In 1986, after years of publishing stories in literary magazines and periodicals, Mary Ward Brown published her first book, the story collection Tongues of Flame. It soon received regional and national attention, and the following year won the PEN/Hemingway Award for fiction. Mary Ward Brown was sixty-nine years old. Though she would go on to write and publish many more stories and a well-received second collection, It Wasn't All Dancing, Mary Ward Brown's late acclaim hardly hints at the rich and varied life that prepared ...
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In 1986, after years of publishing stories in literary magazines and periodicals, Mary Ward Brown published her first book, the story collection Tongues of Flame. It soon received regional and national attention, and the following year won the PEN/Hemingway Award for fiction. Mary Ward Brown was sixty-nine years old. Though she would go on to write and publish many more stories and a well-received second collection, It Wasn't All Dancing, Mary Ward Brown's late acclaim hardly hints at the rich and varied life that prepared the way for her success. Fanning the Spark is the story of her life as a writer-her upbringing in rural Alabama; the joys of college, marriage, and motherhood; the sorrows of becoming a widow; and a lifelong devotion to writing, writers, and literature, and the company of those who shared those loves, nurturing and feeding her interior life in the face of many challenges, losses, and obstacles, both emotional and material. Here, in prose every bit as eloquent, evocative, and incisive as her stories, are her remembrances of loved ones; her letters fraught with worry to her son in Vietnam; periods of emotional isolation and unbidden silence; her invaluable friendships with renowned writers, editors, and agents; her love of community and place; and immeasurable delight with every award, speech, and public reading, the many recognitions she has garnered late in life. Above all, it is the story of the competing demands of art and of life, the constant struggle between her need to write and the practicalities of family, duty, and day to day living.
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Add this copy of Fanning the Spark: a Memoir to cart. $8.84, good condition, Sold by BooksRun rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by University Alabama Press.
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Add this copy of Fanning the Spark: a Memoir to cart. $34.91, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by University Alabama Press.
Add this copy of Fanning the Spark: a Memoir to cart. $47.78, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by University Alabama Press.
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Mary T. (for Thomas) Ward Brown lived next door to my home in Auburn, AL. She was the matron of honor in my sister's wedding in September of 1944.
Lilibel recently loaned me two of Mary T's books. We are so proud of the wonderful author she has become. ! loved and admired her and her husband Kirtley as only an 11 year old girl can, and have vivid memories of the son who is depicted so well in the book. We lived on East Magnolia Avenue, and her books evoke the South as I remember it.
