The Alabama Writers’ Forum
The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, works to cultivate our state’s literary culture. We do that through supporting writers at all stages. We encourage our young writers to find their creative voice through the Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids!–and through our Alabama High School Literary Arts Awards. We support the work of our state’s literary community through our Alabama Authors Directory, First Draft magazine, and other programming and opportunities for writers across the state. And we celebrate our state’s rich literary legacy through the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. We are, above all, a community of writers united by our desire to advance the literary arts in Alabama. If that describes you — join us! There are many ways to get involved.
The Story Quilts of Yvonne Wells
The Story of Quilts of Yvonne Wells By Stacy I. Morgan and Yvonne Thomas Wells Foreword by Gail C. Andrews University of Alabama Press, 2024 Paperback: $60.00 Genre: Art, Biography Reviewed by Van Ricaurte The Story of Quilts of Yvonne Wells explores the artistic influence of African American Tuscaloosa folk artist Yvonne Thomas Wells and her journey into the art of quilt-making, with images and descriptions of the meanings within over 100 quilts. Stacy I. Morgan draws upon interviews with Wells, her family, longtime friend and agent Robert Cargo, and numerous art reviews of her quilts, while ensuring Wells' own voice remains central. Morgan only adds to Wells' art by layering contextualization of the historical, political, and cultural importance of Wells and her quilts. Morgan divides the book into chapters that blend Wells' narratives with the impact of her art and images of the quilts being discussed. The chapters are then divided into galleries of quilt photographs, each accompanied by Wells' own descriptions. The chapters include Wells' quilt-making origins as an artist, who began not from a generational quilting tradition, but as a high school teacher's practical hobby that turned into a creative outlet. After ultimately being persuaded to share her quilts with the public at the 1985 Kentuck Festival of the Arts, Wells stepped onto a larger stage as a renowned artist, with her quilts sold and exhibited in galleries and museums across the globe. We learn that Wells’ quilts are distinctive in that each tells a pictorial story through layered tactile materials, color themes, and prints. Morgan conveys how this tactile emphasis makes the quilts so compelling. What Wells feels and sees in the various fabrics is of utmost importance to her so that a viewer of her quilts can understand what they [...]
