Writing Archives - Ellen Morris Prewitt

Writing Can Bring Us Together

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 15, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, Writing. 4 Comments

This morning, preparing my space, I spread out my index cards, fanning them onto the folding table. To mix it up, I alternated cards written in red Sharpie with cards written in green or blue or black. On each card, I had written the start of a sentence: I always smile at… Or, If you tickle me… My best friend is… I’ve always...

Where Do We Go Now?

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 14, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, GOD, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 8 Comments

Where do we go now? The Guns and Roses refrain keeps traveling through my brain. I’m in flux. We’re re-establishing a presence in Memphis, renting an apartment downtown until we can hopefully find a condo. I’m so place oriented, y’all. This splitting back into three parts—New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and Memphis—has...

Black History Month Recs: ALL

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on March 3, 2023. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 2 Comments

Here it is! What you’ve all been waiting for! All 28 recs for Black History Month on Black authors whose work I love! Seriously, that’s what it is. February 1 I’ll start with American fiction writer Charles Himes. He’s best known for his Harlem detective series with Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. But I’d like to...

Black History Month Recs: Last

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 28, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 2 Comments

The end of February has arrived. Thus has my last installment on Black History Month recs. Go here for the earlier recs on Black Authors whose work I love. And now for the last! February 23 Mississippi author Linda Jackson’s Middle Grade novel Midnight Without a Moon is a delight. I fell in love with the protagonist from the get-go. The descriptive...

Black History Month Authors: Part 4

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 23, 2023. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 4 Comments

Or maybe this is part 3. I’m getting lost. Whatever, here’s the latest (and penultimate) installment during Black History Month with recommendations on Black authors whose work I love. You can read earlier recs here. February 16 I came to Octavia Butler so late in life it’s embarrassing. My only excuse is that I haven’t been much...

Recs on Black Authors: Part 3

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 16, 2023. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 3 Comments

it may not be time for the 3rd installment in my recs on Black authors during Black History Month, but I’m ready to do it. You can see the 2nd installment here which will link you to the first as well. February 10 I started Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, and never finished it. I thought, to be honest with her plot, Ward couldn’t let...

Black History Month Authors

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 12, 2023. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 4 Comments

Time for the second installment of Black History Month authors (you can read the first set of authors here). Some you’ll know, others might be new. I hope you enjoy them all. February 5 Crystal Wilkinson is a Affrilachian poet and fiction writer from Kentucky. I was lucky enough to study under her at The Glen last summer. We arrived,...

Black Authors in February

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 4, 2023. Posted in Writing. Leave a Comment

It’s a mashup, I admit that. This February during Black History Month, over in the Fediverse, I’m sharing a recommendation a day on Black authors whose work I love. So, for all you folks not on Mastodon, I’ll occasionally re-share here these Black authors in February recs. If you follow this blog, some you’ll be familiar...

Everett’s The Trees

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 12, 2022. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 4 Comments

Percival Everett’s The TREES is the most sarcastic, gut-punchingly funny novel about the Emmett Till lynching. As I type that sentence, I think, What the hell? In the apt words of one of the characters from The Trees, it is, “A sentence I never imagined myself saying.” Very on-brand that this book, which short-listed for the Booker...

Three Books and a Play

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 25, 2022. Posted in General, Writing. Leave a Comment

I write book reviews with trepidation. Even if I intend to be laudatory, what if it doesn’t hit the author that way? That’s important because the only reviews I write are of books I enjoyed. I figure the world is harsh enough without posting negative reviews (though I have been known to occasionally rant on Goodreads.) Last year I decided...