Local author Annis Pratt is on the move. Though the Birmingham resident and former college professor is now retired, she certainly doesn’t appear to be altering her pace. As a community activist, writer, facilitator, and educator, Pratt is well known for her intellectual and philosophical prowess.

However, it is for her latest accomplishment as a novelist that Ms. Pratt took some time to discuss the journey toward the achievement of her dream.

“I wanted to be a poet and realized I couldn’t support my family being a writer,” Pratt shared. “So I went off to be a college professor. Every time I changed jobs I kept trying to get back to the writer … Being able to get to be a writer at last is really nice.” And now, with the recent publication of her first novel The Marshlanders, Pratt is beginning to enjoy the hard-earned fruits of her labor.

Though perhaps not a poet by profession, the sweep of Annis Pratt’s life has indeed been poetry in motion.