"Women are the focus of most of the stories in Sandra Worsham’s collection of quiet, astute observations of emotion in action, life resurgent as friends and family pass, ambitions ""crashed, hopes dashed and hopes rehashed. ""The book gets immediate traction with the tale of “The Traveling Shoe,” in which a group of female couples try to evoke smiles as one of their number slowly fades from incurable disease. Her courage and her friends’ ability to make each other laugh give the tragedy a sweet side. In “The Washer’s Husband,” a nice guy named Henry is forced to endure his wife’s obsession with cleanliness that finally leads to her dumping out his small drawer full of cherished objects. When he asks her if she’s going to be washing every day of their life ""together, he reports, “Her face became a veil.” ""“The Second Mrs. Willis” is a young woman trapped in a loveless, moneyless, boring marriage to her out-of-work former English teacher, whose ennui is contrasted with the religious zeal of the heroine’s stepfather, a self-styled, annoyingly fanatical Preacher. A hairstylist argues with her sister over possession of a mother’s favorite, and only, boy doll, ""while privately mulling her recent, rather exciting discovery that she likes making love to ""girls. ""Worsham resides in the town of Milledgeville, Georgia, and has used this as the literal ""setting for about half of these offerings. Though some of the stories could take place in ""Anywhere, USA, others are redolent of the southern ambience. In “The Vacuum Cleaner,” ""the satisfying last long story of the aggregation, Worsham takes an up-close look at Southern culture in the multigenerational relationships among a mother, daughter, and maid, all of whom share admiration for a fancy Hoover. “Esther’s Real People” is a smile- evoking stream-of-consciousness rant written in delightfully southern cadence, from a woman who was sucked into a Mary Kay-type cosmetic sales career, until disillusionment seeped in and she’s back at her supermarket job. Some of the stories are wrapped around an impending death; others revisit the conflicts of a problematic childhood as they are revived in a confused or problem-laden adulthood. There is a sense of purposeful mystery in Worsham’s composition, as some characters seem to inhabit more than one scenario; and there are repeated phrases - notably the plaintive, relationship-baggage-laden query,""“Is everything alright? Between us?”""All of Worsham’s stories open and close with complex pen and ink drawings created by her partner, illustrator Letha Hawkins. Worsham has garnered success with her short pieces, published in Chattahoochee Review and Carolina Quarterly among others, and an award- winning memoir, Going to Wings. She has a strong prose sense and the enviable ability to""convert a mundane object like a vacuum cleaner, a doll or a shoe into a potent symbol.""Quill says: This is intelligent, introspective storytelling with some wry and even hilarious""moments, centered on real people and their real dreams and fantasies."---Feathered Quill Book Reviews, www.featheredquill.com

Patterns: Stories

Literature & Fiction

Worsham, Sandra

Short Stories & Anthologies

Third Lung Press

Offers tips, strategies, and suggestions to teachers seeking new approaches to teaching writing in grades K-12.

Essential Ingredients: Recipes for Teaching Writing

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

ASCD

Publisher: Third Lung Press “… A palpable and invigorating book, mapping one woman’s lifelong efforts to discover her own sexual identity through Christianity and friendship.” Kirkus Review “Sandra Worsham’s humor, clear-eyed honesty stitch this amazing quilt of meaning and experience together in a wonderful way.” Jill McCorkle, author of Life after Life and Going Away Shoes "The struggle of the gay Christian's complicated effort to reconcile sexuality and faith is often overlooked by church leaders and more secular gays. But it is a complex, and deeply engaging journey. I was deeply moved by Sandra's book, engaged by her voice, her mind, her heart. I think many will find their very human story here in the hands of a wise and compelling woman." --George Hodgman, author of Bettyville “Sandra Worsham is the Mary Karr of Milledgeville, Georgia. This time the ‘Liars’ Club’ has extended its boundaries. The personal stakes break the reader’s heart as the lies, judgements, and deprivations whirl between Sandra, her family, her friends, her community, and her church. Yet this page-turning memoir of her quest for wholeness isn’t mired in despair. Despite the decades that she held her “vile” secret of homosexuality, she kept loving those who thwarted her coming of age. This page-turner oozes with Worsham’s grace and grit.” --Amy Lou Jenkins, author Every Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting “A terrific book of straight talk about a woman discovering her lesbian identity and holding to her faithfulness in God, as she lives in a world that makes those identities difficult to combine. Worsham writes in a way that captures the reader from the beginning page. She inspires us with her unflinching look at the hard task of living the truth, and the courage she shows in the face of loss.” --Elizabeth Cox, author of A Question of Mercy and Night Talk “Sandra Worsham has written a candid and memorable narrative of her life in Flannery O’Connor’s home town of Milledgeville, Georgia: coming out as a lesbian, converting to Catholicism, and finding a life partner. Her struggles with family, church, and self constitute a compelling story that will resonate with many readers, especially those confronting issues of sexual identity and faith.” Sarah Gordon, author of Flannery O’Connor: The Obedient Imagination, A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia, and Distances "In Going to Wings, Sandra Worsham combines a southern raconteur's charm and candor with a social anthropologist's objective awareness to tell the story of a woman's second coming-of-age as a lesbian in a deeply conservative southern town. The result is a memoir both engaging and socially significant." --Peter Selgin, author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and The Inventors, a memoir. "Sandra Worsham loves women and she loves Catholicism. The result of loving both is a dramatic struggle well worth following.” --Bruce Gentry, Professor of English, Georgia College &amp; State University, Editor of the Flannery O’Connor Review, and author of Flannery O’Connor’s Religion of the Grotesque. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sandra Worsham’s stories have been published in Memphis Magazine, Carolina Quarterly, Western Humanities Review, Ascent, and Chattahoochee Review, among others. She won First in Fiction in the Red Hen Press competition, and her story “Pinnacle” was published in the 2008 Los Angeles Review. Two of her stories were Finalists at Glimmer Train. After she retired from teaching writing to high school students for thirty years, her book on teaching writing, Essential Ingredients: Recipes for Teaching Writing, was published by ASCD in 2001. She was Georgia’s 1982 Teacher of the Year and a 1992 Milken Award Winner. In 2000, she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. In June, 2006, she received her MFA in Fiction from Bennington College. She lives in Milledgeville, Georgia, with her spouse and their two dogs.

Going to Wings

Biographies & Memoirs

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

"... A palpable and invigorating book, mapping one woman's lifelong efforts to discover her own sexual identity through Christianity and friendship." Kirkus Review "Sandra Worsham's humor, clear-eyed honesty stitch this amazing quilt of meaning and experience together in a wonderful way." Jill McCorkle, author of Life after Life and Going Away Shoes "The struggle of the gay Christian's complicated effort to reconcile sexuality and faith is often overlooked by church leaders and more secular gays. But it is a complex, and deeply engaging journey. I was deeply moved by Sandra's book, engaged by her voice, her mind, her heart. I think many will find their very human story here in the hands of a wise and compelling woman." --George Hodgman, author of Bettyville "Sandra Worsham is the Mary Karr of Milledgeville, Georgia. This time the 'Liars' Club' has extended its boundaries. The personal stakes break the reader's heart as the lies, judgements, and deprivations whirl between Sandra, her family, her friends, her community, and her church. Yet this page-turning memoir of her quest for wholeness isn't mired in despair. Despite the decades that she held her "vile" secret of homosexuality, she kept loving those who thwarted her coming of age. This page-turner oozes with Worsham's grace and grit." --Amy Lou Jenkins, author Every Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting "A terrific book of straight talk about a woman discovering her lesbian identity and holding to her faithfulness in God, as she lives in a world that makes those identities difficult to combine. Worsham writes in a way that captures the reader from the beginning page. She inspires us with her unflinching look at the hard task of living the truth, and the courage she shows in the face of loss." --Elizabeth Cox, author of A Question of Mercy and Night Talk "Sandra Worsham has written a candid and memorable narrative of her life in Flannery O'Connor's home town of Milledgeville, Georgia: coming out as a lesbian, converting to Catholicism, and finding a life partner. Her struggles with family, church, and self constitute a compelling story that will resonate with many readers, especially those confronting issues of sexual identity and faith." Sarah Gordon, author of Flannery O'Connor: The Obedient Imagination, A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia, and Distances "In Going to Wings, Sandra Worsham combines a southern raconteur's charm and candor with a social anthropologist's objective awareness to tell the story of a woman's second coming-of-age as a lesbian in a deeply conservative southern town. The result is a memoir both engaging and socially significant." --Peter Selgin, author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and The Inventors, a memoir. "Sandra Worsham loves women and she loves Catholicism. The result of loving both is a dramatic struggle well worth following." --Bruce Gentry, Professor of English, Georgia College & State University, Editor of the Flannery O'Connor Review, and author of Flannery O'Connor's Religion of the Grotesque. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sandra Worsham's stories have been published in Memphis Magazine, Carolina Quarterly, Western Humanities Review, Ascent, and Chattahoochee Review, among others. She won First in Fiction in the Red Hen Press competition, and her story "Pinnacle" was published in the 2008 Los Angeles Review. Two of her stories were Finalists at Glimmer Train. After she retired from teaching writing to high school students for thirty years, her book on teaching writing, Essential Ingredients: Recipes for Teaching Writing, was published by ASCD in 2001. She was Georgia's 1982 Teacher of the Year and a 1992 Milken Award Winner. In 2000, she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. In June, 2006, she received her MFA in Fiction from Bennington College. She lives in Milledgeville, Georgia, with her spouse and their two dogs.

Professionals & Academics

Redhawk Publications

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Books by Worsham, Sandra