towles

One of my first memories is of sitting on the floor of my bedroom, staring into a box of words. The words had been written in large, neat letters with a black magic marker on card stock clipped into rectangles. I thought these words were beautiful, fascinating, deeply wonderful things. I was in kindergarten then, and now, twenty-five years later, words - in all their variations - still amaze me. Good writing enchants me, and I guess that's why I'm here, doing a most public, most un-Towles-like thing: because having a blog is good for the discipline of writing, and good, perhaps, for the writing itself. I grew up on a farm in a small town in rural Virginia. After dating my fair share of T-top Camaro-driving, gold-chain-wearing, baseball-playing small town boys, I went to Davidson College, studied English lit and creative writing, and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. I didn't intend to stay in such a big city for so long, but I met my husband, Andrew here (no T-tops or gold chains this time), and we sort of love our life in this town. We have a golden retriever - more human than dog - who has shown tremendous character as I've pursued an MFA in creative nonfiction writing at Goucher College.