The Power and Grace of Second Acts
As more of us navigate the middle passages of life, we look to voices that honor the grit, humor, and hope of these years. This week, two Southern writers show us that second acts are not about fading away, but about blooming with purpose and grace.
This week at Salvation South, we bring you two stories that, together, speak directly to the heart of who we are—and who our readers are becoming.
In Ellen Ann Fentress’s “The Power of Blooming Late,” and Diana Keough’s debut “Between Sundays” column, we find the kind of wisdom, candor, and creative fire that only comes with living a few decades, weathering a few storms, and deciding, finally, to claim the fullness of one’s own story.
Women of a Certain Age, and a Certain Power
Let’s start with Ellen Ann Fentress, whose essay is as much a meditation on creative ambition as it is a celebration of the joy found in the reclamation of your time. Fentress, a Mississippi-born journalist, filmmaker, and teacher, has spent her career illuminating the stories that shape the Deep South—its politics, its art, its reckonings. In her piece, she draws inspiration from Dusti Bongé, the Biloxi-born painter who defied the constraints of her era to become a force in the New York art world—well after most would have expected her creative life to begin.
Fentress’s own journey mirrors Bongé’s. She writes with unsparing honesty about the years she spent tending to family, shelving her ambitions, and absorbing the subtle and not-so-subtle messages that women—especially Southern women—receive about when and whether their creative desires matter. It’s only in the second half of life, she argues, that many women finally find the space, the urgency, and the self-permission to pursue their art with abandon.
“The right time to create is the right time,” Fentress writes. “When you’re in gear in the present, to pity the past is a waste.”
“The right time to create is the right time,” she writes. “When you’re in gear in the present, to pity the past is a waste. Why dampen your roll when you’ve arrived at last? Especially if you’ve arrived at last.”
Fentress’s resume is testament to her own late bloom: essays in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and a recent memoir, The Steps We Take: A Memoir of Southern Reckoning. She’s also a documentary filmmaker and founder of The Admissions Project, which examines the legacy of segregation academies in the South. Her work pulses with the conviction that the South’s past is never truly past-and that women’s ambition, long muted, is a force to be reckoned with.
Read Ellen Ann Fentress’s "The Power of Blooming Late”
Faith Between Sundays
Alongside Ellen’s essay, we launch Diana Keough’s new monthly column, “Between Sundays.” Keough, an award-winning journalist, professor at the University of Georgia, and digital media entrepreneur, brings a different but complementary lens to the question of what it means to grow older with intention and hope. Her reporting has taken her from the medical beat at The Cleveland Plain Dealer to NPR and PBS, and now to the classroom and her own multimedia memoir project, “Not From a Nice Family.” (To get a taste of how her project got that title, read Diana’s piece for us from last year.)
In her first column, Keough writes about faith—not the kind that sits comfortably in pews on Sunday mornings, but the kind that’s forged in the mess and uncertainty of everyday life. She writes of marriage (forty years and counting), of parenting grown children, of the quiet ache of aging, and of learning to find meaning in all that mess.
Keough’s faith is not about certainty or dogma, but about showing up, holding space, and learning to be still-—even when stillness feels impossible.
“I used to think faith was certainty, a named religious denomination,” Keough writes. “These days, it feels more like a compass than a map.”
“I used to think faith was certainty, a named religious denomination,” she writes. “These days, it feels more like a compass than a map. It doesn’t hand me directions, but it keeps nudging me true north.”
Read the debut of Diana Keough’s “Between Sundays” column
Why These Stories, and Why Now?
There is a reason these two pieces feel so right together. Our audience at Salvation South is 58 percent female, and the most of our readers are 35 or older. We know, from your messages and comments, that you are navigating the middle passages of life—parenting and caregiving, ambition and regret, faith and doubt. You are looking for stories that honor the complexity, humor, and grit of these years.
Ellen Ann Fentress and Diana Keough are women “of a certain age,” but more importantly, they are women of a certain courage. They remind us that the second half of life is not a slow fade, but a time of blooming—creatively, spiritually, and personally. They show us what it means to keep striving, to keep questioning, and to keep making meaning, even as the world tries to tell us our best years are behind us.
Their stories are not just for women, though. They are for anyone who has ever wondered if it’s too late to begin again, to love more deeply, to create more boldly, or to believe more fiercely.
I am proud that Salvation South is leaning in to the realities—and the possibilities—of our audience. We are making space for the voices and experiences that have too often been sidelined. We are celebrating the power of late bloomers, the wisdom of lived experience, and the stubborn hope that animates faith between Sundays.
To Ellen and Diana: thank you for your honesty, your ambition, and your willingness to show us what’s possible. To our readers: may you find in these stories the encouragement to claim your own second act—whatever that may look like.
With gratitude to you, our readers,
P.S. To keep amplifying these voices, we need your support. See below for all the ways to join our Salvation South Family Circle.
The Cornbread Level: $5 monthly or $50 annually
You get:
- This pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 10% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
The Biscuit Level: $10 monthly or $100 annually
You get:
- A commemorative 2025 Salvation South Have Mercy kitchen towel
- The aforementioned pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 15% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
The Sunday Dinner Roll Level: $15 monthly or $150 annually
You get:
- A commemorative 2025 Salvation South Have Mercy T-shirt in any size from S to 4X
- The aforementioned pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 20% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
The Red Velvet Cake Level: $25 monthly or $250 annually
You get:
- A cool, breezy, lightweight Salvation South performance hoodie (SPF 50) in any size from S to 4X.
- A sturdy canvas Salvation South tote bag—with a zipper closure!
- The aforementioned pack of six brand-new Salvation South stickers—including our members-only Have Mercy Rainbow sticker.
- A standing 25% discount in the Salvation South Store
- Guaranteed access to Salvation South online events and workshops
Chuck Reece is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Salvation South, the weekly web magazine you're reading right now. He was the founding editor of The Bitter Southerner. He grew up in the north Georgia mountains in a little town called Ellijay.
