The divine secrets of Rebecca Wells

You might say Rebecca Wells is blooming again. In February, she debuted a one-woman theater production, An Evening with Rebecca Wells and the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, at the Arkansas Repertory Theater and was included in Louisiana Women Volume 2. She will appear at the 2016 Louisiana Book Festival, and she spoke with 225 about the occasion.

What did you take away from revisiting the stories from The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere as a stage play?

I saw that in every book I’ve written, I’ve tried—either consciously or unconsciously—to write about my experience of the feminine face of God. That I’ve tried to examine how racism—including my own—has influenced my life. I realized on a deeper level how much I owe my mother and how much I love her. I learned more about how I came to be the 63-year-old woman I am today, all patched together and broken, living to tell the tale, and OK with it.

You’ll be interviewed at the festival by Mary Ann Wilson, who wrote about you for Louisiana Women Volume 2. What does it mean to you to be included in this book?

I am honored to be included alongside of so many brave women. … Mary Ann Wilson’s analysis of my work helped me understand what my unconscious was doing, helped me see what was working underneath the work. … I admit I was a little surprised to see my work described as “chick lit” in the introduction. I’ve always thought of my writing as kind of sneaky-dark, subversive. I am gladdened that Mary Ann Wilson rolled up her sleeves to look at the heft of what I was trying to do. I deliberately put some icing on the cake of my books. That she was not deterred by this honored not only my own attempts to look at what shapes a soul; it honored the experience of a lot of women for whom the boas and tiaras were only trappings for the difficult journey we’re all on as we learn to become human.

What are you looking forward to about visiting Baton Rouge, now that you live in Nashville?

When I was a little girl, my father took my family to Baton Rouge for the inauguration of Gov. John McKeithen. I saw the gorgeous space I’ll be reading in this year. I feel kind of nine-ishly excited about that. I also love being around the Louisiana dialect and soft cadence of language and the humor at every turn. Is sweet olive in bloom, and will I smell it? That scent takes me back to the LSU campus. I look forward to having a chance to give something back to my home state. My motherland has not had an easy go of it for a long time. I hope I can love on her a little.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on short pieces about a character who is me and not me. A blend of memoir and fiction. The character is Blaise St. Clair, and the working title of the book is Blaise St. Clair’s Book of Being.

This story was originally published in the October issue of 225 Magazine.