"Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness" Archives

Books and Beyond

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on March 19, 2019. Posted in General, Writing. Leave a Comment

I loved being at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library this morning for the library’s Books and Beyond Book Club. I was pleased they had me, and they were warm and gracious. I had a prepared a talk, but they had questions right out of the gate. We wound up talking for an hour and a half. It was wide-ranging. The ostensible topic was my...

The Yellow Line

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 7, 2018. Posted in General, HOMELESSNESS, Writing. 2 Comments

I spent eight years assisting those who were experiencing homelessness to get their voices into the world. So I am acutely aware that in my short story, The Yellow Line, I am writing in the voice of a woman whose experiences I cannot actually know. But Leroy Scott, one of the authors of Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness,...

The Backstory

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 6, 2018. Posted in General, GRIEF, LOVE, Writing. 2 Comments

He stopped me in the stairwell of the yellow brick church on Monroe. It was our first session of the Door of Hope Writing Group held at the church. The church was temporary. We’d moved there from the backyard of Manna House where I teetered across the gravel in my high heels and June Averyt flung out her arm and said, “This is Ellen...

Toppled from My High Perch of Holiness

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 21, 2016. Posted in GOD, HOMELESSNESS. 4 Comments

The alarm went off, and I drifted, reliving my dreams. Startling awake, I checked the time. I still had an hour to make it to church. Until I looked closely. The secondhand was stuck on the 4, click, click, clicking. After I hurriedly dressed, I ran downstairs where real clocks exist. I had 8 minutes to make it to St. Mary’s. I was only...

Yikes!

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on September 3, 2016. Posted in HOMELESSNESS, Writing. 14 Comments

What was I thinking? Sending out such a request? Yes, my agent is shopping my novel to big name publishing houses. Yes, editors at those houses—complete strangers—are judging my work. Plus, I’ve been in writing groups for years where judging nascent work is the name of the game. But this is different. I put out a request on Facebook for...

“Working” with “The Homeless”

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 6, 2016. Posted in HOMELESSNESS, LOVE. 8 Comments

He calls me over. Wants to know if I work out. “‘Cause you sure got a nice shape.” The breakfast St. Mary’s offers for those currently homeless is almost finished. He’s mopping up his grits. His friend on the other side of the table is interested in my answer to his question. The friend cranes his neck, surveying...

June: Not a Sentimental Person

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 2, 2016. Posted in General, GOD, HOMELESSNESS, Writing. 12 Comments

Many years ago, when I was letting the Spirit lead me around by the nose, I went to Door of Hope and asked if I could start a writing group for men and women living on the street. Dr. June Mann Averyt, the founder and then Executive Director of Door of Hope, watched me toddle through the door in my high heels and said, “What the hell—go...

Don’t Thumb Your Nose at the Spirit

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 23, 2016. Posted in GOD, HOMELESSNESS, LOVE. 9 Comments

I hate the Holy Spirit. Okay, hate is a strong word. But I have issues with this Spirit that constantly tells me to do things that embarrass the hell out of me. Take the recent prayer vigil I attended. A friend of mine was to be a featured speaker at the vigil. She is one of the authors of Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness....

A Southern Woman’s Vocational Credo

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 23, 2015. Posted in GOD, GRIEF, HOMELESSNESS, LOVE, Writing. 10 Comments

I come to Deborah Koehn Loyd’s Your Vocational Credo: Practical Steps to Discover Your Unique Purpose (IVP Books, 2015) as a Southern female raised in the 1960s and 70s. The adjectives this statement evokes for me are “stricture,” “judgement,” “demanding.” Peering down the tunnel of time, I see a long line of women staring back at me, frowning....

Summer Reading Recommendation: Writing Our Way Home

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 3, 2015. Posted in HOMELESSNESS, Writing. Leave a Comment

Thank you to Luanne Castle at Writersite for featuring Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness on her blog. Check it out, and while you’re there, take a look around. She’! http://writersite.org/2015/07/27/summer-reading/

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