Dietrich is set to bring his brand of Southern storytelling to Birmingham library event
By Chanda Temple
On a recent Tuesday morning in a Birmingham area park, Sean Dietrich is training his newly adopted dog. which is blind.
Her name is Marigold the Magnificent, and she’s become somewhat of a celebrity. She was blinded from abuse and left abandoned behind a tire shop in Mississippi. When Sean found out about her last month, he took in Marigold. Since then, Sean has written about Marigold’s rescue and rehabilitation, earning thousands of likes about her on his social media pages and website, http://www.seandietrich.com.
“I have a soft spot for the underdog, literally, because I am the underdog,’’ he said. “Watching a creature who has been trivialized, find themselves, if you will, all of a sudden become something very valuable, very special, not just to me but to other people, that means a lot to me. I’d like to prove the person who hurt her, wrong.’’
Sean, a novelist, columnist and podcast host who is commonly known as “Sean of the South,’’ offers commentary on life in the American South. He not only writes about Marigold, but also his love of Waffle House, the people who write him for advice and more. In March 2022, he and his wife of 18 years, Jamie, moved to Avondale. New in town, Sean even wrote about getting a library card at the Birmingham Public Library.
On Thursday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m., Sean will return to the downtown library to share some of his stories, bring Marigold and sign copies of his newly-published book, “You Are My Sunshine.’’ The memoir provides humorous details of how Sean and Jamie cycled from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. and the interesting people they met along the way. (Reservations for this free event have sold out.)