State of the Heart - South Caroline Writers on the Places They Love

Idgie Says:
USC Press first released a compilation of stories by SC authors in 2013.  These stories tell of the places they grew up in, or grew to love as adults.   Not only sharing part of the author's heart and soul, but also sharing the beauty of South Carolina with us.

Now in 2015 we have Volume 2.  Look at the great list of authors that are involved in this project! I have both volumes shown below, check them out! 


State of the Heart
South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love, Volume 2

Edited by Aïda Rogers
Foreword by Marjory Wentworth

October, 2015

 

Diverse and distinguished storytellers celebrate the state's renowned and remote destinations 

South Carolina is a state of inspiration as well as recreation. Through its natural beauty, storied heritage, and curious character, the Palmetto State finds its way into the hearts and imaginations of every native, resident, and guest to set foot on its thirty-two thousand square miles of soil. Continuing the format of the popular original, this second volume of State of the Heart: South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love celebrates and commemorates the connections that the accomplished contributors have found in the well-known and far-flung locations most dear to them. With companionable charm and storytellers' spirits, editor Aïda Rogers and the thirty-eight contributors invite you to amble across South Carolina with them for a chance to see the state as they have come to know it.

For writers beloved places can captivate, teach, comfort, and occasionally haunt. In this collection contributors reflect on their hometowns, the rivers and roads that marked their lives' journeys, and the maligned neighborhoods they transformed just by living and working in them. Family beach vacations, churches and churchyards, athletic arenas modest and grand, a mountain vista, a quiet pond, a city park, an old-time produce market, Lake Murray, Brookgreen Gardens—these are just a sampling of the nearly three dozen private and public places favored by this diverse group of writers of fiction, memoir, poetry, history, journalism, and more. Photographs, artwork, verse, and even a few recipes accompany the essays, bringing readers further into sharing the writers' experiences.

While State of the Heart is rooted in the landscape of South Carolina, readers from anywhere will relate to its universal themes of growing up and growing old, recognition of past mistakes, returned-to faith, the closeness of family and friends, honoring those who came before, and setting our collective sights on the promise of the future for cherished people and places.

Marjory Wentworth, South Carolina's poet laureate, provides the foreword to this collection, which includes her poem "One River, One Boat."

Contributors:
Ron Aiken, Jack Bass, Nancy Brock, Jim Casada, Emily L. Cooper, Ronald Daise
Christopher Dickey, Tim Driggers, Sue Duffy, Pam Durban, Margaret Shinn Evans, Herb Frazier , Sammy Fretwell, Shani Gilchrist , Vera Gómez, Harlan Greene, Rachel Haynie
Tommy Hays, Josephine Humphreys, Thomas L. Johnson, Charles Joyner, Janna McMahan, Ray McManus, Ben McC. Moïse, Mary Alice Monroe, Patricia Moore-Pastides, Glenis Redmond
Rose Rock, Aïda Rogers, Valerie Sayers, Bernie Schein, George Singleton, Katie Stagliano, Michel Smoak Stone, Marjory Wentworth, Ernest L. Wiggins, Susan Millar Williams, Curtis Worthington 

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State of the Heart
South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love

Edited by Aïda Rogers
Foreword by Pat Conroy

2013

 

A collection of heartfelt recollections of place from a pantheon of Palmetto State writers

In State of the Heart, Aïda Rogers has crafted an artful love letter to our state, with contributions from a host of nationally and regionally recognized writers who have written short essays on the South Carolina places that they cherish. This anthology provides a multifaceted historical and personal view of the Palmetto State.

Thematically organized, this collection offers a geographic and emotional scope that is as diverse as its contributors. Sportswriters describe beloved arenas; historians reflect on church ruins and forts. A playwright recalls the magic of her first theater experience; a food writer revels in a coastal joint that serves fresh oysters. Backyards, front porches, a small library at a children's home, the Savannah River Site, and places that are gone except in the memories of the writers who loved them—these are just a few of the locales covered, all showing how South Carolina has changed and inspired people in a variety of ways.

State of the Heart evokes a sense of history and timelessness by bringing together heartfelt responses to South Carolina rooted in memory, drawing on reflection, inspiration, and love. The anthology reveals a state that is more than a playground for tourists; it is a state of human hiding places that echo in the hearts of its literary citizens. Though presented as a book about place, the collection is ultimately about our shared connections to one another, to a complex common past, and to ongoing efforts to frame and build a future of promise and possibility.

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Aïda Rogers is a writer and editor whose feature journalism has won national and regional awards. She has worked in newspapers, television, and magazines. Rogers is the editor of State of the Heart: South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love, coeditor of Writing South Carolina: Selections from the First Annual High School Writing Contest, and coauthor of Stop Where the Parking Lot's Full, a guide to some of South Carolina's most beloved restaurants. She holds a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and lives in Columbia.