Over the years, I have been collecting stories from different generations and those from personal anecdotes. My uncle is also collaborating with me on this project.
When my mother and her younger brother gather to share their stories, I have a pencil and paper and write fast to keep up with them. My uncle, nine years older than me, contributes a different perspective and experience, remembering his growing up.
These stories are an assemblage held together by a central theme: a sense of place. Hamlin Heights is a fictional small town in rural North Central Florida nestled among pine forests, oak hammocks, citrus groves, abandoned phosphate mines, and waterways, including swamps, canals, rivers, springs, and hundreds of lakes, where time moves slower. We learned to sit and wait, and still do to this day, sitting and waiting for another person or people, the next event, a fish to bite, the turn of the page, or the end of a story. We learned patience.
Time is significant in the stories, and the chronological arrangement gives the reader a unique perspective of different generations who lived in Hamlin Heights.
Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge collection of short stories was given to me as a gift. It is an example of the ‘theme of character’ connecting the story. In separate stories, Olive views the changes in her community, her relationships with others, and the brutal truths about herself and her marriage. Strout also wrote Olive, Again.
In an NER interview with Lou Matthews, author of Shaky Town, JM Tyree quoted Matthews: “These stories are personal. That neighborhood was where I grew up and how I grew up.” Matthews referred to his upbringing in Eastside Los Angeles. His stories are held together with the thematic art of place.
Over time, I have gathered thoughts written on scraps of paper, filling notebooks in various sizes, and handwritten paragraphs on loose-leaf paper. These thoughts have become a rich tapestry of crude, unedited writing crammed into a folder, bulging from its confines. To the best of our ability, this collection of stories is true, partly true, or rumored to be true.
My uncle and I have not yet completed this collection, which is a little over halfway there. His southern accent, sense of humor, and vernacular sayings—which I have heard all my life—keep me writing!
What short story collections have you read?
https://www.nereview.com/2021/08/09/unsuitable-for-literature-an-exchange-with-ner-author-lou-mathews/
