Tell the Story
This is the last part of my interview with Norma Watkins–check out part 1 and part 2 if you missed them. These questions focus on writing, memoir in particular. Angela: Early in The Last Resort, you, as the narrator, ask, “If I got that wrong, what else have I misremembered?” Sometimes I am tempted to write […]
read moreThis is Part 2 of my email interview with Norma Watkins. Part 1 is here. Part 3 will be up tomorrow. Angela: You write about yourself on your wedding day, “I was everything a well-brought-up white southern woman was supposed to be, everything my father and those sixty thousand and counting Citizens’ Council members vowed […]
read moreI had the pleasure of meeting Norma Watkins, author of The Last Resort: Taking the Mississippi Cure, in a creative writing class with Lynne Barrett that we took together at FIU years ago. I loved Norma’s writing then, especially because her nonfiction included recipes. I remember Really Good Granola–I think she brought some to class. I […]
read moreMy cell phone rang yesterday right before my talk. It was A., a young survivor of dating violence. She left Miami a few weeks ago, gone away to college on a scholarship. Perfect timing. I asked her, what is the one thing you would tell the girls I’m going to talk to? Tell them to […]
read moreRemember this video from last year? We still have a situation on our hands, and Tara Sophia Mohr has organized another Girl Effect Blogging Campaign. Last year I focused on the situation for girls in the developing world. This year, especially since learning that according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, young women in the […]
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For years I kept secrets in silence. Then, once upon a time, I spoke and wrote them to a handful of people and began to blog anonymously. Today I tell my stories face-to-face, online, and in a memoir coming soon. Telling our stories leads to freedom, empowerment, and growth, for both the teller and the told. Is today your once upon a time, your time to tell your story?
