Nell Joslin, The Full Measure of Devotion, in conversation with Marjorie Hudson

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the American Civil War, this intricately woven novel delves into the life of Susannah Shelburne, a thirty-six-year-old woman residing in South Carolina with her older husband, Jacob. Their son, Francis, defies his parents’ wishes by enlisting in the Confederate army, sparking bitter familial discord. In October 1863, devastating news arrives: Francis has been critically wounded near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Susannah embarks on a perilous journey to bring her son home, finding Francis delirious with fever and haunted by the horrors of battle. Their reunion is overshadowed by the conflicts at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, culminating in Francis being captured as a prisoner of war. As the war exacts its toll and tensions escalate between mother and son, Susannah confronts impossible choices amidst harrowing revelations from home. This gripping narrative explores themes of sacrifice, resilience, and the profound impacts of war on family bonds, painting a vivid portrait of one woman’s relentless fight for survival and reconciliation in a time of unprecedented turmoil.

Nell Joslin is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, and practiced law there for the better part of twenty years. She received an MFA in Creative Writing fromNorth Carolina State University in 2006. She takes inspiration and comfort ingardens, birds and anything nature-related. The mother of three grown daughters and five grandchildren, she currently lives in Raleigh.

Marjorie Hudson was born in a small town in Illinois and raised in Washington, D.C. Working as a freelance writer with a column interviewing nature photographers as well as publishing articles in Garden & Gun, American Land Forum, Wildlife in North Carolina, Our State Magazine, and North Carolina Literary Review, she also served as copyediting chief for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, where she encountered the work of contemporary Southern writers such as Jill McCorkle, Kaye Gibbons, and Clyde Edgerton for the first time. Inspired, she turned her hand to fiction writing and earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. She lives with her husband.