Mississippi author and photographer Erin Austen Abbott loves living in a small town.
That town, Water Valley, has a population of just over 3,300 people and is just outside of Oxford in north Mississippi.
Abbott and her family came to settle in Water Valley after living in cities such as Tampa Bay, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, and Memphis.
“Living in cities, I’ve always felt the pull to be doing something. I don’t feel that in a small town. I can slow down and approach both my writing and photography, feeling calmer, and with more intention. With city living, I tended to feel like I was on a hamster wheel, bouncing from work to social events before starting it over the next day. I don’t feel that in a small town. I can go days without leaving my house and never once feel like I’m missing out on anything at all,” Abbott told Today in Mississippi.
Abbott’s love of small towns led to her penning her third book, “Small Town Living: A Coast-to-Coast Guide to People, Places, and Communities.”
I love sharing the stories of people who have made a living in a small-town part of their own story.
Featuring a forward by Laurel’s Erin Napier of HGTV’s “Home Town” TV show, the book celebrates the joys of small town living with interviews and photos from towns all around the country.
“I love sharing the stories of people who have made a living in a small-town part of their own story. And I love sharing the process of finding your small town, moving to a small town, and making a small-town work for you. It came to be because as I was thinking about what my next book would be, I kept getting messages from people all over the world, asking me how I found my small town, what it’s like to live in a small town,” Abbott said.
The book features a chapter on Clarksdale and interviews with Charles “Chuck” Rutledge and Ann Williams, owners of the Travelers Hotel, Collective Seed, and Red Panther Brewing Co.
Abbott, who was born in Oxford and lived there until she was 9, found her way back to Mississippi after comparing all her big city home experiences to her hometown.
“When I decided to investigate buying a house, it dawned on me that I could think about moving back to Oxford. In the 20 years since we’d left Mississippi, Oxford had risen in price and was out of my buying range. I’d been going down to a fantastic vintage store called Blue Heaven in Water Valley every few months from Memphis and had become quite fond of the town. Its proximity to Oxford made it an ideal location to think about moving and it reminded me of Oxford in the 80s when we left,” Abbott said.
When asked what constitutes a small town, population wasn’t the lone indicator, Abbott said.
“A small town, to me, is a place with a small central area, like a town square or a Main Street, a place where the community can be found eating lunch or shopping locally at one of the shops. It’s where you know your local grocer, neighbors, and even the letter carrier. You can pop into the hardware store, and they already know what project you are working on. I can remember when I first moved to Water Valley, the man at the paint store not only let me borrow his ladder to paint my ceilings, but he also dropped it off at my house for me to use. It felt like a real small-town moment.”
Abbott said she loves small towns because “we get to erase some of the noise.”
“I see friends with more intention and wake up early to write silently. I cook more and allow more time for myself, which I don’t think I gave much thought to when I lived in a city. I homeschool our son, which I think I’d only be able to do in a small town. I couldn’t afford to homeschool if we lived in a city. However, this is just my experience, but the pace and community of a small town are where I feel most comfortable.”
For more information about Abbott and her book, follow her on Instagram @erinaustenabbott or visit erinaustenabbott.com
