My Writing
My words are a way to preserve what time and progress threaten to erase: a simpler, perhaps harder life filled with quiet wonder.
From a childhood spent reading on long school bus rides to a life spent teaching literature, stories are a part of me. Here, you’ll learn about my memoir in progress, my essays and reflections, and glimpses of a disappearing world alive in memory and in a present-day family farm.
A memoir of family, land, and legacy.
At its heart, my memoir in progress is a love letter to the land and family that shaped me.
In these pages, I return to my family’s small tobacco farm and weave together a narrative of childhood’s hard lessons and of a family enduring challenges. It’s a story of resilience, belonging, and sometimes difficult ties between people and place.
The seeds of this memoir were planted long ago in the fields where I grew up working, laughing, struggling, and dreaming.
In recent years, as I’ve watched farmland and crops give way to more and more housing developments, I am called to capture my memories and write of a fleeting way of life that needs to be remembered.
Published Work & Featured Articles
Discover my writing beyond this space through a curated selection of published pieces that reflect the themes I return to most — memory, place, and the quiet beauty of everyday life. Each link leads to work that expands on the stories and reflections shared here, offering new perspectives rooted in lived experience. More articles will be added as new pieces are published.
How Searching for Writing Topics Became a Search for Truth and Beauty
In this reflective essay, I explore how a simple struggle to find a writing topic transformed into a deeper search for truth, beauty, and the imaginative spark that first drew me to literature. From memories of teaching Romantic poets to rediscovering inspiration in a single raindrop, the piece follows the winding path of creativity and the moments of transcendence that guide it.
Secrets of My Southern Roots
A forgotten farmhouse and an unmarked grave on my family’s North Carolina land set the stage for an unexpected journey into the past. What began as a single question about my great-grandfather grew into a deeper exploration of long-lost voices, untold histories, and the stories that shape a family’s legacy.
Notes from home
— My blog, essays, and other writing.
Notes from home is where I share the roots of my writing — personal essays, reflections on rural life, stories from behind the scenes of my memoir journey, and my advocacy work for farmland preservation and historic conservation.
Each piece invites you into a world shaped by crossroad country stores, family, and the enduring spirit of the South.
Come sit for a while, wander through the fields with me, and explore the places where past and present meet.
Join me on this journey.
Sign up to receive “What We Lose When Farmland Disappears,” my perspective on the effects of the loss of farms in a vanishing rural South. You’ll also receive “Field Notes,” where I share personal stories and reflections on farm life and farm preservation.
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