Local author to speak at Newton Library
Tamra Wilson, local author and columnist, will be reading from her new book, Going Plaid, at the Newton Branch of the Catawba County Library System. Going Plaid in a Solid Gray World, Collected Columns contains 135 short slice-of-life essays that have appeared in area newspapers since 2015. The event will be held upstairs in the library at 6pm on Tuesday, May 3rd.
Wilson wrote from a public relations and marketing perspective for most of her career, and when she retired in 2015, she was able to start writing every other week for several publications. Her passion for writing began as a child, and was passed down from various family members.
“I think writing is something you’re born with or you’re not. You have to be constantly looking for interesting things to write about. It’s been a natural curiosity since I was a kid. I grew up with storytellers,” shared Wilson.
Wilson’s columns are written from the experiences of her life in Western North Carolina and being a Midwestern transplant in the South.
“I try to take ordinary topics and think about them and give them a quarter turn or so, a spinoff of what they [readers] haven’t thought of or heard about. It’s an exercise for myself as much as anything. We all have a story, and this is mine,” stated Wilson.
Going Plaid was named after her 2017 column that related the difficulty of replacing plaid loveseats in a world upholstered in gray and beige, likened to the difficulty of learning to adapt to suddenly living in a new place.
Wilson referenced specifically the final essay of the book, which details her reflections regarding her husband passing away.
“It was one of my most difficult pieces, but it garnered more response. I think it’s because everyone has experienced loss in some way,” shared Wilson.
Wilson discussed the writing process and the endurance that writing and publishing often requires through the experience of writing a fictionalized story about a family during the polio epidemic, and the 65 tries it took to get it published.
“If you’re not willing to never give up, you’ll never succeed. It wasn’t the right story for whoever was looking at it. I thought, ‘I’m not going to give up on this, because it’s a good one,’” reflected Wilson.
Going Plaid will be available for purchase during the event, and half the proceeds will benefit The Corner Table.
For more information about the Catawba County Library’s resources and services, visit www.catawbacountync.gov/library, call 828.465.8665, email mylibrary@catawbacountync.gov, or visit www.facebook.com/catawbacountylibrarysystem.