Wesley Moore III serves up a bowl of Southern Gothic gumbo with new book
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
In 2023, after more than three decades teaching English at Porter-Gaud, Folly Beach resident Wesley Moore III published his first novel, Today, Oh Boy, a coming-of-age tale that was heralded by Kirkus Reviews as “quietly sublime” and praised for its “dazzling characters.”
Now, at 72 years old, Moore is at it again. This month, he’s releasing his second book, entitled Long Ago Last Summer. This one is a little different from the first in that Today, Oh Boy is a work of fiction, and this one, which Moore calls a Memoir, is an amalgamation of previously published and unpublished works, including non-fiction essays, poems, and short fiction, described as a “Southern Gothic gumbo.”
“It’s tailor-made for the obliterated attention span,” jokes Moore about the short pieces that all weave together to tell a story, albeit in a much different fashion than Today, Oh Boy, which was written in the present tense and spanned the course of a single day. Long Ago Last Summer weaves a more complex tapestry that is loosely tied together by a common thread. That thread is the author himself.
“Memory is a motif that ties it all together,” says Moore, who was a writer before he became an educator. His writing background includes publication in several literary journals and anthologies, along with recognition in numerous writing competitions.
“I kind of created a mosaic of my life,” says Moore, who gets more personal in this book, even writing about his former wife’s illness and ultimate passing in 2017. But he contends that those chapters aren’t really a “downer.”
Moore does have a knack for creating prose that is equal parts humorous and emotionally poignant. For instance, one chapter tells the somewhat terrifying true story about the time he was hitchhiking and was picked up by notorious South Carolina serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins. Whether he’s writing about real people or fictional ones (probably based on real people), his characters are indeed dazzling, as Kirkus Review stated.
“Characterization is the most important thing,” says Moore. And Long Ago Last Summer is chock-full of unforgettable characters, including village idiots, eccentric aunts, beloved dogs, serial killers, and well, the author himself.
Wesley Moore III recently read a few pages from his book at Chico Feo’s Soap Box open mic night. He will hold his official launch party and book signing on Wednesday, June 25 at 5:30 p.m. at Buxton Books, located at 160 King St. in downtown Charleston.
