5 Reasons the Best Writers Come from Mississippi
Posted on 24 June 2007
I’m responding to an author’s challenge to write five reasons about where the best writers come from. I instantly thought of my former home state of Mississippi, and the only real dilemma was cutting the list down to just 5. What to leave out?
Small-town life gives us so many stories to tell. There’s no shortage of local eccentrics to chronicle. It’s a culture that reveres good dogs, family ties, loyal friends, the glory of sports, and, of course, storytelling. It’s also a state known for its potent brew of politics, civil rights struggles, fundamentalist religion, and poverty; pain, controversy, fire and brimstone, and struggles make for stronger characters on the page and poised over the keyboard. (Do you like how I worked in more reasons in this intro? We’re sneaky, too.)
But I decided on these key points:
1. We can ALL pronounce “Yoknapatawpha.”
2. A love of home and history seeps into the bedrock of our lives. No one really has to explain that “The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past.”
3. Quirky, complicated and highly individualistic writers/artists fit right in with the Southern love of characters. There’s no problem if you want to move through life stages that include watercolor artist, Baptist preacher, Harley owner, newspaper journalist, and murder mystery writer.
4. Grit from our day jobs — lawyers, firefighters, and National Park Service Rangers — filters into the fiction.
5. We know dark comedy and crazy families.
How’s that, Rosina? The meme contest is a great marketing idea and a fun project.
[tags]Mississippi authors, Southern writers, Southern authors, Southern fiction, Mississippi writers[/tags]
Tied to the Tracks by Rosina Lippi. July 3, 2007. ISBN: 0425215326″[This] is a hilarious, smart, sexy novel with a heart of gold.” — Susan Wiggs
“[Lippi] turns her buoyant creative talents to the romantic comedy genre with an effervescent tale of a trio of offbeat Yankee filmmakers plunked down deep in the heart of Dixie.” — Booklist
Read an excerpt. (Adobe Reader required)| Watch the book trailer
You can find Tied to the Tracks at Amazon , Barnes & Nobel, Borders, Powells, or at your local independent bookseller.
This meme has been entered in the Tied to the Tracks contest, originating on Rosina Lippi’s Storytelling2 weblog. If you’d like to enter the BUCKS & BOOKS meme contest, get the rules here.
6 responses to 5 Reasons the Best Writers Come from Mississippi
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That was fantastic. Well done. Grit, indeed.
Could you please enter your info in the box at the bottom of the rules post? Trying to keep track of who’s participating.
You have been selected for a Thinking Blogger Award and so named in a post at Hill Country of Monroe County at http://hillcountryofmonroecountry.blogspot.com/2007/06/ive-been-tagged.html In addition to being able to display the award logo, you also get to name five other bloggers worthy of the award if you wish to participate.
You make me think! And I hope you will participate by naming five bloggers you feel worthy of the award.
Terry Thornton
Hill Country
Fulton, MS
The award was started by:
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/
Specific information is available at:
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/04/5-more-blogs-that-make-me-think.html
Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.
The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.
Hi, Rosina — done! I look forward to seeing what others generate on this meme.
Terry — Thanks very much! I’ve added the “Thinking Blogger Award” icon on the bottom right column of my front page, with a link to your site as well. You’ve given me some new blogs to add to my must-read list (yours and the one that started this award) and a chance to highlight some of my current favorites; I’ll post my five nominees shortly.
)
It was also a blast to hear from a Monroe County resident. I used to work for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo(I was Carolyn McCullough back then) and covered your area, among others. Good people. Good to hear from you!
[...] 5 Reasons the Best Writers Come from Mississippi [...]
We can ALL pronounce “Yoknapatawpha.”
Lol. I’m thinking of all the youngsters who are going to read that and wonder where the heck it is.
This might be a good omen: you won everything I read last week.
Thanks, Lynn! I’m still grinning about getting the incoming box of books from you. I was looking up some of the unfamiliar titles last night on Amazon.com from your posts about this giveaway and also getting excited about books from the authors I know. What a great way to end the day, to come home to a real “You won!” e-mail.
Re the Faulkner county name reference, the funny thing to a native Mississippian is that it really does sound like other Indian-named counties and cities in the state — like Yalobusha, Tishomingo, Itawamba, and Oktibbeha counties, or the cities of Pelahatchie, Bogue Chitto, and Escatawpa. (You should hear what it sounds like on TV on election night when they’re announcing results.) So someone is probably right now diligently searching for Yoknapatawpha on Mapquest, heh-heh.