Confederate Monuments Are Falling, and the White Man In the Sky Has Finally Come Down

Susan DeFClimate, political interlude, PublicationsLeave a Comment

Y’all, something AMAZING happened last week: the statue of John C. Calhoun in downtown Charleston, SC–where my husband is from, and where we lived from 2016 to 2018–was taken down, in recognition of its racist history. As my brother-in-law recently explained it online, “Calhoun was a pro-slavery White supremacist, who also had a career as a politician. He was the … Read More

A Little Bird Told Me

Susan DeFClimate, poetry, political interlude, Protest PoemsLeave a Comment

Like over a million Americans this weekend, I attended a March for Our Lives rally, protesting gun violence in America and calling on our elected officials for stricter gun laws. And while it’s true that I have been involved in activism of some sort since my undergraduate years (like the characters in my novel Hot Season), I do not enjoy … Read More

Winning Without Washington

Susan DeFBest Thing I've Read All Week, ClimateLeave a Comment

For the next week, I’ll be on a writing retreat on the Oregon Coast working on my next novel, World’s Smallest Parade. I’ve been working with some of the exercises developed by one of my sheroes, the master book coach Jennie Nash, on the blueprint for this novel, and this morning, I worked out the short description, or elevator pitch. … Read More