Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
Name: Melanie McCabe
Title of Piece published in Sweet: The Secret She Knows — Or Does Not
Issue: 9.3
Find her:
Melanie teaches high school in Arlington, VA where she is trying to keep up with the writing pace “I maintained this summer, now that I have all these papers to grade.”
You deserve a gold star in our book, Melanie.
You can find out more about her on her website.
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
My memoir, His Other Life: Searching For My Father, His First Wife, and Tennessee Williams, which won the University of New Orleans Publishing Lab Prize, was published in September of 2017, and a piece that I wrote about it appeared in The Washington Post in December.
I have also had new essays out in The Forge Literary Magazine, Barely South Review, and The Smart Set.
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
I am currently at work on a novel and made it through two-thirds of a rough draft before my teaching life resumed this September.
Who is your favorite author?
I don’t have a favorite, but I have many that are beloved. As an English teacher, I am usually far more immersed in the classics I teach than in contemporary work — by necessity. I am currently teaching Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and have always loved her work.
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
I can never narrow choices down to a single favorite. A novel I admire a lot — and that I’ve taught– is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. I love what he does in that book with the balance between truth and storytelling.
What inspires you to write?
The opportunity it affords me to express my thoughts and to create something out of those thoughts. I don’t need to be inspired. I write because I can’t help but do so.
What is your favorite sweet?
The best sweet she ever had was a piña colada cake her mother made one year for her birthday, and never made again. That cake has achieved mythic status in her memory.
Although we can’t compare, Taste of Home thinks this piña colada cake tastes just like the drink. We think everyone should give it a try and share a piece with you.
Thank you, Melanie, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
