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Collard County: A Collection of Short Stories
Collard County is a collection of 5 short stories by Tamara J. Madison. With bold characters set in rich southern tradition and lushly poetic description, each of the tales carries its own unique twist, flirting with the paranormal and metaphysical.
Subject matter includes a woman who discovers that she is literally falling apart and losing parts of herself, a mysteriously diseased, impoverished community on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, and the bewitching consequences of an unfaithful spouse.
All of the stories revolve around the universal theme of resilience amidst the worst of adversity.
Titles include: Barren, Burnt Bottom, Hush, Cycles, and Misplaced.
Subject matter includes a woman who discovers that she is literally falling apart and losing parts of herself, a mysteriously diseased, impoverished community on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, and the bewitching consequences of an unfaithful spouse.
All of the stories revolve around the universal theme of resilience amidst the worst of adversity.
Titles include: Barren, Burnt Bottom, Hush, Cycles, and Misplaced.
66 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2013
156 people want to read
About the author
Tamara J. Madison
3 books25 followersTamara J. Madison is a published writer, poet, editor, performer and college-level instructor of English and Creative Writing.
Her latest collection of poetry, Threed, This Road Not Damascus, was recently released through Trio House Press in May 2019. She is also the author of Kentucky Curdled, a collection of poetry and essay, and Collard County, a collection of short stories.
She is the creator and host of BREAKDOWN: The Poet & The Poems a monthly showcase and poetry conversation featuring a guest poet discussing poetry as inspiration and motivation for every day lives (https://www.youtube.com/c/Tamarajmadi...).
For more information, find her home on the web at http://www.tamarajmadison.com.
A note about her reviews on Goodreads: "My reviews are based on my pleasure. I do not review books here on Goodreads as a literary critic. I appreciate work that I relate to as well as work that makes me wrestle and tussle and grow whether I completely like/understand it or not."
Her latest collection of poetry, Threed, This Road Not Damascus, was recently released through Trio House Press in May 2019. She is also the author of Kentucky Curdled, a collection of poetry and essay, and Collard County, a collection of short stories.
She is the creator and host of BREAKDOWN: The Poet & The Poems a monthly showcase and poetry conversation featuring a guest poet discussing poetry as inspiration and motivation for every day lives (https://www.youtube.com/c/Tamarajmadi...).
For more information, find her home on the web at http://www.tamarajmadison.com.
A note about her reviews on Goodreads: "My reviews are based on my pleasure. I do not review books here on Goodreads as a literary critic. I appreciate work that I relate to as well as work that makes me wrestle and tussle and grow whether I completely like/understand it or not."
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 2, 2014
I received a copy of this book through a first-reads giveaway and I enjoyed it. Although some stories took awhile to comprehend (and had to be read multiple times), it's worth it once the story is fully understood because then you can appreciate the story's value and morals. Personally, I still don't fully understand everything in this book but I think that it's good that the stories don't directly state their meaning but instead they make you think and interpret what's going on so that each person will have their own understanding/thoughts on each of the stories. I think the whole collection of short stories are beautifully written in a poetic style and I like how the author is very descriptive in her writing in a way that the words seem to jump off the page into lively images in the reader's mind.
August 3, 2013
Collard County is a picture book without the pictures. The author brings a very metaphoric and poetic style to the collection of stories in this book, which paint vivid pictures for the reader. A story is always better when you can invision or feel the mood and the reader is able to do both in this book. The woman characters in this book are inspiring yet not perfect just as their stories are. I recommend this book for audiences that enjoy black literature.
August 9, 2013
Tamara truly is a poet baptized in rhythm. I liked it.
It was a good decision to read her book. Sometimes when I travel I see a lake with a million wrinkles on its surface, still, not breathing, waiting in patience for something and then I see the evening sun making love to it. Some things in life are beautiful in their own way and this is one of those.
As I read the stories what came into my mind was a poem I read in high school,years ago- “Aunts Jennifer’s Tigers”. Aunt Jennifer was a woman who in the poem was knitting a sweater and on the wall lay a portrait of Tigers that Jennifer had painted herself. Jennifer’s life had been one where she dutifully went about doing her chores and in the process lost herself. The weight of the marriage ring hung heavily on her. The painting of the Tiger was in the opinion of the poet a way to express her long lost freedom. Bold, free, creatures of the wild they were and what Jennifer was not, could not.
One of her stories Misplaced came as a slap across the face for I thought of the women close to me, my aunts, my mother who were lost in their chores forever. An endless chain of monotony. There are no tears that can heal them.
A recurring theme of suffering, of women lost in pain, under situations which were not in their control was found in her stories and yet they were not vague. I thought for a brief moment that all stories would be like “ Misplaced” but thankfully they were not.
It is amazing to see her thought process the way you write her thoughts when she made love, the way you conceived your stories.
And the sack of chittlin's-well mind blowing, if you read that you will know what I mean!
It was a good decision to read her book. Sometimes when I travel I see a lake with a million wrinkles on its surface, still, not breathing, waiting in patience for something and then I see the evening sun making love to it. Some things in life are beautiful in their own way and this is one of those.
As I read the stories what came into my mind was a poem I read in high school,years ago- “Aunts Jennifer’s Tigers”. Aunt Jennifer was a woman who in the poem was knitting a sweater and on the wall lay a portrait of Tigers that Jennifer had painted herself. Jennifer’s life had been one where she dutifully went about doing her chores and in the process lost herself. The weight of the marriage ring hung heavily on her. The painting of the Tiger was in the opinion of the poet a way to express her long lost freedom. Bold, free, creatures of the wild they were and what Jennifer was not, could not.
One of her stories Misplaced came as a slap across the face for I thought of the women close to me, my aunts, my mother who were lost in their chores forever. An endless chain of monotony. There are no tears that can heal them.
A recurring theme of suffering, of women lost in pain, under situations which were not in their control was found in her stories and yet they were not vague. I thought for a brief moment that all stories would be like “ Misplaced” but thankfully they were not.
It is amazing to see her thought process the way you write her thoughts when she made love, the way you conceived your stories.
And the sack of chittlin's-well mind blowing, if you read that you will know what I mean!
January 17, 2014
This is a short collection of stories. The author bills her style as "poetic fiction" or "poetic paranormal" and her collection of stories all have a supernatural or fantastical element to them. I liked her story "Misplaced" which is about a woman who suddenly realizes she is missing parts of herself - fingers, an ear, etc and that this had happened because she constantly was "giving" of herself and not paying any attention/caring for herself. I liked that imagery, and I think we all can identify with that feeling. In another story, "Barren," the author describes the coming of a medical team to a black shantytown that perform medical "experiments" on the black women. The author makes you think of the history of the real-life experiments that were done in the USA, but she twists the story by adding a supernatural element of having a type of medicine woman who fights back against the medical team in her own way. The stories are all very short, but they cover a lot. I could see some of these stories being more fleshed out if the author wanted or being used as a character in a larger novel.
I won this copy through a Goodreads giveaway.
I won this copy through a Goodreads giveaway.
February 13, 2014
I chose to read this book after finding and agreeing to read her other book, Kentucky Curdled, for an r2r. I love short stories and something about it caught my attention.
It was a nice little book of short stories. The author is very good with catching your interest and describing things in a way that makes you see it in your head as you read her words. I enjoyed these stories - my two favorites being Barren (incredible) and Misplaced (really made me think) - and I look forward to reading more from this author.
Note: I received a copy of this book for my honest review.
It was a nice little book of short stories. The author is very good with catching your interest and describing things in a way that makes you see it in your head as you read her words. I enjoyed these stories - my two favorites being Barren (incredible) and Misplaced (really made me think) - and I look forward to reading more from this author.
Note: I received a copy of this book for my honest review.
January 29, 2014
Collard County is beautiful, lyrical, and really well written. It is a quick, yet powerful read. The stories are familiar. Each one of them have stayed with me long after reading them.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews