Emily Dunlap Carter presents
A Chick’s View
“You never cease to amaze me how your words come together. I love how your writing is all so straight up, stripped down, and honest, and also feels soothing and silly. It’s a boozy but balanced cocktail, and you order a second one before you finish the first because you like it so much.”
Christine Ramirez
Hey, You.
Welcome.
Pull up a chair.
Sit and read for a spell.
Detach from expectations and think and feel whatever you think and feel.
Jot down some notes and ideas if you like.
It’s what I do. It’s how I write.
Perhaps there’s something here that will light your fire, lighten your load, or illuminate your path, but don’t tread lightly. Stomp around. Claim what you need. While it’s this chick’s view, it’s an overlook of sorts, and there’s room for you to see as far as your gaze allows.
Love and light,
Emily
2021 Second Place Winner of the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize, NCLR
Vignettes assembled from the wispiest of memory or detail, developed without evident exertion and with great economy into nuanced observations about family, time, memory, landscape and language. Carter has brought the world, lively and flawed, to us.
2021 Second Place, Rose Post Creative Non-Fiction Contest, NC Writers’ Network
There’s so much to love about this portrayal of a stoic father, a loving but reticent child, and how a farm family makes ends meet in the face of big business and the vicissitudes of farm life. I love how the child speaker is quick to tell us so much about what they know, but has no idea that they will one day follow in their father’s footsteps. It’s a surprise ending that makes the memory of a cattle sale all the more prescient, and all the more touching.
“I’m the guitar in a case
Aching at the string
Wasting in the dark
Cause I was born to sing
I’m the bass in the woodshed
Longing for the pocket
Gone dormant with the dream
They shut the door and locked it
Buy me, find me, trade me
Play my melody
I’m no good cast in the dark
I’m the music, set me free”
American Songwriter 2022 Lyric Contest
4th Place Winner
“Made to be Played” by Emily & John “Smokin’ Hot Love Biscuit” Carter
Being married to a musician is a treat. It’s a creative commune to talk words, lyrics, and melodies with the one you hold dear. While I see words and sentences, SHLB hears them, and that’s what makes a song work – the sound is where the magic happens.