“And they are rare potatoes be!
And they are rare potatoes be!
And they are rare potatoes be!
Oh, they are rare potatoes be!”

--The Potato Man, 1775, A Farmer’s Cant


Ten Fast Facts About Betsy Woods

#1. I live at Camellia Farm on 18 acres that sit in the curve of Bayou Liberty on the edge of the Honey Island Swamp just outside of New Orleans.

#2. I can’t not write. Truly, I can't not write, it's impossible.

#3. I am the editor of The Children’s Corner for The Louisville Review and get to publish young people from across the nation.

#4. I’m the writer-in-residence in schools in the New Orleans area. I also teach creative writing at The Writer's Loft at Middle Tennessee State University.

#5. I have three cool sons. They each have their own dogs. One is named Daisy, one is named Sammy, and one is named Scout. They like to take their flatboat out on the bayou and the Pearl River where they catch crawfish and feed alligators marshmallows (my sons, not the dogs). We all survived Hurricane Katrina, though our old home did not.

#6. I grow tomatoes, and have a dog named Gracie.

#7. I wrote, produced and directed a play titled Santa Claus on the Moon when I was nine years old. I did.

#8. Gumbo is my favorite food. What’s gumbo, you ask? Gumbo is a dark stew made with shrimp and crab and oysters and a little bit of everything else.

#9. I play the guitar on my front porch when no one is around. If you spy on me, you might catch me turn a tune.

#10. I have written two young adult novels, Strong Moon Tonight and The Alfalfa and the Omega. I written one picture book titled Miss Smackbottom Lives Three Doors Down. They are all looking for a publishing home. I've published short stories for adults in national literary magazines like The Louisville Review, The New Orleans Review, The Literary Trunk and Alive Now. I was the winner of the 2004 Writer’s Project National Fiction Contest. I’m a contributing writer for Sophisticated Woman magazine, was a columnist and feature writer for The Times Picayune (the greater New Orleans newspaper) and for many years served as the assistant editor of Acres USA, the largest organic farming journal in North America. I’ve presented papers at the International Conference for The Children’s Literature Association. I have an MFA in writing from Spalding University.

#11. OOOPS! I was never good at math.