Writer Ellen Morris Prewitt Blog

Grief: The Best I Can Do

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 26, 2015. Posted in GRIEF, LOVE, Writing. 32 Comments on Grief: The Best I Can Do

My Daddy Joe was killed by a train when I was three years old. My older sister was four, and my mother was newly pregnant with my little sister. After the baby was born, my mother had what we would now call postpartum depression, complicated, of course, by the death. She thought to herself, Well, I’ve had this baby. The two older girls can...

Naming the World: My Advent Practice

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 22, 2015. Posted in GOD, LOVE, Writing. 11 Comments on Naming the World: My Advent Practice

Over on Facebook on my author page—Ellen Morris Prewitt: My Very Southern Voice— since the beginning of Advent, I’ve been putting into practice the concept I mused upon in this blog post about A Different Kind of Christmas. Feel free to mosey on over to the page and enjoy the posts. Here’s a free sample. Well, they’re all...

Vonnegut Birthed THE BONE TRENCH

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 19, 2015. Posted in LOVE, Writing. 10 Comments on Vonnegut Birthed THE BONE TRENCH

When I was in high school, I favored the library located in the small strip center that also held the hardware store where I bought tomato plants, thinking them to be flowers . . . but that’s another story. The library was cozy, the line of shelves beginning as soon as you walked in the door. From my weird spatial perspective, the...

St Jude Road Warriors

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 5, 2015. Posted in General, LOVE. 10 Comments on St Jude Road Warriors

For 15 years, we’ve avoided the St. Jude Marathon. With over 20,000 people running to end childhood cancer, the race clogs the Memphis streets. More than once my husband and I’ve been trapped by the blocked roads and orange cones, no way out. This morning, of all things, we joined the throngs. Having a friend whose child is...

A Different Kind of Christmas

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 30, 2015. Posted in General. 14 Comments on A Different Kind of Christmas

I am slow, behind. Your blog posts are going unread. My head reels with thoughts of sofas and chairs and what to do with the table in the kitchen? I am furnishing an entire beach house in my head (and on Pinterest). When these sortings graciously step aside for a moment, Jazzy and the Pirate rushes in, insisting on being finished....

Barataria Hauntings

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 18, 2015. Posted in General, Writing. 2 Comments on Barataria Hauntings

Barataria Imagine yourself on a flat-bottomed boat gliding through the Louisiana swamps of Barataria when you bump a log. Feathering the paddle against the sides of the pirogue, you slow and steer yourself towards the gap in the moss-draped oaks. A rasping causes you to pause. Wrong move. A claw shoots from the murky water, grasping the...

Making paper from sea oats

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 17, 2015. Posted in General. 7 Comments on Making paper from sea oats

We begin with sea oats collected from the sandy beach: Sea oats from Ocean Isle Beach which we cut up and boil for a couple of hours then let stand in the pot for several days, soaking. Next we add some dryer lint Dryer lint to provide a binding agent–I made up this step because the fibers seemed coarse and might not hold together...

I’m Back!

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 9, 2015. Posted in General. 5 Comments on I’m Back!

Whew. My computer has been dead for almost two weeks!!! My fault. When we made a whirlwind trip to Memphis, I left my charger there. Then I did meticulous research on the charger I needed . . . and ordered the wrong one. After a quick trip to the Apple Store, I unpacked the charger sitting in the mall version of Cafe Du Monde, not trusting...

Black Lives Matter More Than Fear

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 28, 2015. Posted in Racism to Reconciliation. 6 Comments on Black Lives Matter More Than Fear

I’m thinking about #Black Lives Matter and my surprise at the backlash against it. #Black Lives Matter began in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in Florida for murdering Trayvon Martin. Coined by Alicia Garza, the phrase has grown to encompass all deaths of Black folks following encounters with police. Pure chance led me to...

THAT’s Creativity?

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 25, 2015. Posted in GOD, HOMELESSNESS, LOVE, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 22 Comments on THAT’s Creativity?

Creativity is the glue that holds my life together. This week in my creative life, I: re-explored Facebook’s Notes feature published a long, involved blog post put together a new outfit that I liked so much I wore it two days in a row did final edits on an essay before sliding it into the metaphorical drawer for its “out of...