Well you have to imaging the ragtime roll and the four part harmony, and the name of the song, because doing Alice’s Restaurant Massacree Rag was not on the plate as it were.   Music starts, Chorus*** “you can have all the fun you want at Charlene’s garage car stomp. Yes you can have all […]

This is one of those that I think everyone should take a try at, for some reason this particular tale reminds me of the writing of Kurt Vonnegut. I am very taken with Murakami right now and this book is one of my favorites.

Big things are happening for our contributor and friend Howard Debs.  A new version of his essay “Vindicating Holocaust Poetry” and the poem series “Terezin: Trilogy Of Names” which was one of the highlights of China Grove #3 is being featured in the national award winning On Being, in keeping with the Days of Remembrance this week, […]

Something to consider:   So You Want to Be a Writer By Charles Bukowski if it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don’t do it. if you have to sit for […]

This week it was announced that a second novel by Harper Lee, who is now 88, will be released this June by Harper – Collins. It was written in the 1950’s and is a precursor to her immensely popular solitary work.  

Look at the pictures, lock your eyes to the film, Do not forget, they circle still, The buzzards of war Who would pick our carcasses And crack our bones, In service to a bloodthirsty god, Not any god I know. Drunk on violence and hate, Blowing themselves up In a self immolating volcano of faith. […]

Take the time to like and have a look at the Eudora Welty Writer’s Symposium on Facebook and if you can, take the time to run up to Columbus for at least part of the program, it will be well worth your time. It is a wonderful program and a under appreciated gem of Mississippi […]

Physician, Mystery writer, and teacher Michael Palmer has died at the age of 71 according to his publisher,

It’s 2014. Pick up your shovel and start digging. Digging By Seamus Heaney Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends […]

Merry Christmas from China Grove, Mississippi!!!