“The rutted road wound down. Other roads branched off this one and other yet, like capillaries bleeding off civilization into the wilderness, and finally he was deep in the harrikin.

Untitled, Oil on Canvas, by William Gay,
Passage from “Where Will You Go When Your Skin Will Not Contain You?” Time Done Been Won’t Be No More

Again, I want to thank Well Read Magazine and creator, publisher, editor, Mandy Haynes, for taking on a massive project with such a limited amount of time. I think I ended up sending in almost fifty images of old photos and images of William Gay’s folk-art, plus close to 17,000 words. It’s a lot to tackle on its own, but it was by far not the only project Well Read supported in the month of November. So….gratitude.

The connections between William’s prose and his paintings are simply incredible. For me, I felt as if I was immersing myself into one of his settings and meeting his characters. I hope I articulated this well for his fans and readers. It’s been an ongoing honor to work with the William Gay Archive, Team Gay, and now with Well Read Magazine. For the final part of the series on William Gay, Well Read will be publishing a never-before-seen excerpt from Gay’s first novel, The Long Home. This piece was cut by the publisher. In addition, the roundtable discussion with Team Gay will be included in December’s edition, so be on the lookout for more from Well Read and William Gay.

To view this article, visit link: Well Read Magazine November 2022. If you enjoyed the piece on Well Read, please share!