Written by Lee Anne Bryan
There is so much that I love about Jackson—it would fill up a book, not one blog post. So I will limit myself to the circle that I drive every day, from my house to my job and then back home again.
I am not ashamed to admit that Briarwood Liquor Store is high on this list. Nathan and Lesley are AWESOME.
THANK YOU GOD FOR WHOLE FOODS! Not going to lie, this was my missing puzzle piece. Now that I can get fish and kale for lunch that I didn’t have to cook myself—my life is complete.
St. Andrew’s Lower School. It has provided our kids with the best start they could possibly have.
Murrah High School. My first “real” job out of college. And today has some of the most dedicated English teachers I have ever seen working there. Go Mustangs!
The Eudora Welty House and Garden, which is my office. Lots of people talk about a “dream job.” I actually have one. I get to walk around in Eudora Welty’s house during the day, telling visitors about her books and her love of reading and her life in Jackson. I get to show school groups and students what it actually means to EDIT writing—by using Eudora’s drafts of One Writer’s Beginnings with her cut-and-pin method of revision. Occasionally, I get to take a famous author through the house and be a little star-struck. But I have to say that my favorite thing about my job is community. There is a “Welty community” in Jackson, which includes the Eudora Welty Foundation, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Millsaps College, the Belhaven neighborhood, Lemuria Bookstore, and a legion of fans, volunteers, supporters, and great readers. I am surrounded every day by people who share my love of reading and education and who believe that books and discussion MATTER in the world.
I grew up in Dallas. Or, as one of my high school friends refers to it, “the land of lipstick.” And if Dallas had any kind of literary community at all, I never saw it. It was in my first semester at Millsaps College that Dr. Lorne Fienberg sent us as a class to Lemuria bookstore. And I fell in love. (Literally. I met my husband at Lemuria. But that’s a blog for another day.) Between Lemuria, being able to go out at night to C.S.’s in running shoes and cutoffs, the great friends I made at Millsaps, and the fabulous book club we formed as Murrah teachers (which still meets), I found that I was HOME.
And now, twenty plus years later, my family and my job make me happier than I ever thought I could be.
Thanks, Jackson. You’ve given and continue to give me a great life.
Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. Please join us in celebrating Jackson tonight at 5:00 at the Eudora Welty House and Garden.
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