Stay 731: Simplicity

When I tell people that my family moved from Seattle—and that we didn’t move to Jackson because of family or a job—I often get the response, “Why would you move here?” Really it all started with woods. As Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, about his own time living in the woods, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Stay 731: Geography

My first semester of graduate school in Greensboro, North Carolina, the main thing I remember about poetry workshop—besides the necessity of snacks to feed the muse—was a diagram that my professor drew on the whiteboard one afternoon. Becca wrote WHAT THE POEM IS ABOUT above two intersecting arrows. Then, she labeled each end of the arrows. Viewed as a compass, the west represented the start of the writing process; the east represented the end of the writing process.

EssaysGuest ContributorOctober 24, 2016Jackson TN, Tennessee, Lauren Smothers, Union University, Stay731, #stay731, graduate school, Greensboro NC, poetry, writing, West Tennessee, I-40, Midtown Jackson, Women's History Month

Public Hoops

I was never a baller. I wanted to be one, though. The grace and fluidity with which truly great basketball players move is unparalleled in any other sport. I was jealous. I’m tall and used to be pretty thin, but I never had the grace the true athletic players seemed to have. Gravity appeared to have a stronger hold on me than it did my teammates and my opponents. Sure, I was able to dunk a ball for a period of time in my 20’s and early 30’s, but it was off one foot and more of a “rim grazer” than a true “flush.”

Stay 731: Choosing Wonder

It seems quite contradictory to write a piece on why people should stay in Jackson on the eve of our move to Nashville. After eight years of choosing to stay, the decision to leave didn’t come easily, and I certainly put up a fight. However, I had to come to terms with the fact that sometimes a dream is for a season, and it’s okay for dreams to develop towards other places. You don’t have to abandon a sense of “place” once you move.

Becoming a Neighbor: An Ode to Midtown

Megan was a fact nut, the kind of girl who was interested in the details in everything she studied. She once committed a semester to checking out a certain number of design books at the library just to keep herself inspired in her trade and always learning. So it shouldn’t have surprised me when began research on her new historic duplex on Arlington and affectionately referred to it by the name the metal sign read outside: The Merriweather House.

EssaysKatie HowertonJune 22, 2016Jackson TN, Tennessee, Midtown Jackson, LANA, Lambuth Area Neighborhood Association, Katie Howerton, Megan Kersey, Arlington Avenue, history, home, house, architecture, neighbors, neighborhoods, Lambuth Boulevard, West Grand Avenue, Jordan Howerton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Aaron Brakhane, Emmy Brakhane, Westmoreland Avenue, Courtney Vandiver, Jacob Vandiver, Lisa Garner, Joe Garner, Alice Hardin, Aaron Hardin, Bethany Lutz, Kyle Lutz, Division Avenue, Heather Hornbeak, Jesse Hornbeak, Hether Pflasterer, Russ Pflasterer, Wisdom Street, Courtney Searcy, Whitney Williams, Rebecca Edgren, Anna Worley, Taylor Worley, Lee Wilson, Beth Wilson, Westwood Avenue, Westwood, Westwood Gardens, Highland Avenue, Tigrett Middle School, Danielle Glodjo, Tyler Glodjo, Diva Den, Amanda Bennett, Julia Marshall, Ally Currie, City House, City Fellowship Baptist Church, Kelsey, Melanie Taylor, Nar'Asha Randall, Natalie Pflasterer, Nyree Smith, Hillary Howse, Russell, Ellis Drive, Waverly Drive, Sunset Avenue, Forest Avenue, Campbell Street, memories