Fountain Pen Envy

Something there is about the grace and charm of a fountain pen that attracts a writer’s fancy. The efficiency of a keyboard can’t be denied, but occasionally a fountain pen is the instrument I want for journaling or for the first draft of a difficult writing assignment. A fountain pen slows the hand to match […]

The Many Artistic Layers of Charleston Writer Nicole Seitz

August 19, 2015 · by Crystal Klimavicz | in Author Interviews | tagged Charleston sweetgrass basket weaving, Christian fiction, Christian fiction vs. mainstream fiction, Christian publishing market, Connecting with readers on social media, Nicole Seitz, Nicole Seitz artist, Nicole Seitz novelist, Religion as inspiration for art, Similarities and differences between painting and writing, Southern Literature, Writing as a calling | 2 Comments

I first met Nicole Seitz at Palmetto Christian Academy (PCA), a private Christian-based school that I was visiting for my son’s upcoming academic year. Clad in a smock apron, Nicole smiled warmly and had a smear of paint on her high cheekbones (though I may have imagined that part). Her personality was wholly and gracefully […]

Mapping the Promised Land: A Review of Jacksonland by Steve Inskeep

August 12, 2015 · by Christina Kaylor | in Book Reviews, Field Trips | tagged Andrew Jackson and Horseshoe Bend, Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal, Andrew Jackson and the Nullifiers, Cherokee Chief John Ross, Five Civilized Tribes, Georgia Gold Rush, Georgia Gold Rush and Indian Removal, Georgia vs. the Cherokee Nation, Indian Maps vs. White Maps, Indian Removal and Improving the Land, Indian Removal and Land Speculation, Jacksonland, John Marshall and the Samuel Worchester Case, John Ross vs. Andrew Jackson, Mary Louise Kelly, New Echota Capital of the Cherokee Nation, Steve Inskeep, The Cherokee Phoenix, Trail of Tears, Worchester v. Georgia | 6 Comments

I find maps fascinating, not so much for their directions, as for what their place names reveal. Take Georgia’s map, for example. First, some patriotic names: Jackson (also Jackson County, Jacksonville), Rossville, Jefferson (-ville and County, too), Madison, Monroe, and Washington (& County). Next, names suggesting homesickness, longing to travel, or even beauty: Oxford, Rome, […]

Three Long Mountains and a Wood

August 5, 2015 · by Brenda Lloyd | in Poets/ Poetry/ Performances, Profiles | tagged Camden Maine, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Feminism, Edna St. Vincent Millay early death, Edna St. Vincent Millay Lyric Poetry, Edna St. Vincent Millay Vassar College, Millay and "Renascence", Millay and "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver", Millay and Camden Maine, Millay and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry | 11 Comments

When I was in Camden, Maine, in late May, I took the Edna St. Vincent Millay walking tour. Granted, more than 100 years after this Pulitzer Prize-winning poet left the town where she grew up, there isn’t much left to see of her. The small house where she lived on Chestnut Street, a block away […]