The Rule of Three

Kathy Bradley

THE RULE of THREE

Local author Kathy Bradley is familiar to most readers as a long-standing columnist for the Statesboro Herald Through her popular columns, Bradley explores the land on which she lives in walks around her farm located in the succumbed community of Adabelle. In the afternoon sunsets and the early morning strolls, she shares thoughts on her explorations and discoveries, asking questions and finding answers about life, circumstances, acceptance, community and stewardship, through her many observations. Her popular columns have become the basis for a series of three award-winning books published by Mercer University Press in Macon. In an extraordinary bow to her success as a writer, and her distinctive way of metaphorically “speaking,” Bradley has recently been honored (for the third time!) as Georgia Author of the Year (GAYA) in Essay by the Georgia Writers Association for 2023.

Her first book, Breathing & Walking Around, won the Will D. Campbell Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2010, followed by the GAYA in 2012, inspiring recognition for the first-time author. Bradley’s second book, Wondering Toward Center, garnered Georgia Author of the Year honors in 2017; and her latest book, Sifting Artifacts, made Bradley the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year in Essay, again. No other Georgia author living or deceased has won the Essay category three times since the award was first bestowed in 1964.

What makes Bradley’s writing so distinctive is first, her storytelling ability, and second, her command of the English language; the beautiful prose that for the reader is like following a path along with her through her farm, Sand Hill, to observe and discover truths and meaning in life. Her ability to articulate those thoughts closely follows a pattern of exploration of natural objects.

“I ask myself, what was it trying to tell me?” said Bradley. “As I set the scene, I set my insight.”

There are significant and often thought-provoking take-aways from each of her essays. At the end of her essay collections, one finds a thread of recognition which binds the stories together. A new revelation comes to the reader from her enlightening encounters.

“I enjoy it because most people won’t avail themselves of the ability to notice,” said Bradley. “Answering my own questions and figuring out what I already know, that I didn’t know that I knew, is what I enjoy most about writing.”

Bradley has often acknowledged that for her, writing itself is a spiritual experience.

“In 2011, I visited Ireland,” said Bradley. “I went to Trinity College Library to view the Book of Kells. There were different scriptures for every day. When I saw it, I thought of monks and devotions. Those men gave their entire lives to preserving words. From that, how can you not see writing as being divine? I experienced a reverence toward the written word that I had not previously been able to articulate. After

that, writing became not just a memory, but etched on my soul, a part of me.”

If you are fortunate enough to have read all three of her books, in order, you will be reminded that curiosity still exists.

"“I hope people who read my series of books can detect growth in me as a writer and a person,” said Bradley. “The message is - we don’t stay the same person our entire lives. I hope readers recognize that I am more willing to be myself with eccentricates and oddness. Being from the South, I knew I could tell a good story, but I had to develop looking at myself unflinchingly.”

Bradley writes every day. She is disciplined, yet has her own set of idiosyncrasies.

“I have color-coded markers. I use a color-coded calendar. I write with a pen and my computer. I only use Pilot Razorpoint pens. I still use Word Perfect, a program I used extensively as a lawyer. And, I use Evernote a lot.”

Her inspiration comes often, but can be ephemeral.

“Whole sentences come to me sometimes,” said Bradley. “But thoughts that give rise to literary illusions are so fleeting it is kind of frightening.”

Writing energizes Bradley, but book signings, public readings and the other activities associated with book selling can be taxing for her.

“I’m an introvert and giving that much of myself can be exhausting,” she said.

But, a necessary part of the author’s world. Bradley is a member of the Georgia Writers Association and can be booked for readings, „

discussions and book talks. Autographed copies of her books are available through her website kathyabradley.com, and books can also be obtained through her publisher Mercer University Press and popular booksellers such as Amazon.com and BooksAMillion.com.

For budding writers, her advice is to read. Reading all types of books and authors will show the writer how others communicate through the written word. Reading helps the writer to develop their own voice. Then she suggests knowing and following the rules.

“It is only when you have demonstrated you know the rules that you have the currency to break them,” Bradley said.

From Wondering Toward Center, she writes:

“The first word I ever spelled, the first thing I gave back to the world as a writer was my name, was myself. That is a dangerous precedent. And it makes it hard sometimes to tell the stories. Hard to find the right words, to arrange them in an order that tells the truth and, at the same time, shields the innocent, dispenses kindness, and extends forgiveness. What would be harder, though, is not to tell them at all.”

Her passage relays a universal truth about writers: that they write because they must.

Through all of Bradley’s wanderings and wonderings, we wondered what had Bradley claimed as her spirit animal?

“A red-tailed hawk,” she replied. “You never see it in the sky with another one. They fly by themselves. When they reach the thermal layer, they let go and glide. That’s how I want to be.”