I met Kevin Wilson
I met Kevin Wilson this week. Yep, that Kevin Wilson — the Tennessean who wrote two of the best novels I’ve ever read ⤵
(P.S. they’re especially good on audio)
In full transparency I didn’t meet him exactly — He was teaching a writing workshop at the library down the street from my house as part of the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read and it was hands-down one of the absolute best writing workshops I’ve ever attended. (I was too shy to introduce myself, but I figure a two-hour in-person workshop counts as meeting him, right?)
Kevin Wilson teaches at Sewanee: The University of the South and in this week’s workshop, I and 24 other Mainers were lucky enough to pretend we were his students, taking furious notes as he talked about how he fuels his creativity, how to catch good ideas, and how to treat writing as both craft and art.
He talked about living with Tourette syndrome and how he navigates public speaking and teaching with the challenges it brings. He showed us how to use obsession as a never-ending pool of fodder for storytelling. (He’s obsessed with spontaneous human combustion and it appears in three of his novels.)
He talked about growing up in a small rural town in the South, raising kids with his wife who’s also a writer, and why everything he writes features characters navigating weird family dynamics in rural Tennessee. That’s probably why his writing feels so nostalgic to someone like me raised in (and sometimes homesick for) small-town Georgia, USA.
Before I had even left the library parking lot that night, I’d moved the rest of his novels to the top of my summer TBR list ⤵
If you haven’t yet lost yourself in a world created by Kevin Wilson, here are a few ways to dip your toe in⤵
Enjoy!
In other news . . .
On July 15th I’ll be teaching an in-person workshop called “Wellness for the Season You’re In” at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine’s Well-being for Educators Institute. It’s happening on their main campus at Sebago Lake, and I feel so honored to have been invited as a speaker!
If you happen to be close by and working in the world of learning or child development, I’d love to see you there!