This essay originally appeared in Touchstone, a publication of Humanities Tennessee, in 1986.
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The Home That Lies Always in Memory
Novelist and scholar Richard Marius hauntingly recalls the farm where he grew up in East Tennessee
Essays
Summer Reading
Once upon a time, Donna Parker and Trixie Belden saved a lonely little girl
For a child in small-town Alabama, books provided solace in summers without friends and activities.
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Remembering George
It was 1966, and only one of us died in Vietnam
On Memorial Day I always think of my friend George Mangrum of Lauderdale County, Alabama. This is his story. It needs to be told.
Holy Ground
Writers across the state—and the nation—are grieving the loss of Rivendell Writers’ Colony
Rivendell Writers’ Colony, established in 2013, is closing its doors at the end of March. I’m still in shock at the news because Rivendell was flourishing, on course to be a nationally known residency program, but its benefactor has now made other plans for the property.
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Around the Table
In a polarized political world, a holiday meal is unexpectedly universal
My mother has dementia, but her old friends in no way shunned or ignored her. She was clearly happy to be there among them, and she said over and over again what wonderful people they are. There was no talk of politics, race, or religion within my hearing.
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A Friend from Chile
The seeds of a novel are sown in a friend’s disappearance
Worrying for years about a question with no answer is more than a little neurotic. It can also provide fertile soil for plot development.
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