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My story “All the Pretty Things” is based a good bit on my grandmother, who died last year a few months shy of 101. I’m grateful storySouth has published it in their current issue.

It’s so satisfying when editors connect with one’s work, and the editors at storySouth really get this story. “There is a tenderness and an urgency to this narration that is beautiful to read,” they wrote to me, upon acceptance, “…an incisive character portrait as funny as it is painfully resonant. Big Flannery O’Connor energy.”

“All the Pretty Things” comes close to memoir. It’s the most personal story I’ve ever written, although there are fictional flourishes.

My grandmother, pictured here, was complex: hardened by life, softened by faith— a stubborn, materialistic, ferociously intelligent woman who ended her education at sixteen to work and work and work.

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