An Interview with Michael DeWitt

Hampton County native Michael M. DeWitt Jr. is a multiple-award-winning journalist, longtime editor of the 144-year-old The Hampton County Guardian, author of four books, including Wicked Hampton County and Fall of the House of Murdaugh, and host of the Wicked South Podcast.

DeWitt’s boots-on-the-ground coverage of the Murdaugh crime saga has been published in print and online around Gannett’s nationwide USA TODAY Network, and he has appeared on ABC’s 20/20, CBS’s 48 Hours, Dateline NBC, and Netflix documentaries to discuss the case.

As a humorist, DeWitt’s award-winning Southern humor newspaper column, “Southern Voices, Southern Stories,” was published in newspapers from Cape Cod to northern California, and he has been a regular contributor for South Carolina Wildlife magazine, Sporting Classics magazine, and its online counterpart, Sporting Classics Daily.

For four years, DeWitt served as volunteer historian, storyteller, and playwright for the five-county “Salkehatchie Stew” oral history and community theater project sponsored by the University of South Carolina. In 2014, he was named the Hampton County Chamber of Commerce’s Person of the Year for his service to the community.

DeWitt is also the author of Images of America – Hampton County (Arcadia Publishing/The History Press, May 2015), a photo history of the place his family has called home for close to three hundred years.

You can follow Michael DeWitt and enjoy his latest humor, fiction, and podcasts on his Substack page, michaeldewittsouthernwriter.substack.com.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

As the hometown journalist and historian in the midst of an internationally followed crime saga involving disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh in my native Hampton County, S.C., I reluctantly wrote Wicked Hampton County, a dark history of my hometown, and Fall of the House of Murdaugh, a history of the controversial Murdaugh legal dynasty. But this is not my true love or literary calling. As a humorist and outdoor writer, I was writing a nationally distributed Southern humor column and writing for outdoor magazines like South Carolina Wildlife and the international Sporting Classics magazine. That work was put on hold until now, as I am finally working to finish a huge collection of all my humor columns, and putting more time into my humorous fiction and Southern Gothic fiction. More to come on that soon.

Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The Southern humor manuscript is almost complete and will include humor columns, short stories, and maybe a poem or two. I have not decided on a title yet, but here are my top four options: 1. The Kama Sutra Cookbook, 2. Don’t Take the Baby in the Liquor Store, 3. I Peed on a Toady Frog, and 4. Good Bras Make For Good Neighbors. Which title do you like, dear reader? Send me a message on Substack and vote!

Describe your dream book cover.

I’m thinking something in the spirit of Lewis Grizzard or Dave Barry, with a funny photo of me doing something stupid or looking goofy.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

There is a country song where “Momma got run over by a damn old train.” The singer is a bit controversial, so I won’t reference him in full, but I’ve always found that song funny. I have a story where my grandmother stole my aunt’s false teeth and refused to give them back, and lots of hilarious stories about my mother. Sometimes, you just got to let Momma got hit by that train.

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

I’m reading as many Southern Gothic short stories as I can, and listening to Greg Iles’ Penn Cage series on audiobook, to help prepare me for the next step in my literary journey as I strive to fully embrace fiction, which is kind of new and still scary for me. I’m also devouring Charles Bukowski’s poetry. If there is a poet in me, I want it to be raw and dangerous like Charles B.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I have been a journalist and newspaper editor for more than twenty years, but before that I worked as a carpenter, then a meat cutter and wild game processor. I can write a book, build a house, and put fresh meat on the family table – or at least I could when my back and joints were younger…

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I wrote a humorous essay mocking my mother and her cooking in middle school. It won an award, and since then a voice inside my head wouldn’t leave me alone. It keeps me up at night, sometimes, telling me stories that ache to come out.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Any quiet place with no people around.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

I wish I would have started writing much sooner, and tackled fiction and poetry sooner.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

I enjoyed writing about history, even wicked history—true crime not so much. I want to be known as a writer of humor and fiction, a crafter of laughter and pure imagination. But above all, when people read my humor and stories, I want them to be able to forget about their troubles and their problems, and let the story brighten their day, even if only for a short while.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.