Alayne Smith

Educating Sadie Alayne Smith

Educating Sadie follows one woman's struggle to help another woman rise above a life of poverty and abuse in nineteenth-century Alabama.

Amanda Oglesby, a first-year teacher, meets Sadie Wiggins, a sharecropper's wife, on the night of the first open house at her new school. Childless, Sadie is drawn to the school: she's bright and wants to learn. The relationship develops when Amanda invites Sadie to attend daily school classes. Amanda, convinced of Sadie's intellect, is determined to offer Sadie an education despite the counterproductive efforts of Sadie's abusive husband. A benevolent school board chairman, a beloved boarding house owner, a midwife, a handsome plantation owner, and a misanthrope move in the background of Educating Sadie, a portrait of the American South at the turn of the century.

Educating Sadie was a finalist in the William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.