Savannah author Karen Dove Barr takes inspiration from her backyard to write her first novel

on Jan 11, 2022

It’s never too late. To learn, do, try new things. It’s never too late to be who you’ve always wanted to be. Author, Karen Dove Barr, knows this well.

After 25 years of writing, and at 74 years young, Barr has published her first novel, “Burnt Pot Island,” a historical fiction about rum-runners, moonshiners, Savannah, and the Pinpoint community during Prohibition.

The idea for the story came in the early 1980s when Barr and her husband broke ground on their home on Skidaway Island. In surveying, they found the footings of a much older structure along with shards of blue pottery.

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“The dirt could tell you a lot of stories,” reflected Barr, standing in her kitchen sunroom, eyes fixed on a large oak in the side yard. “When we bought the property, there was hardly any development on this end of the island, and it felt alive with so much more to say. Voices from the past certainly whispered to me when I finally sat down to write.”

Barr was only a few years into her 44 years in law when they found the pottery shards. The fiction of “Burnt Pot Island,” though, would have to wait three decades to be teased from the earth. And in those intervening years, Barr not only came to know many people in Pinpoint through her legal representation, but also bravely tried things she’d always wanted to do.

“When I turned 50, I started running,” recalled Barr. “And that actually helped with my writing. I’d always wanted to write but so many people told me I wasn’t any good at it, and so I didn’t, not creatively, until I started running. When I run, I find that the pace and rhythm of moving my legs connects me to my thoughts, and then words, stories, and ideas come freely.”