"In We Might As Well Eat, Terry Barr’s second book of prose non-fiction, he is so effective and engaging with his use of the familiar essay that readers will find themselves wanting to join in with the other side of the conversation. However, this volume is more than just inviting. It is also filled with hard-earned courageous truths and a self-awareness far more keen than one ordinarily encounters." –Tim Peeler author of Checking Out and Wild in the Strike Zone

We Might As Well Eat

Biographies & Memoirs

Barr, Terry

Community & Culture

Third Lung Press

"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

Second Edition with NEW EXTRA CONTENT! Following in the tradition of Alabama memoirist Rick Bragg, Don’t Date Baptists explores the world of Bessemer, Alabama, circa 1960’s–70’s from the eyes of a boy who grew up there, struggling to understand the divide of race, class, religion, and neighborhood anxiety. Essayist Terry Barr learns from his parents that not all love is the same; that certain neighbors are not to be trusted; that crosses and stars and popular music can with seamless metamorphosis signal danger, desire, hate, and deep abiding love. While public pools might be filled with clay to prevent integrated swimming, or so-called friends might slur those darker than themselves, this southern boy learns to appreciate how these incidents and relationships have challenged and molded him into the teacher, writer and unapologetic Bessemer man that he is. With humor and poignant authenticity, Barr captures what it means to come of age as the New South cuts its teeth, with much trial and terrible error, in territory that is rich and explosive, devastating and beautiful. Praise for “Don’t Date Baptists and Other Warnings From My Alabama Mother:” "Within this collection, we see Barr working to make sense of what the Drive-By Truckers labeled 'the duality of the Southern Thing. '" --Dr. Molly McGehee, Professor of Southern Studies, Emory at Oxford College. “Terry Barr’s stories of growing up in a small Alabama town are gemstones illuminating the conflicting loves and loyalties of family, race, class, and religion as lived out in the pre-Civil Rights era (1950 – 1970’s roughly). Barr’s explorations are heartfelt and humble, filled with questions that aren’t easy to answer but well worth thinking about long after this book is put down. A few of the stand-out essays are ‘Neither the Season, Nor the Time,’ ‘Searching for Higher Ground,’ and ‘In It’s Infancy,’ but Barr’s insight and life-earned wisdom flow through the entire book. --Adrienne Ross Scanlan, Nonfiction Editor, Blue Lyra Review, and author of Turning Homeward – Restoring Hope and Nature in the Urban Wild “TERRY TELLS STORIES that are uniquely his and at the same time collectively ours. His cast of characters will have you nodding your head and saying, ‘Yes…I know those people, too!’ He peels back his life with mature, discerning, perceptive eyes and invites us into his growing up and home town experience. He’s a story teller who isn’t afraid to share his doubts, joys, anger, sorrows, and soul.” —Wanda Meade, writer/photographer “IN TERRY BARR’S essays we hear an authentic Southern voice rooted in a particular time and place: Bessemer, AL, beginning in the 1950’s. He brings to bear a historian’s delight in concrete details combined with a probing sensitivity to the psychological tensions and complexities beneath the surface of characters and events.” —Steve Beauchamp, Poet “TERRY BARR’S BEAUTIFUL, straight from the heart writings remind us of memory’s healing power; they are evocative of places I know very well but have never been, of people with whom I’m intimately familiar but have never met. These are remarkable personal essays—funny, wistful in the right measure, smart, and heartbreaking.” —Leslie T. White, Professor of English, University of New Orleans

Don't Date Baptists and Other Warnings from My Alabama Mother

Arts & Literature

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