Jonathan Odell

A short essay I wrote about the news of JFK's assassination breaking in Mississippi.

How It Is Down Here – Salvation South In Mississippi, in 1963, it took an assassin’s bullet to give a young man a peek behind the curtain of the Lost Cause.

Abstract Magazine published my memory essay about my mother's near-death experience.

Do-It-Yourself by Jonathan Odell Art: Ghost Rain by Briarwood Bohemian

"Baba the Magnificent" is actually a chapter from a novel I wrote that will never see the light of day. But I do love the kid in the book, so I wanted him to have at least a brief turn on the stage. Thanks, Muleskinner Journal.

Baba the Magnificent — The Muleskinner Journal Jonathan Odell Baba the Magnificent The old plow shed behind the Brackett’s tarpaper shack was filled with shadow and the soft hissing of his pets. At this late hour, the snakes spoke only to David Lee, and the boy found this reassuring. From their boxes, they whispered to him secrets...

This memoir essay was the most difficult story I've ever tried to tell. It concerns the su***de of a college fraternity brother in which I've always felt complicit.

Waiting on the Stair by Jonathan Odell - Memoir Magazine This was 1972 and gay s*x was definitely taboo. Not only was it against the law, the president of the university, a rabid segregationist, also hated qu**rs. He had a network of spies on campus, those he either paid or blackmailed into aggressively turning in fellow students suspected of such aberran...

My story of coming out as gay to my conservative Mississippi parents. Published today in Salvation South.

What Daddy Can’t Fix – Salvation South The prospect of coming out to his parents scared him to death. But they were fine with it. Anyway, that’s what it seemed like at first.

The Progressive Magazine asked me to do a story about my hometown, Laurel, Ms, and how the blockbuster HGTV show "Home Town", which airs internationally from Laurel, stands up to reality. If you are a fan of the show you might be surprised at what I found.

Returning to Laurel A feel-good HGTV show sweeps a Southern town’s racist past, and gentrified present, under the rug.

Boy in Nets, Madagascar.

The Other Journal, a noted magazine for progressive Christians, asked to reprint a piece I did a few years ago. Some of you may have read it. Be kind and share if you like it, so they know they made a good decision in publishing it.

Grace, Glitter and Radio Preachers - The Other Journal Ten years ago, a childhood friend came out to me. He was nearly sixty and living in Laurel, Mississippi, the small town where we both grew up. He said he had been seeing the same woman now for twenty years, unable to come to terms with his s*xuality. He had had plenty of s*x with […]

My Mother’s Day memory was published in Saturday’s StarTribune.

OPINION EXCHANGE | She slices! She dices! She gives (and receives) with love. The best gifts aren't always what we expect (and sometimes don't work as advertised).

Mississippi Free Press, the best news source in the state, ran my essay about my selling Back history door-to-door in the 70s.

Black History Can Save White Folks, Too. “You can’t understand Black history without reflecting on white history,” Jonathan Odell writes. “We created this history together.”

“In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything!” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
“In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything!” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Honored to have a longer essay published in Hippocampus Magazine. This story is a significant one for me.

Lighting the Way by Jonathan Odell | Hippocampus Magazine "Nearly 40 years after I escaped Hazlehurst, MS, it turned out there was only one place in the entire world that housed the documents I needed." -Jonathan Odell

"Artisanal Writer" published my essay on how writing saved my love life.

Jonathan Odell on Letting a Character Live One More Chapter Each time I conveniently killed off a character was an act of authorial cowardice. I decided to allow them to exist for a few pages more pages.

"Months to Years Magazine" published a short essay about how my mother's death effected me.

https://www.monthstoyears.org/audience-of-one/?fbclid=IwAR2ZQ2mVcGO_MM3An2A-nOcbbuFULOFCH4t1UgSD43FmyGgGQi97M_NaaCE

Audience of One - Months To Years I was surprised how my mother’s death affected me. I thought I knew what to expect from grief, having lost my father seven years prior. I never counted on the delayed reaction. Two years after her funeral, in the middle of writing my next novel, a depression hit me seemingly out of nowhere. My wri...

Chicago Memory House published a memoir essay I wrote a while ago about how Walter Cronkite saved my life. Hit the link below, scroll way down until you see "A Place in the World" by Jonathan Odell.
https://chicagomemoryhouse.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/memoryhouse-winter-2022-2.pdf

I'm honored that Sky Island Journal published not one but TWO of my personal essays. One about my Aunt who counted on miracles to get through the day and another about how you might not be able to go home again, but you can never leave either.
Scroll down to find my name and pic.

Issues — Sky Island Journal All website and cover photography by Jason Splichal: property of Sky Island Journal. Each in-issue author photograph is property of its respective contributor.

Blink.Ink nominated my 50-Word story for a Pushcart Prize. Here it is:

Competing with Jesus

I fall for all the wrong people. In college, it was a Satanist, but he wasn’t pushy about it.
Then he got saved and renounced Satan, homos*xuality and me.
He asked me to pray with him.
I did.
“Lord,” I said, “why can’t you leave one for me?”

BLINK-INK | www.blink-ink.org | [email protected] Welcome to Blink-Ink Home to the finest in contemporary 50 word fiction. Archived in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, Blink-Ink is a quarterly print journal publishing the best in stories of approximately 50 words since 2009. Blink-Ink, The First 10 Years (photo cred...

Interview from 2015.

Art Illuminating Human Rights Series: Jon Odell and Duchess Harris On September 24, 2015, the kick-off event for "Art Illuminating Human Rights" explored race and civil rights in the United States. Following a gallery tour, ...

I've put together a running list of links to a few of the magazines that have published my short stories and memoir essays. The photo is by my Mississippi friend, photographer Bob Franks.

Essays and Short Stories " Our Wondrous Monsters" Sky Island Journal ​ " Rock Solid Proof of God's Love" Sky Island Journal ​ ​ " Learning to Let Love In" New York Times "Lucile's Diner" The Bitter Southerner " C oming...

My short essay “Grace, Glitter, and Radio Preachers” appeared in MacRoMic recently.

Grace, Glitter, and Radio Preachers by Jonathan Odell Ten years ago, a childhood friend came out to me. He was nearly sixty and still living in Laurel, Mississippi, the small town where we both grew up. He said he had been seeing the same woman now fo…

I recently had an essay published in the Blue Mountain Review about the mysterious nature of Southern language if you’d like to take a look. You’ll need to expand the frame to read the print.

How my parents' gay bashing preacher brought us closer together.

Jonathan Odell: Brother Buddy’s Gift Jonathan Odell is the author of three novels. The View from Delphi, (Macadam Cage, 2004) deals with the struggle for equality in pre-civil rights Mississippi, his home state. In 2012, Random House…

A brief remembrance about the time I met Pat Conroy.

https://www.salvationsouth.com/making-women-cry-pat-conroy/?fbclid=IwAR2mT1aUzlwkX0VfaFqqKjbjMWa23UAhR1OKus04E734UmMhx1esO7ADkPA

Making Women Cry - Salvation South In 2015, novelist Jonathan Odell, a Mississippi native, shared the stage with a legend of Southern literature, Pat Conroy, at Georgia’s Decatur Book Festival. In this lovely remembrance, he recalls how Conroy treated his fans like family.