Memphis Trace Profile

At the age of 22 in 1966, Memphis Trace found himself in Washington, DC, born again in the image of a fortunate flatlander. Thereat he imagined three careers: patent examiner, gardener, and storyteller. He imagined stories into Virginia Country, The Northern Virginia Review, and The Minnesota Review. He has now claimed first rocking chair, thencefrom to balloon his imagination further west and higher up; to the place he was born the first time as an aspiring front porch storyteller. He is reimagining stories of lives in his fictional birthplace, Blue Ruby, Virginia, that turned out less fortunate than his has.

He has just finished reimagining and publishing on KDP Good at Dying, a 125,000 word long story, Buck Fields—At Home and Abroad, the arc of a life in standalone short stories; is working on The Muse of Blue Ruby, the sequel to Good at Dying, while reworking a 60,000-word collection, Waking up with the Mules, of shorter stories. His sons and daughters-in-law have provided Memphis with flatlander grandchildren Sawyer, Beckett, KC, and Maya – all more beautiful than he could have imagined.