We have to keep reading and writing. We have to keep reading with close attention and deep reflection. We have to keep writing with care and honesty and ambition for excellence.

The week of the Dixie Classic became like a feast and holy festival, consecrating the idea of home, of where I thought I belonged.

Ed Southern is the executive director of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, one of the largest writers’ organizations of its kind in the country.

Will sat that night staring at a blank sheet of paper, conjuring up a London that his grandfather might have known. Accurate scholarship could re-create what had been bombed out, what had...