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In 2nd grade, probably thinking about scary poems. |
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When I was in second grade, I won a poetry contest in the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper. I decided to be a writer.
Here’s the beginning of that prize-winning poem.
This is the story of the stolen loot.
The man who stole it wore a dark dark suit.
He stole it on a dark dark night.
It was a very scary sight.
That was the last scary thing I ever wrote. But I love to tell scary stories.
I’ve worked as a doctor’s office helper (really scary but fun!), a lifeguard, a camp counselor, and best of all—a school librarian.
When I was a fifth grade library monitor at the Hill Demonstration School in Cleveland, Mississippi, I decided to be a librarian. I loved shelving books in perfect order and stamping cards with the little rubber date stamp!
I was editor of the Cleveland High School newspaper. I loved reading and writing.
I always had my nose in a book. Still do.
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I love figs! |
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When I was a little girl, I read Nancy Drew books. Then I moved to Cherry Ames. But my grandmother was a fourth grade teacher who gave me books on every single birthday. I loved Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, and many books that she thought were better than Nancy and Cherry. By seventh grade, I liked to brag about the longest book I’d read: Gone With the Wind (1048 pages).
Most of my family still lives in Mississippi. I try to visit my sister when her figs are ripe and ready to pick. I also like to cook and have a recipe for fig pizza. Figs are NOT yucky, no matter what anybody says.
I attended college at Mississippi University for Women and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a major in English. I met my husband, Jay, in an English class. The students were seated alphabetically in a big auditorium. My name was Mary Augusta Russel. His name was Jay Scattergood. He copied my notes from one desk over.
Since I’d known I wanted to be a librarian since fifth grade, I headed right to Simmons College School of Library Science after college. People in Boston talked funny and it snowed a lot, but I love living in new places. I’ve lived in Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, California—and Florida twice. Now I live in Washington, DC.
I review books for Delta Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and various blogs and websites. I’ve also written for Highlights Magazine, Skirt! Magazine, and Mississippi Magazine. |
