Writer Sean Dietrich brings his brand of Southern storytelling to Birmingham library event
By Chanda Temple
On a recent Tuesday morning in a Birmingham area park, Sean Dietrich is training his newly adopted, yet, blind dog.
Her name is Marigold the Magnificent, and she’s become somewhat of a celebrity. She was blinded from abuse and left abandoned behind a tire shop in Mississippi. When Sean found out about her last month, he took in Marigold. Since then, Sean has written about Marigold’s rescue and rehabilitation, earning thousands of likes about her on his social media pages and website, www.seandietrich.com.
“I have a soft spot for the underdog, literally, because I am the underdog,’’ he said. “Watching a creature who has been trivialized, find themselves, if you will, all of a sudden become something very valuable, very special, not just to me but to other people, that means a lot to me. I’d like to prove the person who hurt her, wrong.’’
Sean, a novelist, columnist and podcast host who is commonly known as “Sean of the South,’’ offers commentary on life in the American South. He not only writes about Marigold, but also his love of Waffle House, the people who write him for advice and more. In March 2022, he and his wife of 18 years, Jamie, moved to Avondale. New in town, Sean even wrote about getting a library card at the Birmingham Public Library.
On Thursday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m., Sean will return to the downtown library to share some of his stories, bring Marigold and sign copies of his newly-published book, “You Are My Sunshine.’’ The memoir provides humorous details of how Sean and Jamie cycled from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. and the interesting people they met along the way. (Reservations for this free event have sold out.)
“Libraries, to me, they saved my life,’’ said Sean, 39. “I am a dropout, and the only way I was able to insert myself into the world of academia, once again as a grown man, was because I never quit reading. And the reason I never quit reading was because librarians encouraged me to keep reading.’’ (He eventually mastered high school and secured a college degree.)
“I would walk into a library, and I knew I would receive no judgment from these fine people. I knew that I wouldn’t feel less than,’’ he said. “Everything I am is because of a library.’’
“You Are My Sunshine,’’ covers a lot of ground, including Jamie’s cancer scare and how not to be paralyzed by fear. For most of his life, Sean has been afraid of stuff – big stuff and little stuff. He took a chance in doing something he had never done before, and that was to ride a three-wheeled bike for nearly 400 miles. He hopes his book will encourage people to be brave enough to explore a new frontier of their own.
“I feel real power when I’m able to do something that I didn’t think that I could do, no matter how small,’’ he said “Do things that you don’t think you can do.’’
When Sean moved to Birmingham, he discovered a love for the city’s food, breweries and hikes at Ruffner Mountain. It was at Ruffner Mountain where he formulated what to put in his next unpublished book, a novel called, “Kinfolk.’’ His tip for writers and wannabe writers is to learn how to be comfortable with yourself and write how you talk. He does it in how he writes about Marigold, and he does it for so many other projects.
“No matter what your flaws or strengths are, make it your goal to be comfortable with you and your voice,’’ he said. “You are not trying to write the perfect book or blog. You are just trying to be comfortable with who you are.’’
