On September 11 at 1:00 I’ll be talking about Beginning in the Middle: Starting to Write at Midlife. This comes with its on set of challenges (and advantages) Come join the hour-long conversation. Click: FREE WRITING CLASS at BORDERS

I am more than happy to announce that my new novel, The Healing, will be represented by New York uber-agent Marly Rusoff. It feels like karma. Pat Conroy, who is also on her client list, hooked me on the idea of writing about the South when I read his book, The Prince of Tides. The Healing is my second novel and explores the subversive nature of slave healers on a Mississippi plantation in 1860. It is such a wonderful feeling to have another human being, especially one as informed as Marly, share my enthusiasm for this project. I’ll keep you posted as we go to the publishers.

MISSISSIPPI PRESS ASSOICIATION (MPA) announced that the column I wrote for The Review of Jones County, a paper in Laurel, Mississippi, (my hometown) has been awarded First Place for a Series of Stories. The columns were based on interviews I did while collecting background information for my upcoming novel, The Healing. Dozens of people, black and white, shared their family lore concerning the county’s scandalous Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow past. MPA judges singled out the series for special mention by offering an additional commendation: “Phenomenal! What a great idea and what great reading! Riveting from the start. By embracing all the controversy and giving space to all those voices, you’ve created a truly engrossing series for your readers. First by a huge margin!”

I’m happy to share a few of those columns with you as they appeared in The Review. Click here!

Grounding Your Work in the Material World

One of the challenges most writers face is how to move their work out of the uninviting realm of lifeless narrative, numbing backstory, deadening detail, and intellectual aloofness. What’s the remedy? We become skilled at creating worlds brimming with life. We employ techniques to suffuse that world with weather, history, flora and fauna, flesh, blood, and bone, the beating heart. As the playwright Anton Chekhov advised, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” For a reader, it is the difference between reading the menu and eating the food. Working either with their own material or with passages provided by the teaching artist, participants will translate the mundane into the sublime by applying the following concepts covered in lecture: giving life to your characters; identifying emotional entry points for the reader; enlisting “place” as a character; transforming the intellectual into the physical; giving voice to the elements; inferring feeling without naming emotions; and showing time without watches, calendars, or history lessons. Bring a bag lunch (or purchase lunch at Coffee Gallery).

Instructor: Jonathan Odell

Age Group: Adult

Location: Open Book

Day: Saturdays

Date: Click Here for Future Offerings

Time: 9 a.m. — 4 p.m.

For more details

Directions

The Loft Literary Center

Sept. 23 – “St. Luke Reads” – Summer Program on Race, Culture and Personal Story

Sponsor: St. Luke Presbyterian Church

From the Sponsor’s Newsletter: Celebrated author Jonathan Odell will talk about his experiences with racism growing up in Mississippi and the power of personal story to heal and transform relationships as he introduces us to his historical novel, TheView from Delphi, on Thursday, May 20 at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary.

All St. Luke book clubs, the senior high youth and other interested readers are encouraged to attend and then read this illustrative novel. We will reconvene two months later with Jon on Thursday,September 23 at 7:00 p.m. to share insights we have gained from the novel that relate to the difficult issues facing America today: spirituality, sexuality, racism, prejudice, culture, class, and injustice. Copies of the novel will be available for $14 at the May 20 program.

Border’s Books has generously offered to contribute 20% of book proceeds to St. Lukes.

Address: 3121 Groveland School Road, Wayzata, MN., 55391
Phone: 952.473.7378

Directions

Reading Group Questions for “The View from Delphi”