Features, Interviews and Reviews
I was on a road trip with my husband and heard an NPR story on the University of Virginia Medical Center program that attempted to corroborate the past life stories of young children with the experiences they describe. These children talk about being in war, the Holocaust and being present during terrorism. The researchers would hear the stories and look at news accounts and records to see if they matched the details of the story the children told. A surprising number of times they did match. The idea was so big, so fascinating. The only way I had the courage to try to tell a story based on this phenomenon was to let myself off the hook when it came to explaining the unexplainable. I wrote the story in as straightforward a fashion as I could, deeply exploring each character's experience of it and letting them draw any eventual conclusions as to what was going on. I was anchored in the telling by my desire to explore a truth we all know: the life we get often isn't the one we expected to get. We are all tested. What matters is how we rise to the test.
We often think of genres as disparate categories, each with their own norms and limits, but craft can bridge these gaps offering a novel written with the precision of a short story and a short story collection that offers an expansive view of the world. Such is the case with Beware the Tall Grass, a debut novel by Ellen Birkett Morris, and Spatfall, a debut short story collection by Abby Lipscomb. Beware the Tall Grass won the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence judged by Lan Samantha Chang and will be published by Columbus State University Press on March 15. Spatfall won the 2023 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction judged by David James Poissant and is now available from Willow Springs Books.
Morris and Lipscomb, both Southern writers and alumni of Queens University MFA program, got together to share their thoughts on story, process, and what makes a great read.
The idea of children with past life memories grabbed me and would not let go. I don't believe in ghosts, have never had a supernatural experience, and don't watch scary movies, but the dramatic potential of the story captivated me. I would spend the next eight years crafting Beware the Tall Grass, a novel that took a straight ahead look at the dilemma of a mother who wants to build the perfect childhood for her young son, whose consciousness is shadowed by memories of life as a soldier in Vietnam. As the novel progressed, I added a second POV character, a soldier serving in Vietnam.
Jessikah chats with reluctant novelist Ellen Birkett Morris about BEWARE THE TALL GRASS, a beautifully written novel about a mother, a son, and another man's history that haunts the child's dreams. Ellen talks about past lives, open minded skepticism, and how motherhood can challenge a marriage as presented in this lovely book.
Ellen Birkett Morris's Lost Girls gives an inside view of the bedrooms, workplaces, gathering places, and, most importantly, minds of originally drawn Southern women as they navigate the world and struggle to reconcile southern mores with their own desires.
Jenny Offill, author of Weather, Dept of Speculation, and Last Things had this to say about Birkett Morris's writing: "A dazzling collection of stories that showcases Morris' impressive ability to hide devastating truths within seemingly small moments."
I wrote about the experiences of lots of different women in Lost Girls, but I had the same goal with each character, that she be unforgettable. Here are some of the things I did to make my characters stand out:
RAVE
YVETTE BENAVIDES,
TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO
Blink and you won't be able to figure out how she does it. But then, don't blink. Stare as hard as you can. Retrace favorite paragraphs and lines and still be mystified about her pointillistic ability to create the images and lines that take the breath out of your body and create the unforgettable lost girls ... Even when they can begin to discern the magician's obvious and ordinary tricks, they still seek to find a form of extraordinary magic to trust in and live through.
An aging woman removes all the mirrors in her house. A girl, haunted by the disappearance of her neighbor, enacts a yearly ritual of remembrance. A grieving mother and an obnoxious teenager make an unlikely connection over a drum set.
"It's this idea of being seen as your authentic self," explained author Ellen Birkett Morris, whose short story collection, Lost Girls, was released in June 2020. "There are recurring stories of loss … and yet, ultimately, in the mix of all of that are moments where people honor other people's unique experience."