LEXINGTON, Ky. — “Beware the Tall Grass,” a debut novel by Ellen Birkett Morris, won The Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence, and was selected by Lan Samantha Chang of the Iowa Writer workshop. The prize includes $10,000 and a publication contract with Columbus State University Press. The novel will be released March 15.
With war as a backdrop and empathy at its heart, this dual narrative takes on the power of love and courage to meet unforeseen circumstances.
Here is what Chang said about the book:
“In this beautiful novel, two stories separated by half a century intertwine to create an indelible narrative of peace and war. In the throes of his first loss, young Thomas joins the Army and travels to Vietnam, where he is propelled toward his fate. Decades later, in another time and place, Eve and Daniel welcome their infant son and resolve to set aside their own family ghosts. But is it possible to release the past? Can powerful experiences of love and death ever be forgotten? Through surprising and suspenseful turns, Beware the Tall Grass explores the evocative mysteries of time and memory.”
The novel was inspired by a 2014 NPR story about children with past life memories. NPR Story
Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of “Lost Girls: Short Stories,” winner of the Pencraft Award. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. She is also the author of “Abide” and “Surrender,” poetry chapbooks. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, AARP’s the Ethel, Oh Reader, and on National Public Radio.
She teaches creative writing at The Virginia Piper Center at ASU in Tempe, Arizona and The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington.
“Beware the Tall Grass” weaves the stories of the Sloans, a modern family grappling with their young son Charlie’s troubling memories of a past life as a soldier in Vietnam, and Thomas Boone, a young man caught up in the drama of mid-sixties America who is sent to Vietnam. Eve Sloan is challenged as a mother to make sense of Charlie’s increasing references to war, and her attempts to get to the bottom of Charlie’s past-life memories threaten her marriage, while Thomas struggles with loss and first love, before being thrust into combat and learning what matters most. “Beware the Tall Grass” explores the power of love and mercy with grace and artful sensitivity in a world where circumstances often occur far beyond our control.
Morris has two upcoming Kentucky events:
• Signing and Conversation with Tom Eblen
Joseph Beth Booksellers, Lexington, KY
7 p.m. March 26, 2024
• Signing and Conversation with Dr. Ian Stansel
Carmichael’s Bookstore, 2720 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, KY 40206
7 p.m. ET, March 28, 2024
