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Author Jennifer Horne

Odyssey of a Wandering Mind

Discover the true story of a brilliant but troubled daughter of the Old South in Jennifer Horne’s book talk on Odyssey of a Wandering Mind: The Strange Tale of Sara Mayfield.

Jennifer Horne served as the twelfth Poet Laureate of Alabama from 2017 to 2021 and has authored or edited nine volumes and collections of poetry, essays, and stories. Most recently, she is the author of a literary biography, Odyssey of a Wandering Mind: The Strange Tale of Sara Mayfield, described as “mesmerizing” and “a beguiling tale of madness and literature” by Publisher’s Weekly. Odyssey of a Wandering Mind is a carefully rendered portrait of a brilliant but troubled daughter of the Old South, Sara Mayfield, who struggled against the conventions of gender, class, family, and ultimately of sanity, yet survived to define a creative life of her own.

Whether throwing herself into her work or leaping headlong into her enthusiasms and loves, Sara Mayfield (1905-1979) did nothing halfway. In her seventy-four years, Mayfield lived and studied abroad, ran her family’s farm, worked as a print and radio journalist, and spent seventeen years in Bryce Hospital for the Insane. Released in 1965, she worked at the University of Alabama Press for two years, traveled to Europe, and published three books, two of them about her childhood friends, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and Sara Haardt Mencken. 

As the first full-length treatment of the life of Sara Mayfield, Horne’s work of narrative nonfiction focuses on an intelligent, curious, ambitious woman who, despite mental illness, kept her spirit alive through art, music, and writing.

Join the author for a talk on Odyssey of a Wandering Mind: The Strange Tale of Sara Mayfield, followed by a Q&A and book signing. Thank You Books will be on site with copies of Horne’s book for sale.

For more information, contact Sara at 205-445-1115 or shardy@oneallibrary.org.

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