Featured Archives - Ellen Morris Prewitt

Read the Bad Reviews

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 17, 2025. Posted in Featured, Writing. No 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...

Split the Baby

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 4, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. No Comments on Split the Baby

It takes great courage to return to childhood. Not just the exposure we risk or the chance we will reveal more than we intend. To write memoir well, you must fully return to that time period, immersing yourself. You must make it real again. Not just the bad parts but, sometimes more heartbreakingly, the good parts as well. Lauren Rhoades...

Peaceful Americans

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 19, 2025. Posted in Featured, General. 2 Comments on Peaceful Americans

After Trump was elected in 2016, I waited for him to pivot from being a candidate to being president. I didn’t like him, but he was now my president. Instead, Trump kept holding campaign rallies. And calling those who didn’t vote for him “them.” I realized he didn’t want to be the president of America. He wanted to...

Summer Adventures

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 11, 2025. Posted in Featured, General. 2 Comments on Summer Adventures

Over the last month of summer adventures, I’ve survived a fruit fly outbreak and a weevil infestation, both while caring for our five-year-old grandson for the week. I swam in a lake where duck poop covered the dock and my arms stroked into wavering water lilies. An acquaintance died from that horrid flesh-eating bacteria, and I got bit...

Night Terrors

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 1, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. 13 Comments on Night Terrors

Write, write. Submit, submit. This is me, a busy little bee. One paid off, a story about the magic of night terrors. Or, alternatively, the demons in my prior life. I thank Dorothy Parker’s Ashes for publishing it. Y’all take a look and let me know what you think.

Our Federal Court System

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on July 15, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 2 Comments on Our Federal Court System

I’m biased, I admit. I grew up in a time when the sea wall against the flood of fascism was our federal court system. In Mississippi in the 1960s, the state had lost its mind over the end of segregation. Officials declared federal law null and void inside Mississippi. According to this myth, anything the state did in response to the...

Granddaughter of the Instigator

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 16, 2025. Posted in Featured, Racism to Reconciliation. 9 Comments on Granddaughter of the Instigator

We get many names during our lives, some given to us and some assumed. I didn’t ask for “granddaughter of the instigator,” but it’s true. Here’s the origin story: https://www.salvationsouth.com/granddaughter-of-the-instigator-vicksburg-massacre-ellen-morris-prewitt

The Unveiling

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on June 13, 2025. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on The Unveiling