It has taken many years, many rejections, disappointments and sidetracks, to get to the place I wanted to be when I published my first book in the 1960s.
How Daddy Lost His Ear: And Other Stories
“Bingham brings us the gift of lives, visible and invisible, the mystery of belief in ancient tribal gods and un-Christian love. The sacred and profane are easy riders in this unforgettable book.”
— Benita Eisler, author of The Red Man’s Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman
Available Sept 23
Four generations of outrageous, of-the-moment characters thrive amidst hardship in their own way, turning the myth of the Old West on its head.
These men, women, and children don’t just endure. They thrive in their own peculiar style, turning seemingly tragic outcomes into sources of outrageous humor, and nourishing indelible family ties. This is the West as it was and is, a complex web of traditions and surprising, even shocking, ways of turning hardship into triumph.
Awards for these stories
“What I Learned from Fat Annie”
Recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize for 2023.
Read It Here
“How Daddy Lost His Ear”
Second prize in the 2023 Sean O'Faolain Short Story Competition.
“July Fourth”
Honorable Mention in the 2024 Stories That Need to Be Told Contest.
Taken by the Shawnee
“This is an amazing book, and I couldn’t stop reading it.”
— Joan Silber, PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Secrets of Happiness and Improvement
“Sallie Bingham has imagined her ancestor’s history so graphically, so passionately, that every page of this astounding story electrifies.”
— Joan Frank, author of Juniper Street: a Novel and Late Work
Now Available from Turtle Point Press
In a most unusual portrait of early America, a young mother’s years in captivity with the Shawnee prove to be the best years of her life.
It’s 1779 and a young white woman named Margaret Erskine is venturing west from Virginia, on horseback, with her baby daughter and the rest of her family. She has no experience of Indians, and has absorbed most of the prejudices of her time, but she is open-minded, hardy, and mentally strong, a trait common to most of her female descendants–Sallie Bingham’s ancestors...
This is the seldom told story of the making of this country in the years of the Revolution, what it cost in lives and suffering, and how one woman among many not only survived extreme hardship, but flourished.
“Bingham recounts this fascinating story of capture, survival, progress, healing, and return with lush descriptions and respect for all involved with Margaret’s complicated story. She is a smart and empathetic writer, and has created an awesome account of female survival at a horrific time.”— Booklist
“The novel paints a compelling portrait of womanhood in this era. Crucially, the author depicts the violence of the period as integral to the colonial project, dismissing any propagandistic delusions of one-sided "savagery" and instead depicting each culture without romance or bias.”— Kirkus Reviews
Sallie Bingham (1937-2025) was a writer, teacher, feminist activist, and philanthropist.
Sallie’s first novel was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1961; she published six additional novels and the well-known family memoir, Passion and Prejudice (Knopf, 1989). Her biography, The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2020.
She was founder of the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which published The American Voice, as well as the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University.
How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories
(Turtle Point Press, 2025)
Moving Along Into 2025
Perhaps this great success of Shawnee is what all writers finally achieve—this is my sixteenth published book—but I doubt if it’s that alone.
My Next Book After My Next Book
How fortunate I am to have access to this incredibly rich trove of letters! Now that letter writing ...
Maybe Brett
Blessed as I always am in my work, I’ve discovered a possible new topic for a biography in the life of the British/American painter, Dorothy Brett.
Taken by the Shawnee
(Turtle Point Press, 2024)
Eighteen Slaves
I’m now excavating the final layer of letters and papers in my mother’s Blue Box; the upper levels ...
The Fruits of the Past Five Years
It has taken many years, many rejections, disappointments and sidetracks, to get to the place I wanted to be when I published my first book in the 1960s.
Can Writing Be Taught?
I face this crucial question whenever I am about to begin teaching another workshop, always now in memoir ...
Moving Along Into 2025
Perhaps this great success of Shawnee is what all writers finally achieve—this is my sixteenth published book—but I doubt if it’s that alone.
My Next Book After My Next Book
How fortunate I am to have access to this incredibly rich trove of letters! Now that letter writing ...
Can a Heathen Woman Be a Christian?
Perhaps a healthy dose of heathenism would restore us to the churches (or other forms of organized spirituality) so vital to healthy communities.
The Shawnee Have Their Own Park in Ohio
Margaret, if she were alive, would smile secretly, shielding her pleasure from her censorious Virginia relatives.
Doris Duke
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)
The Zombie Law
Michelle Goldberg’s column in The New York Times describes the 1935 Federal Comstock Act as a threat that Americans have not taken seriously.
Margaret in the Wilderness
Surrounded by disasters of every kind, we are seeing the great strengths of our extraordinary adaptability, valued and valuable as it has never been before.
Doris Farewell
Thursday night I was privileged to present a conversation about my book and Doris Duke in one of the huge gilded rooms at Rough Point…
Margaret in the Wilderness
Surrounded by disasters of every kind, we are seeing the great strengths of our extraordinary adaptability, valued and valuable as it has never been before.
Two Women: Margaret and Doris
I’ve come to believe over the years that there is a core similarity that connects the lives of ...
Vindication
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s grant of 1.6 million dollars to pay for the digitalization of thousands of ...
And Now, Margaret Sanger
Yesterday, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York removed the name of Margaret Sanger, “founder of the organization,” from ...
Sallie's Latest
If You Want to Build a Strong Girl
For all of us who are influencing the development of daughters and granddaughters (and nieces and young friends) here are a few thoughts.
The Writer’s Nose
I’ve taught dozens of workshops over the years; all anyone wants to hear about is writing memoir, which is beginning to seem quite dull to me…
Being Seventeen
I was beginning to revel in the unexpected adventures and treasures of my sophomore year at college… I ...
Eighteen Slaves
I’m now excavating the final layer of letters and papers in my mother’s Blue Box; the upper levels ...
Remembering Pip
July 9, 2024: Pip is suffering, he has suffered in silence and withdrawal, sleeping outside at night for ...
Reasons to Hope
It’s important not to be ploughed under by the chaos and intemperance in Washington. We don’t live in ...
The Fruits of the Past Five Years
It has taken many years, many rejections, disappointments and sidetracks, to get to the place I wanted to be when I published my first book in the 1960s.
Whose Eyes
Yesterday, as I was walking through my garden admiring the play of early light on leaves and flowers, ...
Lady Wisdom
32.5kviews {views}Known to the Greeks as the goddess Sophia, this quality—not knowledge, but something finer, more mysterious and ...