Southern Sampler Artists Colony Press
Stories spun in belonging with a southern twist. The Bottle Tree, originally titled Kudzu Rising, was a finalist in the Novel-in-Progress category of the 2010 William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, and also a finalist in the Novel category in 2011. Home for Good, my first published novel, expands on the characters and story portrayed in The Bottle Tree.
Born into a traditional Southern Baptist family with deep agrarian roots, Lou DuPree fled during the turbulent 1960s to San Francisco, searching for belonging and hoping to escape her mother’s despotic iron will.
Decades later, at the request of her high school sweetheart, Charlie, she returns home to sleepy Clarksville, South Carolina, where her father’s will has ignited a startling chain of events. As Lou reckons with family secrets and sorrows long buried in the muddy swamps, she rediscovers her connection to her Southern roots and begins to imagine an unexpected future.
Home for Good
Charleston and the South
A Southern Sampler
Like the purple martins, the Southern Sampler Artists Colony follows its migratory instinct to gather in the South and feast on the creative energy embedded in the fertile, sandy soil. The perfume of Confederate jasmine offers a familiar and generous welcome to this bi-coastal artistic community. Friendships are renewed and stories are written and exchanged.
Charleston and the South and A Southern Sampler celebrate these stories — of lives as spicy as Lowcountry gumbo and as rich as bourbon-laced pecan pie — stories shared by those in need of a little armchair travel. Pour some sweet tea, settle in the nearest porch swing, and savor these unique and varied tales inspired by bountiful Southern history and hospitality.
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I enjoyed reading "A Southern Sampler" very much....especially the Food and Sustenance section. This group of creative friends has gathered and produced good writing about all sorts of southernness. A reader can feel homesick for the Low Country without even trying. I look forward to the next Sampler
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“A Southern Sampler” contains just what it says, a sample of the South shown and told through short, sometimes humorous stories, poetry, illustrations, and recipes that, I’m sure, will make the mouths of many water. As for me, a Yankee, I’m afraid anything but plain grits with butter and salt are to my liking. However, now, after reading this book, I am looking forward to returning to Charleston SC for another visit: I know I will have a greater appreciation for all that it has to offer.
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Retired Professor, College of Charleston, and co-founder of the Charleston Jazz Initiative.
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“Like improvised jazz riffs, A Southern Sampler is a cultural arts masterpiece that resonates with the soul of the American South.”
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Charleston artist
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“This beautiful anthology celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Southern Sampler Artists Colony. Contributors present a cornucopia of writing, recipes and art created in Charleston—South Carolina’s Holy City.”