Once upon a time there was a man who looked like Santa Claus on a diet. He was mostly jolly

and “lived” in the downtown of a Magic City inside a magical bookstore that was way more

than a bookstore.

Okay, he didn’t actually “live” in the store, but it was definitely “home” for many years. The

man loved books so much that he not only collected them (along with a stupendous assortment

of stuff memorabilia), he also wrote them. Sometimes words came to him all at once out of

nowhere, and he hastily jotted them down or recorded them if driving. Sometimes they were

odd words. Sometimes profound. Sometimes funny. And thus was born his latest book, What I

Said.

Much is packed into this 373-page pocketbook of diverse, standalone thoughts. Each one gets

its own page. But all is not chaos. There are themes.

Signs:

“The shop sign reads: THE UNIFORM PEOPLE

What—are they clones?”

Fortune-telling:

“You will meet a tall, dark stranger.

He will ignore you.”

Ponderable:

“Where do unspoken words hang out?”

“What is it I know that I have yet to learn?”

“No island is a man.”

Art Commentary:

Bad art is necessary

in order to have good art.

Profound:

“I can’t do everything at once. I can’t even do one thing at once.”

“It was a dark and stormy night.

But then, that sometimes happens.”

Punny:

“The ghoulish neighbor each year

Planted his creep myrtles.”

(One example is enough, yes?)

And many odd jewels:

“My greatest hope is that Science

will find Cheese Curls to be

a sure path to a healthy life.”

And my personal favorite:

“You can’t have too many lava lamps.”

Where can you find a book written by Santa Claus Jim Reed, owner of Reed Books in

downtown Birmingham, Alabama? Why, at that very store and at abebooks.com.

Note: No consideration was given for this review other than a copy of the said book. It was my

privilege and pleasure to read it and recommend it.

Jim Reed is an octogenarian dabbler is words and ideas. He resides in Birmingham, Alabama,

and is known as “Poppy” to his offspring and their offspring and their offspring. In his spare

time Jim writes and performs stories—both actual and true—and owns Reed Books/The

Museum of Fond Memories/The Library of Thought. He is also the editor of Birmingham Arts

Journal. His muses are editor/publisher/spouse Liz Reed and author/poet/friend Irene Latham.

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T.K. Thorne is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. She writes about what moves

her, following the flight path of curiosity, reflection, and imagination.

The AWC is proud to present “Tripping Down Memory Lane” with Dr. Kim Shackelford. The workshop is free for members and will take place on Saturday, July 22nd, beginning at 10 AM. “Tripping Down Memory Lane” is expected to last for two hours.

Here is the official description of the workshop:

“We all have stories. My career has been in social work. It is understandable that I love to hear the stories of others. As a professor, my students have often said they learned more from my stories in the classroom than the textbook. I do love to tell stories! My new path is to capture my stories by writing short essays, memoirs, and poetry.

Please join me in looking at the elements of writing about your memories. We will be telling and writing about the important memories that you hold within you but need to be shared. I have recently published a collection of memories with two good friends and writers, and started Beach Bards Publishing, LLC in Gulf Shores, AL. You can learn about this at beachbardspublishingllc.com and ACT II: Footprints in Gulf shores is available on Amazon.”

Dr. Kimberly K. Shackelford, LCSW, is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Auburn University. She has a BS from Iowa State University, an MSW from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Ph.D. in Higher Education and Leadership from the University of Mississippi. Dr. Shackelford’s career has included retiring from Mississippi Department of Human Services – Division of Family and Children’s Services as Deputy Director and achieving full professorship at the University of Mississippi with many years in the fields of child welfare and child advocacy.

Dr. Shackelford is a co-author of two books with Dr. Josephine Pryce and Col. David Pryce – Secondary Traumatic Stress and the Child Welfare Professional and The Costs of Courage: Combat Stress, Warriors, and Family Survival. Her research areas are traumatic stress, service-learning in international community development, child welfare supervision, and social justice with publications in the Journal of Policy Practice and Research, Child Welfare Journal, Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education: Professional Development, among others. Dr. Shackelford has written child welfare training curriculum for many states along with Belize, Cape Town, South Africa, and Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Shackelford has recently co-authored ACT II: Footprints in Gulf Shores A Collection of Stories, Memoirs, and Poetry with Nancy Lawler Dickhute and Heidi Lyght-Schmidt. She is co-owner, along with Nancy and Heidi, of Beach Bards Publishing, LLC.

She has had two memoir short stories published in the Birmingham Arts Journal: The Mess Vol. 16 Issue 2, and Alarming Inspiration Vol. 16 Issue 4. She is a board member of the Alabama Writers’ Cooperative and a member of the Alabama State Poetry Society.  

To register for Dr. Shackelford’s workshop, please complete the Google Form below. You will be sent login credentials before the event:

Inspiring and supporting Alabamians immersed in the writing community for the last 100 years, the Alabama Writers’ Cooperative will be honoring the past, while also saluting the writers of today during this fall’s A.W.C. Conference. The conference is set for  September 8-10 at the O’Neal Public Library in Mountain Brook, AL; the weekend’s events will celebrate the rich history that has brought the organization from 1923 to present day.

The keynote address will be delivered by current Alabama Poet Laureate Ashley M. Jones. In addition, there will be an open mic night, author panel discussion, and numerous writing workshops in multiple genres. Plus, this year’s A.W.C. writing contest winners will be honored at an awards dinner.

“We are very pleased Ashley is going to be with us this year as we commemorate A.W.C. events, members, and all writers from the past, present and future,” said A.W. C. President Jessica Langston. “Any writers out there who have been considering entering one of the writing contests, you still have until August 1. We’d really love to see your submissions.”

“It is always exciting to discover what people want to explore through their writing, whether they use poetry, fiction or other genres to express themselves,” Langston added.

“Now is also a good time to make your plans to attend this year’s in-person conference in Mountain Brook,” she said. “We will have workshops, social events, contest awards, and a keynote address you won’t want to miss.”

The keynote, “Surely I Can Write Poems: The Necessity of Truth-Telling, Diversity, and Authenticity in Contemporary Poetry”, will be featured during Saturday night’s awards dinner. Using Lucille Cliffton’s “Surely I Can Write Poems” as a reference point, Jones wants to alert us to the “necessity of seeing what lies beneath what is first seen”, she said.

She is hopeful those hearing the keynote will “be freed from any notion that poetry can only be one thing – a poem can be beautiful and tragic, joyful and aware of trauma, full of linguistic delight and politically relevant.”

Jones, the first African-American and youngest Poet Laureate for Alabama, said recently that the keynote topic, in many ways, embodies her life’s work in poetry. 

“I write poems which don’t pay attention to traditional limitations, and I wish that same freedom for everyone,” she explained.    

The poetic spark struck early for Jones, while reading “Honey I Love and Other Love Poems” by Eloise Greenfeld  when she chose to recite the poem “Harriet Tubman” for her second grade class. 

Prior to that, “I used to be shy, but when I began to recite that poem, I felt strong, powerful and proud. From that day on, I have been writing poems.” 

Holding the position of Alabama Poet Laureate has afforded Jones, a Birmingham native, many opportunities to collaborate with other artists and work on commissioned pieces for a variety of events and occasions. Jones has also learned to navigate the challenge of trying to “meet the requirements of a very specific message” while still remembering “it’s always possible to make space for me, and remain true to my own authentic voice, even when writing for something or someone outside myself.”   

She said she was already aware of how poetry can be meaningful to people, but her time as Alabama’s Poet Laureate has really revealed the power of poetry.

“Poets, and the empathy that poetry-writing and reading creates, can truly bring a community together, even around difficult issues,” she said.  

A community of writers can certainly do amazing things, and you’re invited to join any, or all, of the upcoming events. Submit to the A.W.C. writing contests here. You will also find discounted hotel accommodations and conference details here. For additional information, contact jjsayspoetryplz@gmail.com.

The AWC is excited to present “Let the Mind Write What it Desires: A Spoken Word Poetry Workshop” with Dream Biggs! The spoken word workshop, which will be Tuesday, 06/20 beginning at 7 PM, is free to members.

Here is the official description of the session:

“As poets, we often try to force words—what is a rhyme for this? How many syllables is that one? I’m here to tell you to allow it to manifest. Let your words flow. Let’s talk about it.”

Dream Biggs, born Robert Brannon Biggs, is a proud resident of Mobile, AL, where he lives with his wife and son. He has spent his entire adult life, creating rhymes in the form of freestyle rapping and subsequently spoken word poetry. His love for his craft is only eclipsed by his love for family. His only objective is to be appreciated, please allow the words to flow through you.  

The event is rated PG-13. Registration is open now. Please complete the form below if you’d like to attend:

K.A. Cummins is the author of multiple books, spanning genres. It was a pleasure to be able to talk to K.A. about uplifting stories, science and research, and, of course, her recent and upcoming works.

Bradley Sides: Thank you, K.A., for taking the time to talk with us over at the AWC. When we first spoke a couple of weeks back, you told me you have three books coming out in the next year. First of all, that’s incredible! Were you working on all of these projects at the same time? How did you manage it all?

K.A. Cummins: Thanks for having me, Bradley! Releasing three books close together has been a challenge. I worked on them over the same period, but not at the same time, and it took a few years to finish. One book would be with an editor or beta readers, while I worked on another. And, to be honest, I am still editing the one coming out next year.

BS: We’ll talk more about the upcoming middle-grade book in just a moment, but do you mind telling us about your picture books?

KC: Super Doople and Bold and Brave are the first two picture books I’ve released, and I loved working on them. Both have messages that are near to my heart.

Super Doople is a reimagining of Humpty Dumpty as a superhero origin story. It’s about learning to listen, resilience, and not giving up. There’s also a sense of community within it, since he doesn’t succeed on his own.

Bold and Brave draws on my experiences as an autistic person and as the mother of an autistic child. It centers on a young autistic girl finding the courage to take center stage by relying on her vivid imagination and the support of her family.

BS: Readers bring a lot of themselves into the reading experiences that they have, of course, but I’m curious if there are also things that you hope readers take away from your work—things that you hope kind of linger once the books are put away?

KC: We all have stories and challenges in this world. It’s important to have grace for others as well as for ourselves. If any of my stories can uplift, inspire, make someone feel seen, or simply bring them enjoyment while they read, then it’s worth all the time and effort.

BS: Let’s talk about your series, Snow Globe Travelers. Did you know going into the first book that you were going to be writing a series? Or did the story just kind of demand it as you kept writing?

KC: It began as two flash fiction stories. When I tried to rewrite them as a book, I couldn’t imagine ending the story after only one. There’re so many possibilities to explore when you can travel the multiverse by shaking a snow globe. The story became a series before the first book, Samuel’s Legacy, was drafted.

BS: I’m really into the fantastical—both as a reader and as a writer. Your books are science fiction, with lots of inventive elements. I imagine it’s really fun to come up with these things, right?

KC: It is! I love learning, and science is one of my favorite subjects.

Sometimes the ideas come from reading articles. Other times, they begin as possibility questions that lead to fun and interesting research. That’s how things came about for the Snow Globe Travelers series, as possibility questions. The snow globes in the story are tech devices that create wormholes. Most of the research for the devices involved digging into multiverse theory, quantum mechanics, and space.

For Salvaged Time, the research branched out to include tree rings and shape-shifting species—like sea cucumbers and the mutable rain frog. There are several exciting elements in book two, including new tech devices and a gumball dispenser full of mini snow globes.

BS: Sarah is the protagonist of the series. This is probably a tough question, but what’s your relationship with her like?

KC: Good. Sarah and I are different in some ways and similar in others. It’s not always clear which direction she’ll go in, but it’s great to see how she’s grown and changed through the series.

BS: Before I let you go, do you mind sharing what your next project is?

KC: There’s still one more book in the Snow Globe Travelers series to write, but, after that, I plan to focus on story forms that combine art and words: graphic novels and hybrid versions, along with picture books. A few graphic novel ideas have been percolating on the back burner for a couple of years now. I’m excited to begin working on them.

BS: Thank you again, K.A. Congratulations on your upcoming releases!

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K.A. Cummins is an author and an artist. She explores storytelling in a variety of mediums, blending the wonders of science with the possibilities of what if. When not crafting stories, Cummins loves spending time with her family, collecting fun socks, and venturing outside her comfort zone to try new things—at least once!

Connect with her through her website at https://authorkacummins.com, where you can sign up for emails about upcoming releases.

Creative and academic writers in north Alabama have something fun and educational to look forward to in the coming weeks. Athens State University is hosting its first annual Summer Writing Summit on June 27th-28th. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature workshops about storytelling, poetry, and screenplays, and there will be additional opportunities to share your work, with interactive discussions and even an open mic. To check out all of the events planned, and to register, click here.

Our own Bradley Sides will be presenting “How to Write a Good Story.” It sounds like a great time over at Athens State.

For all of our fiction writers, South Arts is offering a $5,000 fellowship in fiction for one writer in each Southern state. From this group of fellows, one person will be selected as the Southern Prize winner and will be awarded $25,000. For full details, please click here.

Good luck to everyone, and please spread the word about this awesome opportunity.