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.
Every Speck
Every Speck: The Mythology of a Southern Poet, A Memoir in Poetry and Prose By Bonnie Roberts Archway Publishing, 2025 Paper $30.99, E-Book $3.99 Mixed Genre: Memoir, Poetry Reviewed by Harry Moore Henry James advised young writers, “Be one on whom nothing is lost.” Distinguished poet, teacher, publisher, and mentor Bonnie Roberts is not young—in her seventies—but her memoir Every Speck: The Mythology of a Southern Poet models a life of sustained attention and deep memory. In a kind of tag match between nimble and lucid prose and poetry that sings and weeps, she explores her rich and complex past. There are ample facts—along with a selection of well-placed black-and-white photos—and a broad chronological structure: “Things Fall Apart,” “Who We Were Before,” “Who We Became,” and “More Healing, More Pain.” And the facts are important—childhood, parents, Good Grandmother and Mean Grandmother, uncles, aunts, cousins, the little house on the hill, the big house by the lake, flying egrets and the larger natural world, the bus ride to Auburn, marriage, a daughter, divorce, and, above all else, [...]
