Category: Travel

Key West Literary Seminar 2013

Key West Literary Seminar 2013 Stage
Key West Literary Seminar 2013 Stage

by Sharon Harrigan

Sharon Harrigan, a friend and fellow WriterHouse member, was the Joyce Horton Johnson Fiction Award recipient at KWLS this year, and I asked her to share her thoughts on the experience.  Thanks, Sharon, and congrats again on a much deserved award.

If the view out your window is anything like mine right now—snow on slippery sidewalks—let me offer you this mid-winter writer’s daydream: Flip flops and floppy hats on beach cruiser bikes to stir up inspiration. The sun so bright on the ocean you can swim in it every day of the year, like Tennessee Williams did. The descendants of Hemingway’s cats lounging at his house under flowering shrubs, just the sight of their softness somehow making your prose more muscular. Cafe con leche and guava pastries before writing workshop with Hilma Wolitzer at Judy Blume’s house. Panels and presentations by literary superstars like Colm Toibin, Brad Gooch, and Billy Collins, followed by dinners with the speakers and your fellow workshop writers at the lighthouse, near the southernmost tip of North America. Finally, after a corkscrew climb down the winding steps, a pink taxi or pedi-cab waits to deposit you in the jacuzzi at your bed and breakfast (aptly called, of course, Authors’ House).

It’s not a day dream. It’s called the Key West Literary Seminar. I was able to attend for the first time, last month, and the experience still helps me write more brightly, whatever gray days may arrive, outside my window or in my head.

The seminar takes place every January, and there are three ways you can attend—as a winner of one of the three prizes, as a scholarship participant, and as a general attendee. I was lucky enough to be the Joyce Horton Johnson Award recipient this year. For more information, see the seminar’s web site: http://www.kwls.org/

Spread the word about KWLS. I wouldn’t have known about it at all if it weren’t for my fellow WriterHouse members who won the award in previous years (hooray for Kristen-Paige Madonia, George Kamide, and CHRISTY STRICK!).  It must be something WriterHouse puts in the water, or maybe good things just happen when you’re part of a fabulously smart and encouraging literary community. Thank you, Christy, for all your tips on Key West and everything else.

Sharon Harrigan has published over three dozen short stories, essays, and reviews in such journals as Narrative, The Rumpus, and The Nervous Breakdown.

Wandering in Cemeteries

Tomorrow I’m heading downtown for a little alone time with a few ghosts.  I’ve been meaning to revisit some of Charleston’s graveyards, and it’s supposed to be decent weather, and well, I can’t think of a better thing to do with my Sunday afternoon.

I’m a big fan of cemeteries and graveyards.  (For those of you who don’t know the difference – and I didn’t until not too long ago – a graveyard is attached to a church, while a cemetery is separate from church grounds.)  There’s something about them that can keep me mesmerized for hours, reading old headstones, making up stories about the people who are buried there.  Everywhere I travel I search for them.  I’ve wandered graveyards in France, and Italy, and Ireland, and in most places I’ve been.  My daughter Lauri and I found one tucked away in a park in Venice, and I dragged my oldest daughter Ali to the graveyard at St. Michael’s here in Charleston when she was only a few years old.  Sometimes my traveling companions are game, and sometimes they opt to shop while I daydream. Which is OK, because to me a graveyard really is best as a solitary experience.

Beara Peninsula, Ireland
Beara Peninsula, Ireland

At an artist residency at Anam Cara in Ireland, I could be found most days at sunset walking through the cemetery on a hillside across the street.  I took pictures, wrote in my travel journal, and talked to myself about my characters, imagining them there.  While in residence at the Studios of Key West, I rode my bike to Key West’s historic 1847 Cemetery, where I spent an entire afternoon photographing the above-ground tombs and statues.  One of my favorite inscriptions there is “I Told You I was Sick.”  Another gem is “good citizen for 65 of his 108 years.”

Key West 1847 Cemetery
Key West 1847 Cemetery

While in Key West, I met an artist who had started his work in stone as a gravestone carver.  Imagine my fascination with that.  I asked so many questions that I’m sure he wished he’d never run across me.  But one day I’ll use that information in a story, I’m sure.

Tomorrow, I’ll take some pictures and daydream, wandering between confederate soldiers and signers of the Declaration of Independence.  But the ones that will interest me the most, that always do, are the people no one has ever heard of, the ones I can create stories for.

My Top 10 Favorite Touristy Things to do in Charleston

I have a new friend who’s in Charleston for a month for work, and she asked me today what she should see and do while she’s here.  So I tried to remember back to when I lived down here before, and where I would take visitors who had never been to this wonderful place.  In doing so I remembered the magic of discovering some of these things myself, and it made me want to share them.

1)      The Battery.  One of my favorite places in the world.  The Battery is located at the southernmost tip of the Charleston Peninsula. If you’ve ever seen a picture of Charleston, it was probably of the Battery.  Incredible architecture, beautiful old oak trees, and an amazing view of historic Fort Sumter.

2)      Speaking of Fort Sumter, one of my favorite touristy things to do is to take the harbor tour out to Fort Sumter.  A great boat ride, and then you can wander around the fort where the Civil War began in earnest.

3)      Horse and carriage ride.  The tour guides are terrific, and it’s really the only way to see some of the old parts of the city other than walking.

4)      Food.  Lord, does Charleston have some great restaurants.  Magnolias, Husk, etc etc.

5)      St Michael’s Episcopal Church.  Charleston’s oldest church was built in 1764.  It’s beautiful, and the cemetery has graves dating from the Revolutionary War. I’m a sucker for cemeteries.

6)      Old City Market.  Lots of history, great shops, and restaurants.  What’s not to love?

7)      Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge.  This is a new one for me – the bridge wasn’t built when I lived here before.  Park and walk across for some incredible views, or just drive over it into Mt. Pleasant, my stomping grounds.

8)      While you’re on that side of the bridge, go on through Mt P to the Isle of Palms.  Great beach, and some adorable shops.  I’m lucky enough to live 5 minutes from there.

9)      Or stay in Mt P and go to Shem Creek to eat on the water or go kayaking.

10)  If you still have time and energy, take in one of the many historic houses open to the public or tour a plantation just a short drive away.  Just a few:  Middleton Place, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, Boone Hall Plantation, Drayton Hall, Edmondston-Alston House, Heyward-Washington House, Joseph Manigault House, Aiken-Rhett House, Nathaniel Russell House.

www.charlestoncvb.com has lots more information on things to do in Charleston, but these are my faves.  See y’all down here.