February 10, 2011 Like many girls in the mountains of East Tennessee, including her own mother, novelist Amy Greene married young and had a baby soon thereafter. But her story does not feature the failed dreams or tragic unhappiness many readers might expect. Instead, Greene remains the happily married mother of two children, and her novel, Bloodroot, was one of the most highly acclaimed books of 2010. As she writes in an essay for this month’s Glamour magazine, Greene is grateful for the choices she made at an age when others might have very different plans:
“I stopped being ashamed of my story long ago. I love where I am with the family I’ve made, minutes away from the farm I grew up on, hills still rising all around me. I’ve found the kind of success my mother has, the kind that comes with choosing your own path and learning from the obstacles along the way. Someday my daughter will be old enough to decide what success means to her. If she comes to me for advice, I’ll tell her there’s bound to be hardship, no matter what direction she chooses in life. And those struggles will strengthen her, making her more who she’ll be.”
Read the full essay here. Read a review of Bloodroot here. Read Chapter 16‘s interview with Amy Greene here.
For more updates on Tennessee authors, please visit Chapter 16‘s News & Notes page, here.
