltering step and will be there if we succeed or fail. Lord, these steps are hard. Not because they involve a dramatic climb to the mountaintop where we’ll change the world. Rather, they mock us with...

Podcasting or Hacking Through the Jungle

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 24, 2018. Posted in General, Writing. 12 Comments on Podcasting or Hacking Through the Jungle

I did it. I recorded the podcast that will accompany the release of TRACKING HAPPINESS: A SOUTHERN CHICKEN ADVENTURE. The podcast, which I’ve named ELLEN’S VERY SOUTHERN VOICE: NOVELS TOLD WRITE, offers an extended version of the novel. Each of the 26 chapters has accompanying commentary with Helpful Train Hints and Fun Chicken Facts....

TRACKING HAPPINESS: Cover Reveal

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 16, 2018. Posted in GRIEF, LOVE, Writing. 13 Comments on TRACKING HAPPINESS: Cover Reveal

Here it is. The cover for TRACKING HAPPINESS: A SOUTHERN CHICKEN ADVENTURE. I love this cover. My sister Elli shot the photo—yep, she’s a professional photographer. That’s Goldie the Chicken as the chicken cover model. For the record, I am walking down abandoned railroad tracks. I wasn’t going to get hit by an oncoming train....

My Uncle Merwin

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 8, 2018. Posted in GOD, LOVE. 10 Comments on My Uncle Merwin

Without him, I might have never liked eggs. That seems like such a small accomplishment, frivolous even. But I’d been forced to eat eggs almost every morning of my life. I hated eggs. My loathing of eggs exceeded the bounds of good manners—as a child, I hid my eggs wherever I could find a secretive spot: under my plate, tucked against...

#MLK50: No Neat Bow

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 5, 2018. Posted in LOVE, Racism to Reconciliation. 2 Comments on #MLK50: No Neat Bow

I spent yesterday at two different events. One was a service at Calvary Episcopal Church to dedicate a new marker on the site of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s slave market. The old marker referred to Forrest’s time in Memphis where his “business enterprises made him wealthy.” The old marker did not identify Forrest’s business as human trafficking—selling...

#MLK50: The Beloved Community

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 4, 2018. Posted in LOVE, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on #MLK50: The Beloved Community

“It is impossible for white Americans to grasp the depths and dimensions of the Negro’s dilemma without understanding what it means to be a Negro in America. Of course it is not easy to perform this act of empathy. Putting oneself in another person’s place is always fraught with difficulties. Over and over again it is said in...

#MLK50: A Hostile Land

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 3, 2018. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 5 Comments on #MLK50: A Hostile Land

In reading Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, I was struck by Dr. King’s repeated point that, following the Civil War, the country released the formerly enslaved into the land of their oppressors. These men and women found themselves in the “territory of their enemies.” In their new life, they were financially dependent...

#MLK50: What was the Civil Rights Movement?

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 2, 2018. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 7 Comments on #MLK50: What was the Civil Rights Movement?

Here in Memphis, we are about to roll from Holy Week and Easter Sunday into the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination. In preparation for this, I’ve been reading Where Do We Go from Here, Dr. King’s last book published in 1968. This phrase—Where Do We Go from Here?—is the tag used by MLK50 for...

We are Risen

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 1, 2018. Posted in General, GOD, LOVE. No Comments on We are Risen

On Easter morning, we sing a song of “He is Risen,” and thus miss the point. We are risen, a Resurrected people. This Easter season (yep, there’s an Easter season—50 days of it) I will walk eyes-open every day for images of Resurrection. The season is one of joy. Y’all know me—the images will be my own. Happy Easter, you...