Growing Up MAD in the South: Stories, Poems and Other Aberrations

takes place in Atlanta, GA, during the 1950s and '60s, when racism, sexism, and personal salvation were lurking behind “Well bless your heart.” Diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 17, the “Mad” narrator struggles with both her aberrant senses and righteous anger at a society that fails to value everyone. From a toddler learning language to an adolescent trying on love, she flowers into a creative adult who finds grace writing for a literary magazine in an all-girls college. With a widowed Methodist mother and a protective Hard-Shell Baptist Granny, the narrator’s upbringing is shaped by the lyrics of gospel music. Bonnie manages to confront “Should,” “Keep Quiet,” and “White Only” with lyricism and laughter.

Available in Kindle/Nook/digital format, soft cover, and hard cover.

BonnieSchell-Published.jpg

SELECTED FICTION, ESSAYS, AND POETRY

  • “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”, Blog, Mad in America, July 28, 2025, https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/07/out-of-sight-out-of-mind

  • “Spilling the Beans”, North Carolina Bards Anthology, Gems Press, July 2025

  • “When Gravity Comes Calling”, North Carolina Bards Anthology, Gems Press, 2024

  • “When the Lunatics Arise”, Blog, Mad in America, October 31, 2024, MadInAmerica.com/2024/10/when-lunatics-arise-bonnie-schell

  • "When We Sleep”, North Carolina Bards Anthology, Gems Press, August 2023

  • “That’s It!,” Mad Women in the Attic, December, 2022 Featured Writer, MadInTheAttic.com

  • “The Nice Client,” Herstory 25th Anniversary Compendium, pending publication

  • ”House,” North Carolina Bards Anthology, Gems Press, October 2022

  • “Potlikkur: a Monologue,” Salvation South, July 2022, SalvationSouth.com/potlikker-a-monologue

  • “Anxiety,” “Bugs,” “Code,” “Portrait of Bartholomew,” “The Year of the Iron Snake,” Barking Sycamores, Year Two, 2017

  • “Coconut Heads,” Unbroken Circle: Stories of Cultural Diversity in the South, 2017

  • “Stephanie Swepson-Twitty: Visionary with Patience,” (interview), WNC Woman, July 2016

  • “Crazy Terri and the Priest,” The Well Versed Reader, 2016

  • “When Asylums Are the Only Hammer, Everybody Looks Like a Nail,” Blog, Mad in America, March 11, 2016, MadInAmerica.com/2015/03/asylums-seem-hammer

  • “Miss America,” WNC Woman, June 2016

  • “Being White in Atlanta, GA during Desegregation,” What Does It Mean to Be White in America: Breaking the White Code of Silence, a Collection of Personal Narratives, May 2016

  • “Crazy Jane’s Last Day,” and “Four Beats of My Heart: A Ballad,” Monterey Poetry Review, March 2015

  • “Eugenics and the 2014 Murphy Bill,” Blog, Mad in America, March 26, 2015, MadInAmerica.com/2015/03/asylums-seem-hammer

  • “Marcia Calling” Nuts House: Insanity Edition, Vol. I,  2015

  • “First Friend: a Memoir,” WNC Woman, February 2015

  • “Theater and Art Lead to Ministry” (interview), “Staying with the Person in the Ditch” (interview), WNC Woman, 2015

  • “Mama’s Vines,” WNC Woman; September 2014

  • “Looking for the Lost,” The Perch, Journal of the Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, May 2013

  • Co-Editor with Sally Clay and Patrick Corrigan, On Our Own Together: Peer Programs for People with Mental Illness (Vanderbilt University Press, 2005)

  • Poetic Justice Columns for Dendron and Mind Freedom Journal quarterly, 1998-2012

  • “Chocolate Dreams,” Quarry West 35 , UCSC, November 1999

  • “He’s a Boy not Counted in the Census,” “Her Expertise is Tracing Grave Histories,” “Excavations Reported by UPI,” and seven others in Coast Lines: Eight Santa Cruz Poets, Small Poetry Press, 1996

  • “Needing Mama,” poem, In Celebration of the Muse: 15th Anniversary Anthology, Quarry West, No. 33

  • "Writing to Survive/Surviving to Write," essay, The Journal, CAMI, Vol. 4 No. 4

  • “Casualties,” Chinquapin 8, Porter College, UCSC, Spring 1994

  • ”Mad Women Meet to Advocate for Themselves,” LaGazette, April 1994

  • "He's My Brother," Santa Cruz Magazine, January 1994, p. 3. Plea for dentistry at Board & Care homes

  • "Bonding," poem, Caprice, Motherlode issue, ed. Lynne Savitt, November 1991

  • "Hysteria Moderna," Hysteria, University of California at Santa Cruz, Spring 1990

  • "Witnesses" and 22 other short-shorts, Flash Fiction: When Genres Collide, ed. Maggie Roth, Peak Output Unlimited, 1990

  • “Derrida Deconstructs ‘Before the Alphabet,’” in Practical Criticism Reader, University of  California, Santa Cruz, 1988-1990.

  • "Computer Literate," short story, Porter Gulch Review, Cabrillo College, Spring 1988

  •  "Love's Labors Lost," short story, The Paper Bag, Vol. I, No 1, Winter l988

  •  "B is for Bad," short story from Candace Lexicon, Chinquapin 9, UCSC, Spring l988

  • "And No Birds Sang," short story, Cream City Review, Vol. 12, No 1, Winter l988

  • "Counseling," short story, New Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. III, No 5, 1987

  • "Charity Luncheon in Pink," short story, Greenfeather, l987