I am a journalist, book author and editor. My most recent book, The New Mind of the South (Simon & Schuster), is a look at what my native region is becoming in the 21st century, and why it continues to be so misunderstood by Southerners and non-Southerners alike.In one of my several other lives, I write about motherhood, current affairs and the tragic absurdities of life in my blog, The Blockhead Chronicles.Before I started doing what I do now, I was a big-city newspaper reporter for 15 years—-eight years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and seven years at the Washington Post. I've also written about mental illness—my own, and other people's—discovering in the process that one of mankind's most enduring afflictions is still shrouded in stigma, even today. Which, if you ask me, is just crazy.
