Featured Archives - Ellen Morris Prewitt

The Joy of What If

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on January 11, 2026. Posted in Featured, General, When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women, Writing. No Comments on The Joy of What If

I had two inspiration points for When WE Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women. (Of course, I did–it always has to be complicated with me.) One involved What If. This concept is when we set our imagination on “Go” and take off. At least it is for me. The joy of What If has inspired tons of novels, often in the “alternate...

Book Reviews on Substack

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on January 8, 2026. Posted in Featured, Writing. 6 Comments on Book Reviews on Substack

Hi, y’all. This is the first post in a new venture. I’m branching out, kind of. I’ll be posting book reviews on Substack. I’ve done so many reviews on my blog and will do so many more. I want folks to have another avenue to read them. Mine will be very particular reviews. First, I’ll only review books I love....

OBONO Our Family Stories

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on January 1, 2026. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. 2 Comments on OBONO Our Family Stories

Every year, One Book One New Orleans selects a book for the entire city to read. I’ve told y’all about this before, how other cities have “one book” programs. And how Executive Director Megan Holt has taken the concept to a new level. She does more with her position than any other program I’m familiar with. A...

The American Daughters

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 26, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. 2 Comments on The American Daughters

I have fallen in love with…. I love stories that re-tell American history in a way that, had we not always written the past with a White male pen, we’d know was the way it might have happened. The American Daughters by Marcus Carlos Ruffin which retells how the years leading up to the Civil War unfolded in New Orleans is the latest novel I...

Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 12, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. 4 Comments on Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature

The birth of the new is exciting. When that birthing happens in an arena you dearly love, it’s even more exciting. Such is the case with Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature. I built my writing career on literary journals. That was the way you did it when I was starting out. You submitted to journals and hoped you got lucky...

Love Song to Cities

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 11, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. No Comments on Love Song to Cities

I was reading a book out in the world and an observer asked me what it was. The City We Became, I told her. Then she wanted to know what it was about. “Blah, blah, blah,” I said, ending with, “It’s about New York City.” I have now finished the second, and final, installment in the series by N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make. I...

I Should Be More Excited

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 9, 2025. Posted in Featured, When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women. 9 Comments on I Should Be More Excited

This week, I got the draft cover for When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women. The cover’s cool, particularly for a small press. Sometimes, to me, covers on small presses look like an image grab off Shutterstock. This cover is bespoke, tailored to New Orleans. It’s gonna be awesome. Still, I should be more excited than I am. I’ve seen the...

Read the Bad Reviews

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 17, 2025. Posted in Featured, Writing. 2 Comments on Read the Bad Reviews

I do this thing. When I finish a book I really liked, I go to Goodreads and Amazon, and I read the bad reviews. I want to remind myself that it’s all simply a matter of taste, and we have different tastes, and that’s okay. But today after I finished an exquisitely written novel, something went awry. I got put out. In particular, I...

Not My Street

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 9, 2025. Posted in Featured, Writing. 4 Comments on Not My Street

I walk out the door of 100 Men Hall and birds sing, as if they’ve been doing that all along. Not one bird, two birds—an orchestra of birds, thrumming beneath the afternoon. I follow the sound and find the masses congregated on a cell tower. I don’t know what kind of birds they are. My sister Marcee goes downtown in Raleigh in the evenings...

Reading Hibernation

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 5, 2025. Posted in Featured, Writing. No Comments on Reading Hibernation

Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Years has been for me a time to hibernate and read. The last deep dive I did, my mother was still alive. She gave me a slew of books for Christmas, all by authors whose first language was Spanish (because I asked for them, y’all–Mother always gave you what you asked for.) I feel like...