Unsilenced Woman

Friends in Jackson, today is one of the best days of the year: the Mississippi Book Festival! Free and open to all. It’s the place to go for big hearts and big ideas, a wonderland of stories. I’m honored to moderate a multi-genre panel on motherhood.

“Motherhood: Raising Children, Raising Ourselves”
Raising children rearranges a life, and these writers get the whole of it onto the page: the mess, the humor, and the love.
4:00 p.m.
State Capitol 204

We’re in the last panel slot, so we’ll end the day by talking about where it all begins: motherhood. Come join us.

I’ll be signing books at 5:15. Come by to say hi and get a free sticker or a hug!

An invitation to dip into intimate space with your voice and your story. Seven days of devotion to the light that brings warmth, pleasure, and the juices of fruits.

We’ll lean toward the sensory world and the weird whispers as we slow down to notice what’s alive for you in this season and where the light is coming from.

Let’s ride out summer’s last light together until the equinox, moving closer to our life-heat and to what is emerging.

🌞🌑SUMMER BODIES, SUMMER LIGHT 🌕🌞
✨September 17-23
✨A FREE one-week writing prompt cycle by email
✨Last year 100 people wrote together!
🏹 Join via the link in my bio.

These prompts have been working their way through me all summer. Nothing pre-fabbed here. It’s all from my wondrous and messy human body that sits down to write on my porch in Mississippi every day—and often takes writing walks too. And turns a fan on high to keep the mosquitoes off my skin.

I work intentionally to craft an arc in my prompt cycles, with the days building and in conversation with each other.

The prompts are designed as timed freewrites, but we’ll sneakily play with some craft tools like repetition, braiding, verb tense, and scenes in accessible, low-pressure ways.

All you need to do is set aside 10 minutes each day for one week, and I’ll guide you through the rest.

🕯️Who’s in? And who wrote along last year? Say hi in the comments! I’d love to hear what’s pulling you to write this week. What call are you answering?

p.s. I love that 44 people have already signed up! Y’all wanted in before I even described what it was. You felt one big “Yesssss” or had the curiosity to dabble. That’s the energy. Can’t wait to commune across time and space.

Photos by Grace Ann Elinski | Mississippi Photographer

At 39 I water two saplings through summer’s sun, fig and persimmon. Every day I notice the sky and the clouds. If there is a moon visible, I am probably looking for it. If the moon is in shadow, I note the qualities of darkness.

At 39 I look like I might know something and be willing to share it. Two young women—strangers—approach me in the produce section for guidance: “Does this onion look okay?” We turn the onion together, a rotation of peely layers and ragged edges, places where ground has touched. It’s okay.

At 39 I know how to love my body toward health. I look for the signs of “Rest, soak, ease,” and the signs of “Move, sweat, challenge.” Best I can, I try to teach my children the same.

At 39 I am a devotee to my cycles of expansion and contraction. I am in awe of how much I can shine in full summer sun and also how deeply I need to retreat into the protection and germination of darkness. Both.

My magic is in moving between those places, which is why you haven’t seen me here in a long while. I contracted from this space in order to expand in others. And oh have I.

But now I’m back. As of late August, it’s the last year of my thirties, and a friend who’s 45 told me, “Every year I just get more and more free.” Yes yes.

Are you ready to get more free together?

First up:
🌞🌑SUMMER BODIES, SUMMER LIGHT 🌕🌞
✨A FREE one-week writing prompt cycle by email
✨Let’s ride out summer’s last light together to the equinox. Last year 100 people wrote together!
🏹 Join via the link in my bio. I can’t wait to see what unfolds for you and for us.
*Look for more info tomorrow*

📸 : Grace Ann Elinski | Mississippi Photographer