This summer UGA professor Melisa Cahnmann- Taylor invited me to read for her lit series Seat in The Shade. I opened for Georgia via Louisiana rock star poet Jericho Brown. Love seeing him read and especially love how in the discussion part Jericho discussed the influence of the Black church on his performance and writing….
Deirdre Sugiuchi
Sugiuchi Wins Scholarship to Attend Key West Literary Seminar
Recently I was awarded a Teacher and Librarian Scholarship to attend the Key West Literary Seminar. I’ve always wanted to attend. The press release is below. Sugiuchi Wins Scholarship to Attend Key West Literary Seminar Key West, Florida – Deirdre Sugiuchi, school library media specialist at Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary in Athens, Georgia, has been awarded…
Hard Time in a Christian Boot Camp
Last week my interview with Mark Torrender of Talk Beliefs was published. We discussed what it was like to spend my teen years in
Religious Boot Camps Explored by the Talk Beliefs Channel
Recently I was contacted for an interview by Mark Torrender, the founder of the Talk Beliefs YouTube channel, which is dedicated to exploring the stories of survivors of religious sects and cults. The goal of Talk Beliefs is altruistic: by sharing one’s story, you can help other survivors and hopefully enact change. Which is basically…
Debriefing
I found out yesterday I will be presenting at AWP Portland with Laura Catherine Brown, Anjali Enjeti, Amanda Miska, and Charlie J. Eskrew (a.k.a.Sean Smith). Our panel is called Go Your Own Way: Plotting the Path to a Writing Career. We will discuss our paths to writing: the pros, cons, and alternatives to the MFA, the…
How I Write: Writing Process Blog Tour
You know that friend you have from far off who always attends the same summer camp as you? That’s my friend Tonya Canada. We’ve spent the past three summers in Portland at the Tin House Writer’s Workshop. Her work is funny, fearless, and concise. She tagged me in this blog tour, where you discuss your writing, as well as the process. Read…
Where American Teens Were Abused in the Name of God
This past week, Zoe Schlanger of Newsweek interviewed me about Escuela Caribe. The article, Where American Teens Were Abused in the Name of God, is here. This week, Kidnapped for Christ, an expose about Escuela Caribe, premiered on Showtime. I was interviewed for the documentary, though my interview did not make the final cut. An outtake of…
On Writing: Moonlit Mile
Last week I wrote this chapter about a friend of mine and he is dead now, but not while I was writing, because then we both lived. And in my mind we were fifteen sixteen and we were driving through the Delta, and where we were driving everything was deserted and dark. And we were…
October Status Check
I co-curate the New Town Revue, an Athens, GA music and literature series, which is hosted at Athens’ Avid Bookshop. This last performance, Friday, October 11, featured Jon Davies, Killick Hinds, and Laura Solomon. It was sublime. I volunteered at the Great ARTdoors, a fundraiser for the Hambidge Foundation. They have hosted me for three different residencies; it’s…