Several days ago, Polly told me to come over and she’d walk me through the process of making bread with yeast. I put my painting and writing aside, loaded the ingredients I needed for cooking, and headed over to her place. We worked in the kitchen for some time, humming along with Brandi Carlile. From [...]
Derick Thompson, better known as Candid Coal People, a one-man band, released a new album, Big River and The Infamous They, recorded while stuck at home as a result of Covid restrictions in 2020. And the album is a prize. Though I’d been following his journey on Facebook, I didn’t realize until a few months [...]
This separation, this island, this fading color, this leakage of my inner self—I’m left searching for words. I wonder if they are leaking from me.
When my husband controls the steering wheel he heads toward his destination and notices little else. I, on the other hand, slow and stop along the way to satisfy my curiosity. My most exciting discoveries have happened while out gallivanting, wandering the countryside with my feet in brogans and no destination in mind. During such [...]
My first visit to McMillan Cemetery located in the countryside near Alapaha was about twelve years ago, and I’ve been back several times since, most recently during the summer of 2019. According to historical documents, Daniel McMillan's five slaves were buried near him in the cemetery. Their graves were marked with cypress cut 1" thick, [...]
Mazie Werner gives some of her books to the library and takes a story. Free libraries are popping up in Tifton. My friend Polly Huff has a free library provided by Tifton Twentieth Century Library Club. Made from a vintage newspaper kiosk, it is located in Pebblebrook and filled with children’s books. The day I [...]
Minutes before I wash your sumptuous curls in warm water, with dish soap, no perfumed shampoo to be found, your voice drops susurrus syllables, mellifluous secrets between us, ethereal in hindsight, and not a baby picture of you hanging in this house. If I were to sit you down and say I believe you were [...]
As I stepped from the cabin, the gnarled fingers of winter touched my face and goosebumps covered my body. A moment later, a blast of wind swooshed through my hair. Ahab, my pit pull/golden lab, followed me down the porch steps and up a winding trail, the wind coming in spurts. Wearing jeans, boots, and [...]
"Faded beauty clings like dust to the shadows of her chiseled face. A straight-spined woman, she holds her head stiff and elevated, her chin jutting out, her lips tight and cobwebbed, as though she’s never spoken poetry, never prayed with a smile on her mouth, never licked syrup from her lips."~~Samuel's Wife by Brenda Sutton [...]
I owe much thanks to the editors of The BroadKill Review for believing in "Samuel's Wife," one of my short stories, for sending me the most beautiful acceptance letter I've ever received after I submitted the story for publication, for relishing in its conflict, language, and metaphors, and for honoring me with a prestigious Pushcart [...]
Brenda Sutton Rose 