by Victor W. Brown (1998) Lovata bakes cakes on Sunday her ingredients didn’t come from a cookbook. They came from the lace on her dress, from the buckles on her shoe, from the dirt roads in Pinetop, North Carolina. They came from her gold tooth smile, from the stories she told us, from Grandma Hattie’s…

by Victor W. Brown (2009) AC look out across the water in deep thought, his eyes fixed— but not really seeing. He drifts through memories of his grandfather, Jeremiah Pruitt, his mother, Zetta, his father, Augustus Senior. He thinks of his wife, Lovata— the calm in his restless tide. I see him looking, but he…

The Queen and Ambition by Victor W. Brown (1998) Written for my parents, August Calvin Brown Jr. and Lovata Moss Brown The beauty queen from the South has caught the eye of the man of Ambition. Ambition wants to do great things— he says his life is in his hands. His father said, “Stand up…