BOOKS BY MY FRIENDS
Lost Girls: Short Stories by Ellen Birkett Morris
Welcome to Books By My Friends, Ellen! You have a lovely collection of short stories to share with us today. Let’s get started.
JH: What’s the blurb for your book Lost Girls: Short Stories?
EBM: "The female characters in Lost Girls both startle and uplift us, but most importantly they demand to be seen. Set in and around the fictional southern mining town of Slocum, each of the seventeen stories in this collection features complex women and girls in pivotal moments of loss, self-discovery, and rebellion. With the same ease found in her Bevel Summers Award-winning short story, “May Apples,” Morris weaves in difficult topics effortlessly. In this collection, she does the important work of showing women as complicated, resourceful, erotic, unlikable, and bold in the face of societal pressures and outright violence against them."--Southern Review of Books
JH: What inspired you to write the book?
EBM: I wanted to tell the often overlooked stories of the challenges and triumphs of women's lives. The stories are sad and funny, and uplifting.
JH: What one thing do you love most about writing?
EBM: I love the moment when I come up with the right word or image to capture a character. It is such a thrill.
JH: What’s next for you in the way of writing/publishing?
EBM: I am seeking representation for a novel that tells the story of a mother whose son has past life memories and the soldier whose memories the son has.
JH: How can readers contact you?
EBM: ellenbirkettmorris.ink
EBM: I love the moment when I come up with the right word or image to capture a character. It is such a thrill.
BIO:
Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Lost Girls, a collection of short stories called "a varied set of tales from a skilled practitioner of the short form" by Kirkus Reviews and "a dazzling collection of stories that showcases Morris' impressive ability to hide devastating truths within seemingly small moments" by Jenny Offill. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. She is a winner of the Bevel Summers Prize for short fiction. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council.
JH: Thank you, Ellen, for visiting BBMF today. Your short story collection sounds like a wonderful addition to the literary world and women’s fiction in particular. Please come back anytime!
All good things,
Joy
Check out this recent BBMF post celebrating author Dr. Bonnie Buchman and her heartwarming memoir Witness to Healing.
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These are wonderful stories! LOST GIRLS is terrific!
Great idea behind these stories! Good luck with the collection.