Jim Wilson

Scott Owens

Baynard Woods

Michael Knight

Chuck Jones

George Singleton

Shari Smith

Susan Cushman

Greg Herren

Wendy Reed

Judith Richards

Suzanne Hudson

Jennifer Horne

Jennifer Paddock

Chuck Cannon

Ed Southern

Joe Formichella

Lari White

Michael Reno Harrell

Bev Marshall

Marlin Barton

Janet Nodar

The first Shoe Burnin' occurred on a cold winter's night years ago in Alabama. When the firewood ran out, a box of old shoes provided the assembled group of friends and artists with the fuel they needed to stock the hearth and share stories and songs late into the night. The bond forged that night began a tradition of fireside Shoe Burnin's. Naturally, many of the stories and songs involved shoes -- the places they've been and the people who wore them. Now, for the first time, these works have been collected in The Shoe Burnin', Stories of Southern Soul. The hardcover book includes a companion CD of spoken word and music that captures the Southern soul.

Stories of Southern Soul

The Shoe Burnin'

On a rainy Tuesday morning in 1996, Wendy Reed’s car hydroplaned, crossed an interstate median, and crashed into an oncoming car, whose driver was killed. Though Reed and her son were unharmed and Reed initially described herself as "fine," in the months that followed she would be engulfed in a storm of guilt and recrimination, as well as jarring legal proceedings over the accident. In An Accidental Memoir, Reed, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, points the lens at herself and explores that accident and a succession of personal experiences through fact and fiction. Told from unusual perspectives and in highly figurative language, the stories draw on the Southern Gothic tradition of Flannery O’Connor and feature dark humor, flawed people, disastrous events, and moments of spiritual grace. Taken together, this collection of deliberately fragmented essays and short stories become a meditation on subjects such as work, family responsibilities, death, and raising a child.

How I Killed Someone and Other Stories

An Accidental Memoir

Wendy Reed

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