{"product_id":"going-plaid-in-a-solid-gray-world-collected-columns-paperback","title":"Going Plaid in a Solid Gray World: Collected Columns - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eTamra Wilson\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTamra Wilson's prose is all about the extraordinary in everyday life: smelling \"ghosts,\" discovering a family diary from the Gold Rush, spotting real pennies from heaven.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese short essays are drawn from her newspaper column \"A Fork in the Road\" that readers in her corner of North Carolina look for every other Tuesday. Like friendly chats over coffee, they offer insights about room mothers, greeting card glitter and wearing seersucker and white shoes after Labor Day. There are weightier subjects, too, such as leaving home and coping with COVID.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeppered with humor, Tamra's writing captures the essence of what it means to be fully human in our time and place. Her thoughtful work has appeared in the North Carolina Literary Review, storySouth, Evening Street Press, The New Guard and elsewhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the Foreword\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince 2015, Tamra Wilson has offered readers a unique perspective of life in Catawba County through her column \"A Fork in the Road.\" Through her writing, Tammy captures the essence of what it means to be fully human in our time and place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese 130+ essays offer commentary on such topics as greeting-card glitter, going plaid in a solid gray world and wearing white shoes after Labor Day. But there are weightier subjects too: storms, COVID, slave narratives and war casualties. Interspersed throughout are slices of humor that feel as if you're chatting over the backyard fence. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTamra Wilson is an essayist and fiction writer whose work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eNorth Carolina Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOur State\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003estorySouth\u003c\/i\u003e, and dozens of other journals and anthologies across the United States. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eDining with Robert Redford \u0026amp; Other Stories \u003c\/i\u003eand co-editor of \u003ci\u003eIdol Talk: Women Writers on the Teenage Infatuations that Changed Their Lives\u003c\/i\u003e, which was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. She has received two North Carolina Regional Artist Project Grants and has traveled the state as a Road Scholar for the North Carolina Humanities Council.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTamra is a 2021 honoree of the Baker's Dozen Women's Society affiliated with The Corner Table, a nonprofit focused on providing meals to those affected by hunger in Catawba County. A portion of proceeds from this book will benefit that organization. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom Going Plaid in a Solid Gray World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe recent cold snap reminds me of why we live in North Carolina. Six degrees Fahrenheit sounds extreme, but it could be worse.\u003cp\u003eThe other day a Facebook friend posted a photograph from Central Illinois in 1979. It showed a winter scape of a rural highway buried in twelve-foot drifts. A string of stranded semitrailers looks ridiculously small and powerless.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI replied, \"Thanks for reminding me what prompted Tym and me to move to North Carolina.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis same topic came up a few weeks earlier when I noticed that Catawba County Museum of History was seeking artifacts for a display about \"local immigrants.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI asked museum director Amber Clawson Albert if people from other parts of the United States would qualify as \"immigrants.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe had never thought of that. Turns out she had never heard of the three horrific winters that sent us South.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 354\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.79 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 12, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42744576442431,"sku":"9781952485343","price":32.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/5068d286f228025e2c06018b67ad7ac6.webp?v=1765168725","url":"https:\/\/dhlswag.com\/products\/going-plaid-in-a-solid-gray-world-collected-columns-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}