Tayari Jones: 2012 National Book Festival

from the Library of Congress in Washington DC today my name is Amy stoles I'm the literature program officer at the National Endowment for the Arts and it's my pleasure to introduce to you the hopefully in talented Terry jellies today and I'll tell you why you're in for treat but first I'm going to plug Terry's website Terry Jones come on her beautiful website Terry John Stockman you can read all about her three superb novels of distinguished literary awards and achievements I'm limited on time so tip of the iceberg leaving Atlanta is her moving debut novel published in 2002 which delves into the horrific murder of 30 african-american children in the late 70s early 80s it was my poster right Award for debut fiction and was named novel of the Year by Atlanta magazine following her second novel beyond telling published in 2005 Essence magazine called Terry a writer to watch in 2011 her third novel sliver Sparrow was published and it thrust area to stardom the novel also sent in Atlanta in the 1980s is about jameswidowss most families the public one and the secret one the daughters from each family meet and form a volatile volatile friendship as only one of them they're sisters the novel was chosen among the best of the year by library journal Oh magazine slate and salon and as an honor book by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association that it was nominated for an end of lay CP Image Award and as a finalist for the Hurston write Legacy Award as I said it's all there and more on her website where she also brought you should check that out too you'll see that even in her everyday writing she's full of these beautiful dichotomies she's both humble and proud sassy and sensitive and serious and very funny she puts herself out there writing about subjects that really matter but the truth is and why you're really in retreat is you're going to see her today in person you're going to hear that soft easy buttery voice of hers that makes it feel as if she's sitting right next to you leaning into touching their sweetie sharing a secret Terri writes what she's miss and she speaks with such heart and honesty and eloquence about being black I got being a woman read about being a writer about being human you can't not love her and see things the way she sees things I actually met tre about seven years ago at a festival in Mississippi when I was just starting out as a writer and she was so nice to me so supportive and open and encouraging we hung out there and then later on a little bit when she came to DC for a semester to teach now fast forward to the fall of 2011 and now I want to fall with her telling her that she just wanted $25,000 and a fellowship I do this she screamed and that she texted me like once a week after that for the next month celebrating she wrote and then like three weeks later still champagne it's a real thrill for me to say in public and this is really from my heart a success couldn't have happened to a nicer more deserving a talented person please join me in welcoming GRE Joan thank you for that very kind introduction I really appreciate it and thank you all for coming out this afternoon I know you have a lot of choices and I appreciate you spending this time with me today I'm going to start off by reading a little bit from Silver Sparrow and then after that I thought we were all just around I feel this is a novel where I kind of put it all on the line with the first sentence chapter 1 the secret my father James Witherspoon is a bigamist he was already married 10 years when he first clamped eyes on my mother in 1968 she was working at the gift-wrap counter at Davis's downtown when my father asked her to wrap the carding idea about his wife for their wedding anniversary mother says that she knew that something wasn't right between a man and a woman when the gift wasn't written maybe that means there was some kind of trust between them I love my mother but we tend to see things a little bit differently the point is that James's marriage was never hidden from us James is what I call him his other daughter Charisse the one who grew up in the house with her she calls him daddy even now when most people think of biggity if they think of it at all they imagine some primitive practice taking place on the pages of national in Atlanta we remember one sect of the back-to-africa movement they used to run bakeries in the West End some people said it was a coke others said it was a cultural movement whatever it was it involved poor wise for each husband the bakery's have since closed down but sometimes we still see the women was splendid and white trailing 600 paces behind their mutual husband even in Baptist churches pushers keep smelling socks on the ready for the new widow confronted at the wait by the other greeting widow and her stairs their kids Undertaker's and judges know that it happens all the time and not just between religious fanatics traveling salesmen pack some sociopaths and expert women it's a shame that there isn't a true name for a woman like my mother my father James is a bigamist that's what he is Laverne is his wife she found him first and my mother has always respected the other woman squatter's rights though with my mother his wife too she has legal documents and even a single call as she stood with James Alexander with the spoon jr. in front of the judge just over the state line in Alabama however to call her only his wife doesn't really explain the full complexity of her position there are other terms I know and this is to see angry or sad mother uses them to describe herself concubine or mistress consort there's just so many and none of their and they're nasty words too for a person like me the child of a person like her but these words were not allowed in the air of our home you are his daughter end of story if this was ever true it was in the first four months of my life before charlise his legitimate daughter was born my mother recursive hearing the you said were legitimate but if she can hear the other word they've formed in my head she would close her self in her bedroom and pride in my mind services his real daughter with wives it only matters who gets there first look daughters the situation is a bit more it matters what you call things surveil was my mother's word if he knew James would probably say I the best to sinister we didn't do damage to anyone but ourselves as we trailed sure recent Laverne or they wound their way through their easy lives I had always imagined that we did eventually be asked to explain ourselves to press whereas Ford and our own the best on that day my mother would be called upon to do the talking she is gifted with language it is able to they're difficult details in such a way that the result is smooth as water she is a magician who can make the whole world feel like a dizzy illusion the truth is a coin she pulls from behind her ear maybe mine was not a blissful girlhood but as anyone's even people whose parents are happily married to each other and no one else even these people have their share of unhappiness they spend plenty of time nursing old slights rehashing squabbles so you see I have something in common with the whole world mother didn't ruin my childhood or anyone's marriage she's a good person she prepared me life you see is all about milling things that is why my mother and I should be pitied yes we have suffered but we never now that we enjoyed 1/2 year advantage when it came to what really and mattered I knew about Charisse she didn't know about me my mother knew about Laverne but Laverne was under the impression that hers was an ordinary life we never lost track of this basic and fundamental fact now when did I first discovered that although I was an only child my father was not my father and mine alone I really can't say it's something that I've known for as long as I've known that had a father I can only say for sure when I learned that this kind of double duty daddy wasn't ordinary I was about five years old in kindergarten but the art teacher miss Russell asked us to draw pictures of our families while all the other children scribbled with their crayons I used the blue ink pen and drew James Kirby's and Laverne in the background was Rowley my father's best friend the only person we knew from his other life I drew him with a crayon label flesh because he was really nice skin this was years and years ago but I still remember I on the necklace around the wife's neck I gave the girl a big smile stuff with square teeth near the left margin I drew my mother in East End the art teacher approached me from behind now who are these people you've drawn so beautifully charmed I smiled up at her my family my daddy has two wives and two girls cocking her head she said I see I didn't think that much more about it I was still enjoying the memory of the way she pronounced beautifully to this day when I hear anyone say that word I feel loved at the end of the month I brought all my drawings home in a car at work older James opened up his wallet which he kept clunk with two dollar bills to reward me for my schoolwork I saved the portrait my masterpiece for last being it was so beautifully thrown in everything I picked the page up from the table and held it close to his face like he was looking for a message mother stood behind me crossed her arms over my chest invents a place to kiss at the top of my head it's okay she said did you tell your teacher who was in the picture and not it the whole time thinking that I probably should lie although I wasn't quite sure why James's mother said let's not make a move now she's just a child when he said this is important don't look so scared I'm not gonna take her out behind the woodshed then he chuckled but my mother didn't laugh all she did was draw a picture kids draw pictures don't in the kitchen been changed said let me talk to my daughter my mother said why can't I stay here she's my daughter too you went through all the time you tell me I was spending time talking to us and I let me talk mother hesitated it released me she's just a little kid James she doesn't even know the ins announcement trust me James said she left the room but I don't know that she trusted him not to say something that would leave me wounded and broken wing for life I could see it in her face and she was upset she moved her jaw around and around invisible gum at night I could hear in her room grinding her teeth in her sleep the sound was like gravel under car wheels Dana come here James was wearing a navy chauffeurs uniform his hat must have been in the car but I could see the ridge mark across his forehead where the hat man usually was come closer he said I hesitated look into the space of the doorway where mother had disappeared Dana he said you know it's great with me are you you're not scared of your own father are you his voice sounded watchful but I took it as a dare no sir I said taking a bold step forward don't call me sir Dana I'm not your boss when you say that it makes me feel like the overseer ice-truck mother told me that I should always call him Sir with a certain emotion he reached out for me and lifted me up on his lap he spoke with her looking out we're sorry pendency is expression Dana I can't have you making drawings like the one you made for your art class I can't have you doing things like that what goes on in this house between your mother and me is wrong people's business I love you you're a baby girl and I love you and I love your mama what we do in this house has to be kept secret okay but I didn't even try this house James side and bounced me on this map a little bit what happens in my life in my world doesn't have anything to do with me you can't tell your teacher that too daddy has another wife you can't tell your teacher to my name is James Witherspoon Atlanta ain't nothin but a country town and everyone knows everybody your other wife and your other girl is a secret I asked him he put me down from his lap so we'd to look each other in the face no he said you've got it the wrong way around Dana you are the one so that's my book silver Sparrow it came out a couple years ago and I am just really honored and grateful to be here this afternoon it has been a very long road for me and for so the sparrow so I really appreciate you coming out I would be happy to talk to you somewhere I take any questions you have or I could just talk to you and we're conservation within I will tell you I've ever seen other questions really it's the same for all the writers that you have to write the story that you were there to write once you commit to writing a story and ready I'm gonna call it a true story when I say it true story I don't need it really happened but just like what's true to your understanding of the world that is your job we can't help the way someone else reach you you just can't help that you just have to write that true story I'm going to answer this in a roundabout way when I started writing silver Sparrow it was my second book and I believe that having made two books before that I would get another book contract and I would continue on my trajectory I thought I had worked hard on it done well and there was a shake of the publishing you know all the different publishers were sold and all this kind of stuff short version is I was without a publisher here it was I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm somebody you know that doesn't work and I was rejected by my own publisher and so then we sent the book out to other people who rejected it through like everybody was rejected it because things were shaking up and people didn't want to take chances and I felt like I was done and I was thinking oh maybe I write a different kind of book but you know what that's not me I have to write the kind of book that I wrote and I decided to write my book regardless I was writing this book for the purpose of putting it in a drawer because I didn't want to say that I had left the business keep me from telling story so I wrote this book intended to put it in the drawer I started posting on it started really like getting into it and putting my heart in it and I put that out there and then I got a mysterious phone call from an organization in LA telling me that I had bought a grant of $50,000 grant to go finish my book just like marketing they called me and asked me to give you money to give to someone else around you know you're getting this friend and so I took their grant and finish the book again so put it in a drawer but just so I could say that I finished this book so I've done the book and went to the writers conference in Florida because I had already been invited I didn't want to back out but I was said you know I felt like my hard work wasn't anyway I gave her beating and a woman came up to me and she said I think I can help you have heard what happened to you your publisher then I was embarrassed like our strangers that was keeping it together that is a shame and I was embarrassed and she said but I can help you she carried by the hand through crowds a big crowd like this and she put my hand in the hand of a publisher and she told them you should look at this young lady I think she's you know got something and I was embarrassed but I felt you know also I knew that it doesn't work like that no one could put your hand in a handle publisher like that doesn't happen to people like me and the publisher said you know she was interested in it she said but oh by the way before we go she said Tony how do you know Judy and I said oh I don't know anybody named Judy and she says no no Judy Blume who brought you over here my nerdy childhood had come to rescue me back to write the story that I was meant to write you know and that once you do what you're supposed to do you know the universe God will open up and do the rest for you and I think that's my device is right there true story and just you have to just walk out well you know I got my MFA from Arizona State University and it was another one of those moments where I've met the director of that FFA program in an elevator and she has seen my work that she said oh look at Arizona she said look Arizona I hope you I'll be your mentor and I was like oh no now I can't move Arizona it's hot out there but she was offered me the opportunity to work you know develop my craft for three years under her leave and it works out narrow my first foot there so I do believe that for me is worth the investment but the MFA program it's only worth the investment if you are willing to make the investment like you can't go to the MFA program to meet people to hang out you have to go there to do your work because you know we talk a lot about blended families but a lot of us live in families that haven't blended and I have two sisters who were born before our birth they were born before my parents ever met so all my life though I felt like I had sisters they were just outside of my reach and I didn't really know they were living a separate life than mine and my fantasy life was that oh somewhere out there sisters and they would do my hair you know all the things that people who don't have sisters think they have the sister is all about but I was really thinking like what must my life look like to them because we think of custody battles as parents having custody of children but you know what the children have custody of the parents and I really grew up with custody of my father I grow you know my father in house with me my father every day and I never thought I just thought of that it's my family not as a certain kind of privilege that I had so I was really interested in thinking about this idea of people who have the same father but have different lives and so I came to look at it from from that point of view but I feel like to write this book I did have to have sympathy for all the characters like I didn't write this book it's like this is a book designed to punish one of the characters like you can't write like a schoolmarm you have to be open to everyone's position and I thought about the bigness and I was like how does he see himself and I thought this is how I think the big mistakes II think every time a woman has come to me and said that she is having my baby I got her like when all your characters have a point even if it's a kind of twisted point that's when you have an honest look at what happens to them okay my first novel leave hey Atlanta which is which I wrote when I was in graduate school it's about growing up in Atlanta during the child murders when I was a kid in Atlanta there was a serial murderer that killed about 30 African American children and two were students in my class and everything has ever read about the Atlanta child murders has been about the police how did the police catch the murderer do you think this is the murder it became like a police procedural which i think is a kind of gentrification of the narrative I think of the child murders as a story of what happened in my community but everything I've seen has been a story about that Atlanta Police and so I wanted to write it in from the point of view that I knew of being a kid at that time of growing up by thinking about all the things everyone thinks about when they grow up like think about your training bra and a murderer same day same time you know and our childhood was kind of funny people would say to me people would say to me oh you must have a kind of childhood and I was like no we were children we just just have to in addition to our lives one of my projects is looking at the ways that people live their lives at the same time the history's happening so I put myself in that particular story and the story is a little girl and the she just comes in every now and then a little girl named Terry Jones said she does all the things that I do like I used to sniff the Xerox pink let's do rock Latino yes always sniffing around in a little it'll be but that was important to me to look at the fact that even though this historic thing was happening this horrific thing was happening there was a little girl named teri Jo's sniffing the mini breath she at the same time so that's why I put myself in there as kind of bearing witness and I put the story the characters in the order they are just in I put them in escalating war as they kept coming out more interesting you want your novel to go up in energy not now now well I think that you cannot pull off local bigamy you know you can only read about the bigamy and the man has a wife in another state like he's a traveling salesman but if you're doing local bigamy you need some infrastructure and some help two eyes two daughters need to in right so he has James the bigness has a brother who helps it out with everything and then also I felt like adding him for the narrative opened it up because it's just like if you're in a real relationship you cannot be there with you know you just can't be alone with your man all the time discussing your relationship you need another person just to bring it some other topic some fresh air and that's why I brought Raleigh in there just so that the people do something decides be in their relationship and I think that he has treated the way he is because well you haven't gotten partner let me say it will reveal itself and I noticed all right okay I'm a graduate of Spelman College a historically black college area the Spelman College may be the woman I am today we're in that crystal in college I would not be standing here I had a lot of experiences you know after it but I was just found that I was very young I was 16 I was the youngest person in my class I knew I wanted to write but I did not know that I could be a writer I was always treated like my writing books I think there were girls when no girls write and read in the library a lot people don't necessarily interpret that if you being an intellectual they think that these are your nights you know I get a sweet girl and they say you know nobody ever got pregnant in the library you're such a good girl you're not giving your parents any trouble and when I went to Spelman the fact that I like to write and read was seen as a real a real asset and something meaningful so I was at Spelman and this is winter another poll was just made president and I was walking this is an ad Herman people used to probably walk like that and she was powerful walking by and she said to me hello there how's the writing no one had ever asked me how's the writing she was most impressive person I ever met is she remembered me and I thought next time I see her I need to have something to say and so I started taking myself seriously and then it took a creative writing class from Earl Clegg and this was before Carl with on Oprah and that thing was this is what she was a working writer and she kind of modeled to me what happens when you take yourself seriously and write for your own sake and I believe that that is what sent me on this journey that I'm on right now you know honestly for me in between my second looking I'm telling the silver Sparrow it was really my interactions with people that I didn't know what the real life that kept me going when I was having all this drama you know trying to find a publisher and stuff people who I didn't know would write to me and say when's your next will come in on I'm waiting on it or people would send me big goes in the mail one woman knitted an Afghan and sent it to my job and it was helpful to me to know that there were people out there that cared about what I was doing so I didn't really feel like I was losing my privacy I felt like I had the community of people that I had that I hadn't really met but that were kind of holding me down and things were difficult for me and so that's kind of the stage right and I think it really depends on your relationship with your readership like I just find I feel like I have the best leaders in the world that I like I need them in my life they're part of my process my blog I did a thing in April problem right like in August I write like crazy me yeah the thing for people if you try to write like crazy in August we all grow together we reported how much writing we were doing new people I don't know they're my readers and we were all in this so I finally they become part of my process Oh I think the main thing of me young writer is to think of yourself as a writer you know like well I believe once you believe that you are a writer if follow that you understand if you have something worthwhile to say and it feels like that and to tell a true story I always tell young writers in beginning writers we were just starting unplugged from the business do not subscribe to let's just email you get retention how much money everyone else is getting for their book that's not you well let's just lunch I think it's what it's called you know don't subscribe to that don't read articles about what editors are looking for none of that will help you finish your book the only thing that will help you finish your book is listening to your ultimate part and all that other stuff is distraction and I believe that once you just have a community of writers and people that care about what you're doing that believe in you and you believe in them the doors in your heart will open on their own when it when it's safe or that door can be open it will open so you put yourself in a safe and nurturing space so much was it obvious how upset I was I'm working I'm working on the new novel now I've become really interested in people who are exonerated from prison I've watched that community the documentary always ends when they get out of prison that's the end of the story but I've always been interested in what's next and all the time interested in a woman the idea of a woman whose husband was wrongfully imprisoned he was given a 25-year sentence she thought he was gone for good but he gets out after seven years and he's back on her doorstep you know kind of like The Odyssey you know he the man comes back and he really has in many ways come back for more but she has it's it's been seven years because she's moved on in many ways and it's really a question about what is oil tea fidelity and what is it reasonable to ask another person to do this story came to me when I imagined a man and a woman in an argument and the woman says to the man come on you know you would not have waited on me for seven years pretty much a real man right and he says this wouldn't happen to you in the first place which is also true so it's about what is it when commit when commitment is not equal but it can't be equal what do you do so that's what I'm working on in her new man his name is Andre mutual friend I'm about 100 pages in so it's kind of up another year at this well one thing in dealing with feedback I think it's very important that you share your book with people with you trust first off you learn the hard way about who to show your work to it not to you can tell when someone's giving you feedback from a bad place but also the summit can give you good feedback from a bad place but it can give you good advice for the attitude and you can respond to the attitude or not the advice one thing I think about I used to have a boyfriend that was a painter and when he would alter his paintings he could never get the original back because he's changed the painting forever but as a writer you can take anyone's advice because you still have your original I try almost any piece of advice given if it sounds halfway reasonable I'll try it you know someone says take this character out or add this I'll try it and I don't like it I still have my original and I think that's the thing it's like not to be too proud to try because you don't lose anything that's what I do because I've had some really good help like whenever Oh silver Sparrow it wasn't originally two sisters it was really confident it was like two sisters and then another one who was the sister of one and whether the system it was a lot and I thought it was brilliant and somebody said to be quite dismissive li that's too complicated like that like really clunky like that's too complicated and they hurt my feelings and I felt like it was coming from a bad place but she was right especially when you were having some problems with your publisher I did not consider self-publishing because I don't think that I have the necessary skill set to do all the things you have to do if you self-publishing have to market you have to distribute in the design your own cover I have no idea how to do any of these things you know so I just it just wasn't on the list of well and who knows what I would have thought things had worked out you know the way that they did but I feel like so publishing is a credible commitment and you have to be really prepared to do it all what writers you've met you get about I think the most the one the experience probably when I admit when I met Nikki Giovanni when my first book came out you know she wrote to me in writing after Virginia Tech and I came up there and then she invited me and her editor back to her home you know we spent like a weekend and we could do parties I couldn't believe it right I was so oh it's just I felt like you know been hurt when I was in high school and now I'm at her house having dinner that was really exciting and she gave me such wonderful advice about having a long writing career and she was the one who told me take care of your readers because they're the ones that will take care of you and then if the best advice I ever had and this is what my person who came out before any of anything happened to come that she said that she said every person that reads your book is doing you a favor they have all these things they can read they chose to meet your book so you should always you know make time when you go do appearances whatever because each one of them has like extended a kindness towards you and you should always remember that and that was probably the best experience I had with meeting a writer in real life you know I think that I'm gonna talk to you about the struggles and also the pleasures because there are both and I think that's really important to think about I mean one of the obvious things it's been a lot in the news lately and in the writer news which isn't even a real news when you're a writer you feel like it's the news but you know with women writers and this idea that they have those stats that break down like how few women are reviewed in the New York Times how few women did you add black women it's more and more and more so there's a certain kind of feeling of marginalization and in the praise factor I would say but I think that you just have to get over that like you don't write your book for the New York Times you know thank you it really forces you to be having that kind of marginal place forces you not to care as much about that other stuff you know and it's a challenge but I feel like it's not like you have to know why you write and I think that's true for everyone and then when you're a woman or you're black you just need to face it earlier in your career like other people through the years and years before they realize that they don't write for the year of times but you need to know that right off the bat but the pleasure of it is that when you write the subject matter like I write about Atlanta I think that anybody here from Atlanta alright when you see Atlanta landmarks in the book that you've never seen anywhere else there's that shock of realization of seeing something that you know in real life in a book and I believe that sharing that and being a part of that it's rewarding beyond words I can't tell you how much that means to me the thing that gets me up out of that in the morning that's the thing that gets me raining and I I just have to focus on that none of us need to be writing for the awards you know none of us need to write or the reviews and I've said this a million times but I think that that is the thing that will keep you behind for one book to the next to the next to the next once you put your faith and this outside something that you don't put their faith in man you can't you gotta put your faith where it really you know put your faithfulness it comes but one thing I take my decorators that's my thing I take on manual typewriters I have about ten of them and I use them for different things and I really love I like writing using something that makes it feel like fun and play and also with a computer you can type and you can get into mood and push three keys and delete a day's work with a typewriter you can throw a piece of paper away but the next morning when you come here since as you can smooth it out you know you still have your work so that's one thing I think about my process is I use typewriters I can write my hand I don't propose on the computer I usually start with character but sometimes I get a different plot I feel like the less I can say I do it this way the less likely I am to be blocked because if you believe there are ten different ways to do it and one way isn't working you try another way in another way in another way but I do think that when you finished the book it needs to seem like you started with character but I believe you should just start with whatever whatever keeps you going I'm into a run crossing let's say do whatever you have to do to survive the draft and it was hot out here going hey I've been told to just talk what should I talk to you all about oh she asked me about the time that I spent in Nigeria when I was a teenager I spent a couple of years in Nigeria my parents had a Fulbright and they wanted us to you know become citizens of the world and so I I worked I lived in Nigeria I went to high school there and I learned a lot one thing I learned a lot about education they take education much more seriously than we do like they they do some homework over there and not doing your homework in Nigeria is like it's like you've been given this education you didn't eat your homework I'm like here you know the kind of way we take for granted how do you come up with like you're kind of cute with your teacher explaining why you don't have your mom working it's funny over there if you don't do your homework it is not funny and it was very I think it changed my work ethic it really changed my work ethic can help me understand myself as a as a student like what it really meant what it really meant to be a student since then I've done a lot of traveling abroad and I've led workshops a little workshop in Uganda last year and it was a women I live in workshop for women and I met so many women who want to tell their stories and for its own sake like they just want to get it down on the page and I feel the teaching and all the different grants that he's been so helpful to my own when you the way the writers and other countries approach their work I think it gives you a sense of purpose mean as writers have it very easy in the United States I know we think we don't have it easy because rejection like we think rejection is the end of the world about protection here are you to surprise somewhere out so that people in other countries there are real challenges to get in there were some people in other countries their work is often censored like writing is not just a hobby it's it's survival it's about telling a story that would be lost and I feel that it as an American writer having studied with people from other country that is he had like really a different sense of what the possibility for narrative what narrative can achieve when the book will be called a dear history it will be published by Algonquin books and I'm working on it you know the thing about working on a news story is that when you weren't going to do novel it's not a novel it's not fully formed you know you read it from practice we get it to end it feels like it was written that way look or not look you have these long portions and you just have to have faith that the novel will become clearer to you'll get better to you because you don't know the characters very well you have like a sense of their problems you don't know you don't know how they are you don't know what happened to them when they were a child I feel like I know a character but I figure out what happens to him or her when she was young that made her like she is today like what I read in silver Sparrow when Dana is told no you are the secret when I didn't come up with that and he didn't actually came up with that later but once I came up with that other things to go to go forward with the rest of the book so I'm still looking for what was that moment that formed the personalities of the characters and I'm not quite it's not great area and I feel like it's hanging honor I just believe that one day I'll get my typewriter outside the sentence it'll be the answer all right I was it says he's a northerner she wants to know about Atlanta you know I grew up under the impression that Atlanta was the center of the universe it wasn't a total into graduate school at the University of Iowa that I found out that there were people in the world who were not obsessed with Atlanta Georgia like around my relatives we were the ones who lived in like the most exciting city so I I never knew that I was kind of writing an experience that had been silenced I just thought everybody thought Atlanta was the best city but I like later when I was growing up was considered to be like the African American mecca that in the 70s and 80s it was the only city in America had a black school board president like mayor black police chief like my dad would say they have like everything down here and that's why he moved from a small town Louisiana to Atlanta I always felt myself to be in some ways a child of an immigrant like my daddy was a the old country was rural Louisiana where he was from and that I grew up in the brave new world I always write about Atlanta but I certainly I think a certain self-confidence and also that African American educational system in Atlanta with all the black colleges like in Atlanta I was I was in Atlanta I was looking for a doctor I asked this woman I know for what doctor and she recommended a doctor she said you know you never heard more house she said but he was a Harvard and he's pretty good doctor and so I brought with that worldview and I think I'm right out of that place but I never thought it was a unique voice or growing up in Atlanta during the child murders I thought everybody knew about the Atlanta child murders until I went to graduate school and people were saying child murders with child murders and so I learned that what I thought was kind of a a well known kind of in the Universal database of experience wasn't and I think that helped me find my voice because I didn't know that I had a unique I did not know that what I did not regard to be a unique experience was a unique experience and I think it's what helps my writing I think it's the world that I know about and I feel like a tour guide to it sometimes I feel like for people who don't know what it is it's a tour guide to southwest Atlanta as I know it and for people who know that I know I feel like it's like looking through a quote an old photo album and everything she got you for that so what do you mean well I I just let's see what if I read I've been reading a lot of mysteries lately like literary mysteries I think meaning this piece is helpful to me because it reminds me to keep it movement because I think when you're a writer you think your intellectual you get caught up in your ideas you forget that something has that happened in this book so I've been reading a lot of issue that like everyone else in America I read gone girl you don't read that what I good yeah I read that I just got through reading the cutting season by ABBA Calaca came out like Tuesday it was a really awesome historical mystery it's about african-american woman who has plans weddings and what is a decommissioned like a plantation and she plans like this become like a just like I had tours of hell if I go tour site and it's this slavery site and then there's a murder so I read that was really good and I just use puts think of said over time so this has been a presentation of the Library of Congress visit us at loc.gov

Channel: Library of Congress

Views: 834

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Library of Congress, 2012 National Book Festival

Id: esJ8rdbBMAg

Length: 49min 51sec (2991 seconds)

Published: Thu May 09 2013