Alabama writer Bradley Sides is set to have an exciting end to the year. His debut collection, Those Fantastic Lives: And Other Strange Stories, releases this October and has already earned some kind early notice, with Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters, comparing Sides’ stories to “the best of Joe Hill and Ray Bradbury.”

Sides’ collection, containing monsters, ghosts, and aliens, is the ideal kind of book for readers to explore as they prepare for Halloween. I was recently able to ask Bradley about his interest in magical realism, his work as a fiction editor at a literary magazine, and, of course, his upcoming release of Those Fantastic Lives.

Alina Stefanescu: Those Fantastic Lives: And Other Strange Stories is full of magical realism and weird fiction stories. What draws you to the fantastic?

Bradley Sides: As strange as it sounds, I think it’s because of my childhood on a farm. I grew up surrounded by animals and quietness and the stars. I can remember being in my bedroom at night, and I’d, from the total silence, begin to hear bullfrogs warbling from the pond. When my father sold cows or separated the mother from her calves, there would be nights of crying. There’s a lot of room for an imagination to run wild with these kinds of happenings surrounding you, especially as you look up from your bed and see the clear, dark, sparkling sky and think about what else is out there—what else might be waiting to haunt you.

AS: As an early writer, did you already know this would be your space?

BS: Sometimes I wish I would’ve known earlier, but I didn’t. I spent some time working on southern stories and YA novels, but they never felt real to me. (I needed magic and the fantastic to find truth.) I’m grateful, though, that I was writing. I learned a lot from my early drafts; I realized what worked and what didn’t.

I was in my mid-twenties before I started really getting into magical realism short fiction—both as a reader and as I writer. When I finished my first magical realism piece (“Restored” at the end of 2013), I knew I’d found where I was supposed to be.  All of the weirdness made me feel at home. It made me feel found.

AS: Title origins are interesting. How did you arrive at Those Fantastic Lives? 

BS: Someone once asked me what I’m worst at in writing. My answer was simple: titles. I can’t begin to even guess how much time I spend on the titles I give my stories.

But back to your question. I had no idea what my collection was going to be called. Seriously. I was nearing the end of the collection’s cycle, so I knew I needed something. I was working on a story about a boy who wants to be a psychic like his grandmother, and I wrote a line near the end that I was really proud of. The titular phrase was in that sentence, so I titled that story “Those Fantastic Lives.” Even after I sat with it for a few weeks, it still felt right.

After the story came out, I realized that there are a lot of fantastic, magical lives in the other stories I had, so I went with it. I think it fits perfectly, and it’s the best title, I think, that I’ve ever come up with.

AS: Do you have a favorite story in the collection? 

BS: “The Mooneaters” is the first story I wrote that made me feel like I could really write. I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but it was my first love. It’s special to me.

AS: For readers, what themes can they expect to see explored as they dive into your book?

BS: I’m a very large guy. I’m as introverted, though, as I am large. I oftentimes want to hide, but my body won’t allow it. I think this makes me naturally feel like a bit of an outsider. Like I don’t belong or something. I’m drawn to the idea of what it means to be different—to be different and to search for comfort that you’ll never find. So, that’s a natural pull for me. Growing up on a farm with lots of animals makes one reflect on loss, so that’s definitely in the book, too. I think, also, I’m interested in the idea of transformation. Flight. Escape. There are a lot of birds and wings in these stories.

AS: Here’s a tough question, but I’ll ask it anyway: Why do you write?

BS: I write because it’s the only tool I have to help me understand myself.

AS: I know you currently serve as Fiction Editor of Qu, which is the literary magazine put out by the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. What has that experience taught you?

BS: This experience, along with previously being an editorial assistant at Qu, has taught me more than I would’ve ever thought was possible. When I read through submissions, I see what works and what doesn’t. I see how important the beginning of a piece is. The whole experience makes me closely—very, very closely—observe my own writing. I look at my own stories now as not only a writer, but I also have the additional knowledge of reading like an editor. I would strongly encourage writers to read for a magazine if they can. What I’ve taken away is truly invaluable.

AS: I always love reading recommendations. What are some recent books you’ve enjoyed?

BS: My favorite books of the year are Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, Andrew Siegrist’s We Imagined It Was Rain, and Becky Hagenston’s The Age of Discovery. Each one has a balanced and beautiful weirdness.

For books outside of my usual, two others I’ve enjoyed a lot are Cliff Garstang’s Oliver’s Travels, which is a humorous novel that looks deeply at memory and philosophy, and Margaret Renkl’s Graceland, At Last, which is a collection of deeply-felt essays about the complex and complicated South.

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Bradley Sides' writing appears at Chapter 16, Chicago Review of Books, Electric Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, The Rumpus, and Southern Review of Books. He holds an MA from the University of North Alabama and is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte, where he serves as Fiction Editor of Qu. He lives in Florence, Alabama, with his wife, and he can be found on most days teaching creative writing and English in southern Tennessee. Those Fantastic Lives is his debut.

Ashley M. Jones is named Alabama’s first Black poet laureate

Although the news is everywhere now, we are still delighted to share that Ashley M. Jones has been named Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama. She will serve a four-year term from 2022-2026. She received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida’s Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer’s Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including CNN, the Academy of American Poets, POETRY, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Fjords Review, Quiet Lunch, Poets Respond to Race Anthology, Night Owl, The Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, pluck!, Valley Voices: New York School Edition, Fjords Review: Black American Edition, PMSPoemMemoirStory (where her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016), Kinfolks Quarterly, Tough Times in America Anthology, and Lucid Moose Press’ Like a Girl: Perspectives on Femininity Anthology. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. She was an editor of PANK Magazine. Her debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, was published by Hub City Press in January 2017, and it won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Her second book, dark // thing, won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her third collection, REPARATIONS NOW! is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Hub City Press. She won the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press, and she is the 2019 winner of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Jones is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and a 2020 Alabama Author award from the Alabama Library Association. She was a finalist for the Ruth Lily Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship in 2020. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Jones is also a member of the Core Faculty at the Converse College Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine.

The Alabama State Poet Laureate Selection Committee for this term included:

• Dr. Charlotte Pence, Director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at University of South Alabama

• Dr. Jacqueline Trimble, Alabama State University

• Jay Lamar, former Executive Director of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission

• Jason McCall, University of North Alabama

• Alina Stefanescu, AWC Board Member / Recent Past President of the Alabama State Poetry Society

The selection committee chose Ms. Jones from among a stellar group of worthy nominees from all across the state. The committee was, itself, populated by an extraordinarily accomplished group of Alabama poets and literary arts advocates.

Given an extremely qualified, talented pool of nominees, the selection committee voted unanimously to advance to Ashley M. Jones to the Alabama Writer’s Cooperative membership as the official candidate.

Dr. Charlotte Pence chaired the selection committee, and she had this to say of the decision:

“The selection committee chose Ashley Jones for a number of significant reasons. Through her directing of Magic City Poetry Festival, teaching a range of ages in high school and college, as well as publishing multiple award-winning books, she has proven the ability to sustain multiple roles of educator, poet, organizer, and visionary. Jones is a nationally recognized poet who has a vision for advancing poetry in the state, as seen with her recent guest editorship position at Poetry magazine. What's more, her vision of poetry is inclusive of slam poetry, oral traditions, and outsider art. Jones is already an ambassador of poetry for the state and will elevate the visibility of all Alabama writers, including those who have been under-represented in the state's literary history. The committee praised her poetry's broad range that invites in the reader, along with an engaging tone and searing specificity. Jones's poetry is grounded in the real world, and does not shy from its complexities, complications, and challenges. In sum, her work engages Southern history and provides us with a new vision of how to interact within the arts and within our communities."

The poet laureate serves as the ambassador of poetry for the state. Roles and responsibilities include touring the state to make appearances at schools, universities, libraries and other state institutions, as well as give lectures, read poetry and hold workshops on a local and national level. This is a position of advocacy and community-building.

"In her poetry, Ashley is brilliant at knowing how to artfully 'follow the rules' of a given form or tradition and when to create her own more ingenious and elegant forms and rules. That's the way she leads, the way she teaches, and the way she advocates, too. We're so lucky she's going to be Alabama's chief advocate for poetry for the next four years."

AWC President T. J. Beitelman

MEDIA

“Ashley M. Jones selected as state’s new poet laureate” (Al.com)

“Meet Ashley M. Jones, the first Black poet laureate of Alabama” by Tira Davis (Bham Now)

“Birmingham teacher named first Black Poet Laureate of Alabama” by Sumner Harrell (ABC 33/40)

We were devastated to learn that Brian Voice Porter - a prominent Alabama poet, performer, teacher, and community activist who had presented three well-received talks at our recent annual conference - passed away suddenly and unexpectedly earlier this week.

Voice was a gifted artist and an exceptionally warm and gracious spirit who couldn't help but inspire those with whom he came into contact. Here are some links to several articles celebrating Voice's enormous contribution to the literary arts in Alabama:

“Brian Porter Hawkins is an Alabama Bright Light triggering a renaissance through Ensley Alive” by Karim Shamsi-Basha (Alabama News Center)

“5 reasons why Birmingham needs to know Brian Voice Porter Hawkins” (Bhmam Now)

“Brian Voice Porter Reading for Shelter in Magic Reading Series” (Magic City Poetry Festival)

“Brian Voice Porter Hawkins” (Starbucks Stories)

“Birmingham Poet And Activist Brian “Voice Porter” Hawkins Dies At 42” (WBMH)

“Brian ‘Voice Porter’ Hawkins, Birmingham artist/poet, dies at 42” (Birmingham Times)

“Birmingham mourning death of poet, activist Brian 'Voice Porter' Hawkins” (WVTM 13)

We will be posting Voice's presentations to our YouTube channel very soon. We were honored by his presence in life, and we count ourselves lucky to have these recordings as reminders of Voice's rich and deep reservoir of creative insight.

And we hold Voice’s words forward as an inspiration for Alabama writing community.

“I think success in the community depends on more community events and people. .. I think success in a community is: community.”

- Brian Voice Porter

For Immediate Release 

The Alabama Writers Cooperative invites all literary enthusiasts and word aficionados to its virtual Annual Conference on August 20th-22nd. The conference aims to strengthen and support the development of writers and poets across Alabama and beyond. Admission to the conference is free to members and non-members alike, though registration is required.

The aim of the conference is to underscore the AWC’s mission, which is to nurture and engage a diverse community of Alabama writers. 

In partnership this year with the Emmet O’Neal Public Library in Mountain Brook and the Birmingham chapter of PEN America, AWC is proud to present keynote speakers Randi Pink and Angela Jackson-Brown. Pink is the author of Into White and Girls like Us. Jackson-Brown wrote When Stars Rain Down, House Repairs, and Drinking from a Bitter Cup. 

Another highlight of this year’s conference is the expanded participation of established publishing industry professionals. Literary agent Erin Clyburn of The Jennifer DiChiara Literary Agency will review pitches by AWC members and offer feedback. There will also be a first-page reading panel, featuring Clyburn and literary agents Jemiscoe Chambers-Black (Andrea Brown Literary Agency) and Kaitlyn Johnson (Belcastro Literary Agency).

Other featured faculty in this year’s conference are Alabama Poet Laureate Jennifer Horn; 2021 Caldecott Honor winner Karim Shamsi-Basha; horror novelist Shaun Hamill; mystery writer Hank Early; screenwriter and novelist Joel Eisenberg; and literary agent Alec Shane (Writers House). 

The conference will also feature presentations by novelist and past AWC board president T. K. Thorne; Birmingham-based journalist Monique Jones, author of The Book of Awesome Black Americans; filmmaker and professor, Katie Boyer; renowned local spoken-word artist, Voice Porter; decorated poet and director of UAB’s Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop, Tina Braziel; and recent NEA Fellowship-winner and director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama, Charlotte Pence.

 In addition, AWC members will have the opportunity to submit samples of their original works in progress for free manuscript consultations offered by Mobile-based fiction writer Adam Prince; past AWC president and Alabama Poet Laureate emeritus, Sue Brannan Walker; and TJ Beitelman, who serves as current AWC president and chairs the Creative Writing department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

AWC is one of the oldest continuing writers’ organizations in the United States. Writers, aspiring writers, publishers, and members of the literary community are welcome to join. Sharing information, developing ideas, honing skills, and receiving practical advice are hallmarks of the annual conference.

Register to attend for free online.

Meet our 2021 faculty.

Questions should be directed to ACW Conference Chair JJ Jones at jjsayspoetryplz@me.com.

You can also download a copy of this press release here.

Description: This 90-minute Zoom presentation and workshop will discuss various facets of the poetry-writing process from invention to final revision. Participants will come away with effective strategies for generating poetic material, accessing authentic subject matter, and refining the sonic and imagistic contours of their verse.

All participants receive an autographed copy of Little Armageddon with $20 registration fee. 

To register, please download the following form and
send or postmark payment of $20 by July 15, 2021

PayPal: gfraser1963@gmail.com

Personal Check: Gregory Fraser, 438 N. Lakeshore Dr., Carrollton, GA 30117

Sponsored by Highland Avenue Eaters of Words

Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days by T. K. Thorne is a remarkable look at a historic city enmeshed in racial tensions, revealing untold or forgotten stories of secret deals, law enforcement intrigue, and courage alongside pivotal events that would sweep change across the nation.

An note from the author on how this book came about

Four men who loved the city of Birmingham, Alabama asked me to write a book. I look back on that day when I met them in the high-rise office of a prominent attorney. They were all strangers, decades older. They had lived through pivotal nation-changing days. Three of them had been in the thick of happenings. 

As I sat at the polished hardwood table, I thought possibly they assumed I was a scholar of civil rights because I had recently written a book about the investigation of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young black girls in Birmingham in 1963 (Last Chance for Justice), but to my surprise, the gentleman who invited me to that meeting said he had done so because of a totally different book, a historical novel set thousands of years in the past in ancient Turkey (Noah's Wife). I had to ask him why he thought that qualified me. He said, “If you could write a book about Noah's wife and make me believe that was what really happened, then you can tell the true stories of what happened here.” 

To say I was reticent was an understatement. What they were asking me to do seemed a huge commitment, and so much had been documented about the era, what could I possibly add? Then one of the men sent me his notes about a day in 1962 when he pushed through the double glass doors of The Birmingham News, weary from an all-night stakeout with police, and his eccentric, powerful boss shouted for him to join him for breakfast. What was said at that breakfast changed a young reporter's life and affected the tangled web of history. 

I was hooked.

After the better part of a decade, it is done. Regretfully, three of the fine gentlemen who trusted me to write this did not live to see it. I only hope I have been true to their vision.

Author T. K. Thorne

Available for pre-order from New South Books, Behind the Magic Curtain takes the reader inside Birmingham, Alabama, the city which spawned the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and affected world history. But that is not why it is known as The Magic City. It earned that nickname with its meteoric rise from a cornfield valley to an industrial boomtown in the late 1800s. Images of snarling dogs and fire hoses of the 1960s define popular perception of the city, obscuring the complexity of race relations in a tumultuous time and the contributions of white citizens who quietly or boldly influenced social change. Thorne reveals little-known or never-told stories of an intriguing cast of characters that include not only progressive members of the Jewish, Christian, and educational communities, but also a racist businessman and a Ku Klux Klan member, who, in an ironic twist, helped bring about justice and forward racial equality and civil rights. Woven throughout the book are the firsthand recollections of a reporter with the state’s major newspaper of the time. Embedded with law enforcement, he reveals the fascinating details of their secret wiretapping and intelligence operations. Thorne paints a multihued portrait of a city that has figured so prominently in history, but which so few really know.

What folks are saying

T. K. Thorne has hit another home run with Behind the Magic Curtain. For five and a half decades we have read accounts of the civil rights era in Birmingham and Selma written by those with a particular ax to grind. Thorne is an excellent reporter, recognizing the nuances that “outsiders” or opinionated writers could not see or chose to overlook. Her reading and especially her interviews over the past several years have been remarkable, allowing her to give far more accurate details than we have seen before. For those who want to know the secrets of what really went on behind the “magic curtain” in those pivotal nation-changing days, days that brought the Civil Rights Bill in 1964 and the Voting Rights Bill in 1965, this is an important book to read.
—Douglas M. Carpenter, Retired Episcopal minister and son of Alabama’s Episcopal Bishop, C. C. J. Carpenter.

In Behind the Magic Curtain, T. K. Thorne introduces us to those who operated behind the scenes in the civil rights movement in Alabama, shedding light on the individual moral complexities of these participants—some firebrands, some reluctant players, and some predators who worked for their own gain. This journalistic exploration of a complicated time in Alabama’s social history will sit comfortably on the shelf next to histories by Dianne McWhorter, Glenn Eskew, and Taylor Branch.
— Anthony Grooms, author of Bombingham and The Vain Conversation

Deeply engaging, Behind the Magic Curtain tells a forgotten part of the Birmingham story, prompting many “real time memories” for me. The lively and descriptive writing brought the characters and settings to life, while diving into the white community’s role in all its complexities. This is a treasure trove of stories about activities and perspectives not well known to the general public. In particular, journalist Tom Lankford’s sleuthing and the machinations of the Birmingham Police Department, along with the risk-averse role of the local newspapers, and a full blown portrait of the inscrutable Birmingham News VIP, Vincent Townsend, make for a fascinating read.
—Odessa Woolfolk, educator, community activist, and founding president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

“T.K. writes like a seasoned news editor, meticulously hunting down facts and laying out the context in a colorful, intriguing way. Behind the Magic Curtain documents many untold stories and faithfully relates my own personal, unforgettable memories of a time of racial transition in Birmingham.”
—Tom Lankford, journalist for The Birmingham News

“Novelist and former Birmingham Police Captain T.K. Thorne demonstrates there was more to Birmingham of the Civil Rights Era than Bull Connor, Klansmen, and African-American protestors.  Behind that “Magic Curtain,” an ethnically diverse group from downtown to the surrounding bedroom communities of ministers, priests, rabbis, newspaper reporters, and housewives comprised a community belying monikers like ‘Bomingham’ and ‘Murder Capital of America,’ and fighting for justice in the Magic City.”
—Earl Tilford, author of Turning the Tide: The University of Alabama in the 1960s

Available for Preorder now!

NewSouth Books
Amazon.com
BarnesandNoble.com

If you’d like to request a review copy of this book, please email Suzanne LaRosa at NewSouth Books: Suzanne@newsouthbooks.com

About the Author

T. K. Thorne has been passionate about storytelling and writing since she was a young girl, and that passion only deepened when she became a police officer. Graduating with a master’s in social work from the University of Alabama, Thorne served for more than two decades in the Birmingham police force, retiring as a precinct captain. She then became the executive director of City Action Partnership, a downtown business improvement district focused on safety, until retiring to write full time. Her books and essays include two award-winning historical novels (Noah’s Wife and Angels at the Gate); two nonfiction civil rights era works (Last Chance for Justice and Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days); and a dally with murder, mystery, and magic in House of Rose, the first novel in the Magic City Stories trilogy. She writes from her mountaintop home northeast of Birmingham, often with a dog and cat vying for her lap.

Executive Director, Ashley M. Jones

The annual Magic City Poetry Festival has arrived, and you can learn more about it and coming events from this fantastic feature piece by Jesse Chambers for Magic City Ink. A few excerpts:

In the popular mind, poets are often stereotyped as idealistic, otherworldly types who live — and write — solely in a world of their own fantasies.

But not Birmingham poet Ashley M. Jones.

“My poetry is about real life,” Jones said. “I write about myself, my family, my God, my state, the country in which I live.”

One should not turn to her work for cheap comforts, either.

“I write the truth — there is no room, in my mind, for sugar coating or avoiding what some folks think is difficult,” she said. “If I have something to say about lynching, I’m writing about lynching. If I have something to say about love, I’m writing about love.” 

Jones is a young writer  — she’s only 30 — but is also very confident, not just in her work but in her very being.

“At the root of it all is a deep commitment to spirit and to authenticity — I listen for what it is I need to say, and I say that thing as Ashley M. Jones,” she said. “I am enough, in life and on page.”

The Magic City Poetry Festival will include zoom and virtual events open to the entire community, wherever they may live. And it is free.

It’s a Magic City Poetry Festival annual tradition to host a reader who speaks truth, power, and justice into the space of Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Remembrance, This year, they are thrilled to host poet and creator Faylita Hicks. The reading will take place between 4:00 and 6:00 pm Central Standard Time on April 3rd!

It is free and open to the public. You can register for this event right here.

Other exciting events to add to your National Poetry Month celebration include conversations, poetry readings, workshops, and open mics.

Please join us on Saturday, April 10, at 3 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Central. Environmental fiction author Claire Datnow and nonfiction author Heather Montgomery will discuss: How powerful storytelling techniques are the keys to touching readers’ hearts, to ignite their imagination, and inspire them to build bridges to tomorrow. Designed for both fiction and nonfiction writers

Claire Datnow was born and raised In Johannesburg, South Africa. Her family originated from Linkuva, Lithuania. Claire taught creative writing to gifted and talented students in the Birmingham Public Schools. She earned an MA in Education for Gifted and a second MA in Public History. Her books for middle schoolers include The Adventures of the Sizzling Six, an eco-mystery series, and Edwin Hubble, Discoverer of Galaxies. Her books for adults include a memoir, Behind The Walled Garden of Apartheid and The Nine Inheritors. Claire has received numerous scholarships and awards, including the Alabama Conservancy Blanche Dean Award for Outstanding Nature Educator, a Beeson Samford Writing Project Fellowship, a Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Scholarship, and Birmingham Public School Teacher of the Year. She enjoys visiting schools to inspire students to write their own eco-mystery stories, to become wise stewards of the earth, and to take action in their own communities. Claire serves Southern Breeze as a local liaison. 

Heather Montgomery writes for kids who are wild about animals. Her subjects range from snake lungs to snail tongues. Heather’s 16 nonfiction books include: Bugs Don’t Hug: Six-Legged Parents and Their Kids (Charlesbridge),Who Gives a Poop? Surprising Science from One End to the Other (Bloomsbury), and Something Rotten: A Fresh Look at Roadkill (Bloomsbury), which is an NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Book, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a VOYA Nonfiction Honor Award Winner. Heather is a long-time volunteer with Southern Breeze and currently serves as our PAL liaison. 

 Both Claire and Heather are mentors for the Southern Breeze Mentorship Program! Thanks to Local Liaison Stephanie Moody for hosting this event. 

**The event is free, but registration is required. To register, please complete this form: Event Registration Form

Guest blogger and AWC member, Judy DiGregorio.

Get mad, then get published

Anger erupted in me like hot lava when an editor met with me to critique my manuscript at a writing conference. His insensitive comments irritated me so much that I fled home after the session, sat down at my computer, and literally pounded the keyboard as I began to flesh out an article rebutting each thing he said.   My fragile ego couldn’t handle honest feedback. 

 I wanted to be petted and stroked like my calico cat.  I wanted to be tickled under the chin.  Instead, the editor had informed me, in effect, that my writing had fleas. To work through my anger and frustration, I wrote an article about the experience called “Feedback: Who Needs It?” In the article, I addressed each criticism and suggestion the editor had offered during my evaluation.  

After I cooled down, I realized the suggestions he offered me were invaluable.  They were specific. They were accurate.  They were true. I needed to hear them.    

After several rejections, I successfully sold the article to Inscriptions, the e-zine for professional writers.  Then I sent a copy of it to the editor, thanking him for the suggestions that had enabled me to publish the article.  I was still a beginning writer, but I had already learned one lesson.  Accept criticism gracefully and learn from it.  I wanted to be the best writer I could be, but I could not improve without help. 

I continued writing and submitting my work. During a particularly frustrating period, I received 27 rejection letters in a row.  Finally, I received a handwritten note scribbled on the bottom of a form letter from an editor at Field and Stream.  The note chastised me for not paying more attention to the magazine guidelines. 

Under the note, the editor had scrawled a word that electrified me -- “Retry.”   This editor obviously recognized my talent, even if she didn’t accept this particular piece. I kissed the letter reverently and stuffed it into my pocket.  In my excitement, I pulled it out to read and reread. 

 Unfortunately, when I scanned the letter again the next day, I made a startling discovery.  The scribbled word at the bottom of the page matched the signature block on the letter. It didn’t say ‘Retry.’  It said ‘Betsy,’ the editor’s first name.  In my desperation to be published, I had misread the editor’s handwritten signature.  My hopes of fame and fortune popped quicker than a balloon.

 Back to the computer I crawled.  I wrote an article detailing the experience entitled “Desperately Seeking Publication.”   After several more rejections, I finally sold this article to Inkspot, another online publication for writers.  Unfortunately, Inkspot folded before publishing it so I resold the article to The Writing Parent .

After publishing several articles in regional and local magazines, I lobbied the editor of our local paper to give me a humor column.  I informed him that I was dependable, funny, and cheap.  He didn’t care.  I left him sample columns and persisted in visiting him every three months.  After nine months, he finally gave me a column -- to stop my visits, I guess.  Unfortunately, he took another job after my column appeared four times.   The interim editor cut back on local columnists so I was once more columnless.  

When a new editor finally started work, I employed the same strategy I had with the first editor. Again, I had to wait almost a year.  This time the editor offered me a humor column in the newspaper’s supplementary publication, Senior Living magazine.  I accepted at once and am still writing for it. The pay is low, but the exposure is high. The magazine is distributed in hospitals, fitness centers, credit unions, and hotels. Writing for Senior Living has given me a great deal of visibility and added to my writing credentials.  

I’ve learned quite a bit since that first painful writing critique several years ago. I’ve learned to handle rejection and accept criticism.  I’m a woman of small talents and big feet.  Yet, I’ve learned that patience and persistence enable me to successfully publish in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. You can do it, too. 

Just be patient, be persistent, and be published! #  

JUST START

Stop procrastinating and start writing.  Grab a pencil and paper or sit down at your computer.  Write something.   Write anything.  Write a letter to your husband, your mother, or your doctor.   Keep a small notebook with you and jot down any ideas that occur to you during your daily routine.  Ideas are like bubbles so capture them quickly before they pop.

Take a writing class on the Internet or at a local college. Try to become the best writer you can be.  Join a local writers’ group.  Attend a writing conference.

Accept that you will have to make sacrifices to find time to write.   Most of us work full time and write in our spare time.  Turn off the television and turn on your brain.  Cultivate this habit.

Review and revise your work after the first draft.  Wait several days or weeks before doing it.  What sounded like Shakespeare when you initially wrote it may now sound like gibberish.  

Touch someone with your writing.  Nothing will give you more encouragement than hearing the words, “I loved your article.”  Polish and perfect your work before you submit it.  Writing takes both skill and determination. All you have to do is start!

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Judy DiGregorio is recognized as a Woman of Distinction in the Arts by the YWCA. She is also a Distinguished Alumna of New Mexico Highlands University. She has published hundreds of columns and essays in The Writer, Army-Navy Times, New Millennium Writings, the Chicken Soup books, and numerous anthologies and has worked as a humor columnist for Anderson County Visions Magazine, Senior Living andEvaMag. Judy's collection of humorous essays, Life Among the Lilliputians from Celtic Cat Publishing , was featured at the 2009 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. She also participated in the 2010 Southern Festival with her second book, Memories of a Loose Woman. Celtic Cat Publishing also released a CD, Jest Judy, read by the author and available on itunes, and also published her third humor book, Tidbits, in the summer of 2015. 

Judy has served on the Playhouse Board of Directors where she frequently performs on stage and has prepared over 100 press releases. She has been featured on Channel 10 “Your Stories” by Abby Ham, on Live at Five, and on WDVX Tennessee Shines Radio several times. Judy has spoken at the UT Writers in the Library Series, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex, as well as numerous writing conferences and festivals including the Tennessee Mountain Writers’ Conference in Oak Ridge, Alabama Writers’ Cooperative, and Chattanooga Writers Conference. In her spare time, Judy hangs out with her first (and last) husband and writes light verse and humorous essays, sings with the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church Choir, performs Sephardic Hispanic music with Vera Maya, and cuddles her great granddaughter.

by Claire Datnow

The gale force winds of climate change are calling. They’re calling to scientists, writers, and artists to weave stories that will inspire the children of tomorrow to dream up a brighter future. Happily, many are responding to that call with a spate of new nature and environmental narratives which use science as a springboard to create powerful children’s literature. After decades of misinformation, denial, and inadequate attempts to reduce the dire impact of climate change young people around the world are troubled, angry, and frustrated. They are searching for ways to understand and to take action. 

Compelling narratives interwoven with science can entertain, educate, inspire, and empower them. I am certain that young people studying the natural sciences from kindergarten to college will bloom into the next generation of environmental leaders. They will understand the science and the issues underpinning society’s challenging ecological problems. And they will apply their knowledge to create a stronger connection between what must be done and how to get things done. Still, we need something more to close that chasm between cognition and action. We need something to electrify us, move us, spur us on, to stop us in our tracks. 

Science and literature can cross-fertilize one another. Storytellers need to understand the powerful methods of science that provide solutions to pressing problems, and scientists need to apply the building blocks of powerful writing to become better communicators. For me, the books I will write will always be grounded in science. Telling a moving story about climate change does not mean making up facts—we have enough of that already—the basis of the narrative has to be the truth and reality of climate change. As storytellers we hold the keys to touching our readers' hearts, to ignite their imagination to build a bridge to tomorrow, and empower them to take action for the greater good of humanity and the wellbeing of the Earth. We need to reject narratives of division. We need storytellers from all disciplines to blur boundaries, expand empathy, and stretch our capacity for caring. The winds of change are calling loud and clear for narratives that will illuminate our vital connection to one another and to this precious blue planet on which all life depends. 

Claire Datnow was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, which ignited her love for the natural world and for indigenous cultures. Her published works include a middle grade Eco mystery series. She taught gifted and talented students creative writing and ecology. Together with her students she founded a nature trail, now named in her honor, the Alabama Audubon-Datnow Forest Preserve. She would love for you to read her memoir, BEHIND THE WALLED GARDEN OF APARTHEID .

Resources on Environmental Literature for Parents & Educators

 The books range from mysteries to thrillers, yet they all share strong environmental themes.

The Adventures of the Sizzling Six Eco mystery series by Claire Datnow.

Blogs on Environmental Fiction and a list of books (upper elementary and middle grades) 

Environmental Novels in Juvenile and Young Adult Fiction

Chapter Books to Inspire Young Environmental Advocates

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