Now a prize-winning author, Ramona Reeves used to wake at 5 a.m. to write.
Before quitting her job in communications at the Texas Comptroller’s Office in Austin to promote her debut collection of short stories, Ramona Reeves would wake up at 5 a.m. to write.
“I think it’s necessary to have a work ethic to pursue a writing life,” she says. “The key, I think, is figuring out what works and why, and sticking to it whenever possible.”
Success didn’t come easily for the first-time author.
In 2021, Reeves was feeling discouraged when she submitted the manuscript of her debut collection, called It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories, for consideration by the Drue Heinz Literature Prize. The contest awards $15,000 and publication of a collection of short fiction to one winner.
“I thought my chances were nil, but there was no fee to enter, so I submitted,” Reeves says.
Ramona Reeves’ winning entry in the Drue Heinz Literature Prize contest was released as her debut book, “It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories.”(University of Pittsburgh Press)
When Jane McCafferty, the managing editor for the prize, called to let her know she won, Reeves asked at least three times if it was true. “I could not believe it at first,” Reeves says. “Then when we got off the phone, I ugly cried.”
After it was published, the book received acclaim from outlets including the Southern Review of Books and The Washington Post, the latter of which praised Reeves’ ability to bring “poetry to the portrayal of those who have it hard.”
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Reeves, who was named after the title character of a 19th-century novel about a woman weathering the prejudices of her contemporaries, might have been predisposed toward class-conscious fiction.
“Early on, I knew one of the themes I wanted to explore was class,” Reeves says about her debut collection, “and for me, that meant that the location/setting of the book needed to be a place I knew well, a place where I could show nuances in class among the characters.”
For a time, Reeves was calling her collection Upwardly Mobile, in a cheeky nod to her hometown of Mobile, Ala., where the book is set. She finds place integral to the collection. “To some degree, writing about a place, or from a specific place, means resisting the stereotypes of that chosen place, e.g., resisting the stereotypical depiction of Southerners, especially because the South is far from monolithic.”
“I think many people would situate me among U.S. Southern writers,” says Reeves, who counts writers like Mary Ward Brown, Eudora Welty and Tim Gautreaux as literary influences but also notes that Dolly Parton’s performance in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas informed aspects of her ex-call girl character Babbie in the collection.
Reeves began writing poetry when she was 9 and came to prose in her mid-20s, when she was living in New York.
“I was 26 or 27 when I made the switch to writing fiction. I was on a train on my way to work one morning reading Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find, a book given to me by a friend who couldn’t believe I’d never read her,” Reeves says, recalling the important moment. “I became so engrossed in the stories, I missed my stop and was late for work.”
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Despite her newfound enthusiasm, placing stories in literary journals would take time.
“At one point, for about a decade, I gave up the idea of being a writer, or what I thought it meant to be a writer,” says Reeves, adding that it was not a good decision. “I really do need to write to be happy.”
After following a friend’s suggestion to read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, Reeves felt a renewed focus toward the craft. “Gradually, I began attending readings, then a few writing classes at night, and a writers’ retreat in Taos. It was a slow process, but every step gave me confidence.”
Her commitment to the writing life led her to pursue an MFA at New Mexico State University, and to attend author S. Kirk Walsh’s workshop in Austin upon returning to Texas, which Reeves considers home. “My time in Texas, which is two decades now, has been the watershed for my writing and writing life,” she says. “There’s a Texas novel on my list of ideas for future novels.”
So how has success affected the writing schedule of the prize-winning former state employee?
“I haven’t been getting up as early since my book was published, mainly because I’m no longer trying to accommodate the set hours of my state job,” she says. “6 or 6:30 in the morning seems to be a better fit for me.”
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By Ramona Reeves
(University of Pittsburgh Press, 236 pages, $23)