Your Favorites of 2023
I’m using our annual top favorites of the year to intrigue you and solicit your response. I thought the list was surprising.
Was it surprising to you? — Sallie
Kindness
Such a bland word, and I haven’t always appreciated its value, assuming that kindness is just one of our many gifts as human beings.
That Debutante Summer
My rebellion, uncomfortable as it was—for my classmates were my closest friends—also signaled my leaving the South, going to college, settling in the Northeast and marrying a man my mother’s friends identified, with horror, as a Yankee…
The Writer’s Life
Gertrude Stein managed her life to make her writing possible.
The Grip of the Past
I’ve just received word that my new short story, “What I Learned From Fat Annie” has won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize for 2023.
Written by Worth
We are still frequently silenced, either by our own fears or the manifest disapproval of the men and women around us.
Touching Camille
To me, Camille Claudel’s story represents in heartbreaking terms the problems faced by talented women who depend on recognition by a better-known man.
Talking the Train Talk
Everywhere I travel on Amtrak, I meet people who are dedicated to avoiding planes.
A Patch of Blue Sky
I remember with increased gratitude the women I’ve known who, no matter what their circumstances, were able to continue to bring me light, warmth and humor.
Hanging On
I’m visiting my old farm, Wolf Pen Branch Mill, ten miles east of Louisville, Kentucky for a few days, and find myself appalled, as always, by the spread of development.
We Had to Be Unlike Others to Survive
New thoughts about the way we are raising our sons are uppermost in my mind.