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MomStuff Road Trip: Southern Women Writers

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Cristen kicked off our dream women’s history road trip yesterday with a bang: It will be hard to top the girl power on display in Seneca Falls, NY. Today, I’m whisking you off to MomStuff’s backyard, the American South. It’s time for a little arts and culture, as we’re visiting some literary landmarks and celebrating the contribution of women to American literature.

First up, a timely notice. If you’re a fan of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” then you’ll want to get yourself down to Monroeville, Alabama, right quick, as July 8-11 is the 50th Anniversary  Celebration Weekend of the book’s publication. Events include marathon readings of the novel in the courtroom, tours of Maycomb, historic games and more southern cooking than you can shake a stick at. Harper Lee has made few public appearances since her only book’s publication, so I wouldn’t expect her to show her face here, but it sounds like a wonderful event for a wonderful book.

If you can’t make it to Alabama, there are plenty of places to stock up on collard greens and good literature year-round. In Georgia, there are many sites associated with the life of Flannery O’Connor, famed for her grotesque style. In Savannah, you can visit her childhood home, while in Milledgeville, you can visit her farm, Andalusia, where O’Connor wrote many stories while suffering from lupus. Devotees of “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and “The Member of the Wedding” may enjoy visiting novelist Carson McCullers’ hometown of Columbus, Georgia. Bonus stop: You can also go by the house of legendary blues singer Ma Rainey in Columbus.

And no road trip through the South’s literary past would be complete without a stop at the Margaret Mitchell House here in Atlanta. You can walk through the small apartment where Peggy Mitchell dreamed up that famed heroine, Scarlett O’Hara. To my mind, both Mitchell and O’Hara are female role models in the Stuff Mom Never Told You mold. They were both feisty and determined, and they both made incredible progress as women in what was then a man’s world.

You can follow the daily activities of two contemporary female writers in the South by following Cristen and me on Twitter and Facebook.


Filed under: Stuff Mom Never Told You Tagged: Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, momstuff road trip, southern literature, women writers, women's history, women's landmarks

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