Newly published.
“At first, he tells her his flight is cancelled, and it is. Intrepid Flight 8832 from O’Hare to LaGuardia is cancelled, the marquee advertises in scrolling, unapologetic letters. Something to do with engine trouble, or maybe the pilot, or hell if he knows. ”
Newly published.
“It’s been nearly two decades since I read ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,’ and I still don’t claim to be much good at prayer.”
Newly published.
“The broken silence is like a relief.”
Newly published.
“He did not use the words the priest had used, but the words were there, in the room with us, as my father talked about judgement in this age & in the one to come — world without end, amen.”
Hi, I’m Taylor! I’m a short-story writer and a freelance journalist living in the heart of the Fondren neighborhood in Jackson, MS. I’m a 2019 graduate of the Mississippi College Writing program. I returned to my alma mater and completed a Master’s degree (also in English) in 2023. I’ve won a few awards for my work in the classroom: the University’s Perry Medal, the Sarah A. Rouse and Psi Zeta Chapter awards given annually to an outstanding English major. I also won the Graduate Research Symposium for my work on religion in Anne of Green Gables.
My studies in composition, rhetoric, and literature enabled me to write well and passionately about social justice and civic engagement, and my journalism bylines can be found in the Mississippi Free Press, the Clinton Courier, the Jackson Free Press, the Canton News, and the Long Beach Breeze. I’ve written about the need for Medicaid expansion in a red state, about pay disparity in Mississippi – the last state in the union to pass an equal-pay-for-equal-work law, and about the enduring legacy of Emmett Till. I was also part of the “Trusted Elections” team at the Mississippi Free Press that brought home an SPJ Diamond Award for our coverage of the 2020 election.
My short fiction often spotlights religious people behaving badly, the joy and pain of aging, and that pesky emotion we all experience: longing. I want my writing to have substance and elegance, but it’s sometimes a tough line to walk. I try to learn from my favorite writers: Anne Lamott, my fellow Mississippian Jesmyn Ward, Madeleine L’Engle. I’m also in a writing group that pulls no punches, so that’s helpful, too.
When I’m not writing, I’m a higher education professional, an adjunct English professor, and the chair of the worship committee at a reconciling United Methodist Church. More importantly, I’m a friend, a daughter and granddaughter, a neighbor, a Jacksonian, and a doubt-riddled believer. I’d love to write something for you or to hear your thoughts on my writing – feel free to email me at taylormckayhathorn@gmail.com or Tweet me at @_youaremore_.
“Scholars agree that the Calvinist town of Avonlea made famous in LM Montgomery’s seminal novel, Anne of Green Gables, is a markedly different place at the end of the novel due to the influence of its titular heroine. When postulating as to the cause of Anne’s ability to change her stoic society, writers blame Anne’s uniqueness, but none blame the most fundamental difference of them all: Anne’s theology. Anne believes that the goal of religion (and love, as it is mediated to her through her understanding of God) is to be set free rather than to be bound by laws. In short, Anne Shirley is the advent of the New Testament, the spirit of the law, in an Old Testament town chafing under its rigid letter.”
Selected Journalism Bylines & Published Works
“‘We all must run from God before we bow to him.’ Father McGilvary died eight days later, and the new priest never made any pronouncements about me at all.”
“‘After we got our diplomas, she went on to the state school for a teaching degree while I used cocoa butter to prevent stretch marks. It hadn’t worked out for either of us.”
“Neither of them had ever used the names, but they’d carried them around all these years, the knowledge a weight, a penance, a sin that so easily beset them.”
“Half of her wanted him to prod her for more information, to be interested in this particular misery of new parenthood that he could not share, and half of her was relieved to be left alone.”
“I hated him even more for that, hated that he had become silent, perfect comparison when I had never given him permission to be anything at all.”
“She’s desperate to avert the compliment, desperate to put it anywhere else.”
I’d love to hear your thoughts.