Transcripts For CSPAN2 Author 20240703

Our moderator for today is a long time friend of the festival having served on the board of directors for many years. She is a professor of english and the graduate school at the jackson state university. Dr. Mcdaniels. Its all yours. [applause]co a course i cant sit down yet. I want to remind you all that whenever if you want to ask questions you will need to come to the microphone and the podium and no matter how loud your Teacher Voices we dont want you to shout it from your seat because thank you. And thank you guys for coming. Mi [applause] thank you for joining us. At this time i had the pleasure of introducing or three distinguished panelists and their great works. First we have miriam graham, founding director of the history of riders which he established at the university of mississippi in 1993. The history of writing his lead National International initiative to promote Research Teaching and Public Engagement with black literary studies in the National Endowment for the humanities for a Mellon Foundation for progress agram of the other 12 books that have helped to redefine the field especially the cambridge companion of the africanamerican novel and with jerry w. Word the history of africanamerican literature. On occasion of the history of black writings and a verse in her retirement Intergenerational Panel of distinguished scholars gathered at the modern Language Association january 2023 conference to celebrate accomplishments ongoing significant and new ventures and archiving programming and Literary Research and expanding community of digital scholars and practitioners. Graham was in lawrence kansas and is working on two new books. Her book today that we are looking at is entitled the house where my soul lives the life of Margaret Walker and shell be at the book signing today. I want to thank the modern writing association. There were mudslides and everything was going on so people had towa really wanted yu here to be with you today. Next we have wayne flynt wayne flynt. He taught for decades and directed more than 60 graduate programs. Hehe has lectured at universitis in china and belfast Northern Ireland and the university of Oxford Cambridge in great britain. At the Franklin Roosevelt center in the netherlands and the new university of vienna. Is the author of 14 books dealing the southern politics, history, poverty and culture, religion and art music and literature. His numerous awards include the patrick award for florida history, the Lillian Smith but not fiction from the Southern Regional council the Alabama Library association of award for nonfiction three times. The c. Vann Woodward John Hoke Franklin prize by the fellowship of southern writers to f. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald museum award for excellence in writing a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 and the alabama governors award for art. This book is entitled afternoons with harper lee. Hell be signing that as well. A third panelist virginia virginia mc bee butler the daughter of a country pastor but she grew up in north mississippi usually lost in the book. She married ellen butler at the church pianist. The army drafted her shortly after she graduated from ole miss. They had three children and accompanied him for 24 ears as he pursued a military career. She taught kindergarten in san antonio, texas, second grade in west germany and in louisiana and taught junior high art. Attracted by the childrens literature collection and the center for gifted studies at the university of southern mississippi she retired to hattiesburg in 2000 when. It was the childrens letterers a collection that led her to becoming a researcher for the 50th Anniversary Edition of the snowy day where she found a biography that needed to be written. Becoming as are a jackson was published byr the university of mississippi in 2023. Her riding has appeared in highlights cricket the writer and sbc to the eye bulletin and other publications. Each of her children has been approved spouse and their 10 grall and children six poison for girls. She often can be found hanging out at the grumman childrens literature collection for writing her called reading, writing in her book becoming ezra jackson like the others they will be signing for you. So we are going to open with our first question. On the puppy is scheduled for the book festival the panel is designed to give give the audience into this room and we are glad you joined us. Biographers delve into the lives of notable authors who work resonate with themes of resilience, cultural tension in universal human experiences. Deeply influencinglu literature and landscape. Focusing on the latter part of this talk a bit about how walker, keith and lee and their bodies of work deeply influenced literatures landscape, deeply influenced literature landscape. Merriam. In thank you for being herean today. This morning one of our volunteers for the book festival asked me how i wrote the story. E she immediately said that sounds like a foundation. I said you got it exactly right. Walkers work was foundational and writing her biography shows how foundational it was. If she knew literature she said it was not for me to note. I had to translate it to other places and share it more broadly. My role as somebody who had been offended from all of this knowledge is to deliver it in different ways and i think she does the transition, that person who needed to have a community who could be as richly endowed as she whispered she thought she had a Brilliant Education and a firstclass education a classical education greek and latin and thes. Whole nine yards but she was a poet and a novelist. Short of that she really figured out how to transfer and translate her experiences to the broader public. This morning when iso heard that someone who was driving me here would say she gave us the foundation she did it many different ways. In termspo of poetry the title f her collection for my people, says it all. She was not just writing poetry in a modernist tradition which is what she was writing and. She was saying it in a way that it embraced her people and embraced everybody. She was writing not only for herself she was the intersection between herself and people and that was something she continued to do and all of the booksdi tht she did pitch he lived in mississippi all of her life. Virginia . When Ezra Jack Keats wrote it the book which i assume most of you know that he had been writing for 10 years before had been illustrating for 10 years for other writers. He was bothered by what he saw and what he had to illustrate. The books that he got had a bucolic setting and he could look out his window at the studio and see children of various cultures playing outside and he knew something was wrong with that. One of his designs was to illustrate childrens reading books and he illustrated the entire reading textbook panorama. There is one story up panorama that is a child of color and all the other stories in their were kids. The picture in the teachers manual of the school and the children coming and had the teacher standing at the door at core she is and every child coming up thats there with going to i the school is and middle class. That bothered him. He thought the children, all children should read the books. They years it was published the children of color would not have been an up and childrens books to be significant. There was an article in september 1965 which is a couply of years after the snowy day came that called the allwhite world of childrens books and she addresses that. And her statistic she said over the fouryear period from 1962 to 1964 only fourfifths the 1 , if you want to say that another way thats. 00 thank you. Should i start over . Anyway another way to say that is. 008 of childrens books from 63 publishers told stories of the american which was the word they use. Other ethnicities would have been similar than they were not even mentioned. He started riding writing his snowy day ate a time where you did not find children from other ethnicities and books. Very few here and there and even those were in there for a stereotypical fashion. This year this past year 2022 the book council at the university of medicine wisconsin which runs statistics on cultural childrens books all the time said 40 had a least one creator who is a person of color and 70 had a least one who is. 46 had a person of color who is a character in the book and 39 had a primary character who was of color. In addition to that other things that have happened this year, this years 2022 newbury award in all the honor books for newbury were women of color which is also significant. If you go back and look at your guides for this festival and look at your panelist and look at the people who were here presenting youll see people who are not alll white. I can go to my library in l. Grove in the mark county on any given day ofda the week going to the childrens section and i will see a multitude of enticing childrens books that represent children and that happens all the time. Thats the global picture of what happened when Ezra Jack Keats took it upon himself to ride back a book about a little boy in the snow and decided thaa little boy could lead a life. He does the same thing that any of kid would do in the snow. Hes representative of all kids. Thats the big picture. Individual pictures are just as important and they are counted one by one. My book came out and i posted it on my that it was out in one of my followers who used to sit in my class. I talk about camelot when i wrote the section about keats and hes in the back corner pictures while the teacher is teaching english. He knew what she said and occasionally would contribute if he had something to say but when i read that i thought about anlarry who used to sit in the back corner of my class and drop pictures while i was teaching. He was a young black boy and when i posted this onn my you posted under his comment and i want to read it. I wish you could see it as he said it. This is what he said. Keats was so formative for me. I remember the snowy day as early as kindergarten and how his incredible illustrations about black little boys just like me and it impacted me. I was determined to live in the snow and additionally did because of him. Now as an adult and a designer and illustrator professor his work impacted me and motivated me and my students. Brian collier who was one of the best children illustrators today asked me in a person of my own opinion, gave a speech at the National Society of childrensty book riders and he was doing the keynote. He began his speech by saying when i was a little boy my mother taught me. She brought home herald and the and the snowy day for the first time i saw myself in the book. One of my favorite keats books is the pet show and he has a picture with all the kids coming in the kids are tall, short, thin, and of every ethnicity you could ever think about and they are all in line for the judge who looked a little bit like Ezra Jack Keats himself. The other thing he did besides letting us know that all children should be in books, every child should be able to someone in the picture book that looks a little bit like them. The other thingdi he did was in the settings. The settings brought the city to children. Before he was riding most of the childrens books in the country, the suburbs but he found beauty in the city in all of his books were set in that environment. When you think about somebody who turn the world around, in the journey of a thousand miles he made a giant step in getting diversity into our childrens literature and turning the world of reading on its head. We arent done yet and we still have a lot to do but he got it started. The moment the most important moment in their life. Shes one of the most private women i know in my lifetime. It made her one of the most public women in terms of aspiration but not in terms of response. Her goal in life was to be as private after the pulitzer is before the pulitzer. As to why she didnt write write other books her answer was i didnt have too. [laughter] more particularly selling 1 million copies a year after all these years was the book the only book. In australia five years ago the question was what was your favorite american book and by a landslide it was to kill ad mockingbird. And that part of her live in assisted living she sang [laughter] she sang better than iay did. She did a kant pbs did a contest for six months long before she died and the contest was a very simple one. What is your Favorite Book . By a landslide is responded to by pbs was to kill a mockingbird. Interestingly in 2021 in december of 2021 the New York Times book review section had a contest based on the 25th anniversary of the New York Times book review section and the question was very simple. The question was what is your Favorite Book and who is your favorite author published in the last 125 years. By a landslide it was to kill a mockingbird. I dont really know what thinks about to kill a mockingbird. I pretty much know what readers worldwide think of to kill a mockingbird. It is the most beloved book all these years after her book was published. Moving to question two, thank you. If i found so many book passages. Id like to share with my colleagues. I prefer one passage from each ofex your books and will ask you to expound on that passage. On becoming Ezra Jack Keats im quoting are reminiscent of my mother keeps took the tartness and flavor of his own life, added sweetener and created an idealized childhood. He included people who were importanto to him and his storylines. The stories he wrote sometimes married his memory and sometimes addressed his own experience to make it more kidfriendly world and for those of you have the book its on page 137. Im going to start with one in which he adjusted it to make it better. When he was a boy he was disturbed by what was happening at home and one day he got disturbed and remembered in his book at school he heard about a little boy that put his baggage on the end of the stick and ran awaynd from home so he decided that was the way he was going to take care of this problem as well. His mother is cleaning the floor so he tells her hes going to run away from home. Instead of saying anything about staying home she said h well lok let me help you tie it. She sent them out into the world to run away from home. He the afternoon outside with the boys playing cards and wandered over to his uncle and aunts house. He decided maybe things were actually better at home. So he went back in the dark a little scared as he goes back and he gets home he starts knocking on o the door. His mother will not let him in. They were having a party inside and she would not let him in. His dad intercedes and says well just give them another chance. Funny that put him back and he spends the next few days being careful to say yes maam and yes sir and please and thank you and all those little things. When he begins to writee his bok he had peter who was disturbed because the new little sister is sitting on the furniture and peter decides to run away from home. I hope you can see, get a glimpse. I know you are too far away but when he peter runs away from home he doesnt run very far. He is right outside the window of his house and sets up shop there and pretty soon his mother instead of keeping him locked out is at the window leaning over saying we have got something really good for lunch. Would you like to come in . So thats that family setting. As he got a little older in the boys were out one day and they were about and out running and screaming doing things that boys do. He went across the garage door of the neighborhood was a man who a lot of time in. He came storming out the seller and screams at him and he says i was trying to. You boys go away. Its geared ezra said he ran home and his mother went back and said i will go talk to them for you. He goes back and talked to him and comes back and said its not about you. He is really a nice guy. The next time azra went to the place there there was aboard flying out by the garage door and ezra decided he had left it for him to paint on. He really is a nice guy. In his book lili is looking for her stepfather and he made several attempts that dont quite work out and are not very good. Until he gets in trouble and theres a misunderstanding. The man yells at him and then chases him. The man looks exactly like the story that ezra tells about when he was a little boy. The onlyfe difference is in his book he is the same face as ezra himself. When lili finds out that man is really nice guy and they just had a misunderstanding he figures out that the man is really a p good person. So keats frequently did that with his own life and did things that seem drawn to him and turn them into something that was really fun in these classic childrens books that he wrote. From afternoons with harper lee people compartmentalize friendships. Some friends we know from childhood and never losese touch with and best friend stayed from her consciousness when we leave for college, marry, move to different state, change ideologies or political affiliations. New friendships began in middle age or even later. After he died we often thought if we had known her earlier in our lives we might not have liked her so well. This is from pages 170 and 171 if you have the book. Wayne. Sometimes people ride about write about folks they know. Sometimes they write about people they know because they are not like them and in the case of nil, we would not have had a friendship in 2005. All although saddened this incredibly independent woman who for instance almost never took a bus or taxi in new york city because she walked everywhere, so you can imagine her stamina. She was extremely athletic growing up. And so her independence was part of the way in which she dealt with new york city and the way she dealt with truman and the way she protected him when he was growing up and the way in which he fought boys who would pick on him for being a. Her personality is a really strong personality and a very private personality. I couldnt help but think one day when she was she knew i liked dogs and did not like cats. She and my wife like cats and didnt like dogs. She always sided with my wife. So she said, we were at family and she said, my brother ed, the 4th of the children who unfortunately dieded too young. Ed had picked up their cat. He was just a little b tiny boy and he had watched his mother and dad throw pieces of wood in the fire. He picked up the cat and threw the cat in the fire. The cat was not hurt but the cat was deeply offended. [laughter] so the cat went to ed and with its paw slapped ed. Since afternoons with harper lee is a story book of storytelling i found this photograph of saint simons island. Its a cat, if you cantg see , really killing a mockingbird. I drove my wife. I said ive got to show ed this thing. This is what she said. We were cat people. Cats are independent, cats are confident. Dogs require constant attention, dont take care of themselves, are dependent and are far too much trouble. To which i responded sounds to me as if you are describing the difference between women and men, not the difference between cats and dogs. [laughter] to which he said not one word. Smirked for quite a long time. The house where my soul lives just after classes begin in the fall of 1969 threatened with kidney failure and complications caused by a malfunctioning parathyroid gland he went to the hospital put spendingho time in the hospital had become such a regular part of your life. She approached each stage as if it were her last. The woman that she was she diligently sought to understand as muchib as possible about how the world and the universe operated. The resoluteness had not burst of an abiding fear that life would end before she accomplish all that she desired and thats on pages 391 to 392 if you have the book. Miriam. Thatsi a passage that i wanted readers to grasp the contradiction that she faced a router like. Firstll of all she knows it very well. She was a very fragile woman. She had a number of medical conditions. She was diabetic, so she was in the hospital about. Her idea of what she was able to accomplish was huge. I wanted to show the contrast in terms of her understanding of what she needed to do to heal while in the hospital. She also used it to plan another big thing. To speak about another book she needed to write. So there was never a lost moment. She would fuss with her children and say we need to finish my journal if she was in the hospital. So never w a moment, always thinking about what she wanted to accomplish. There was a fear often as i dont get done what i set out to do what does it mean . When i think about that passage my family and i have been talking about the idea of the tradition. This is not in the book but theres one chapter title that comes close to that. I think that chapter title is to teach, to lead, to change the world. Thats just one chapter in the book. In talking about this tradition leaders we know mostly as the mail tradition. But what happens when a woman embraces this idea of i was born to serve . I was born to lead. I was born to give to people in the best way i can. The former writer and i do that well but is it sufficient and visitedd mask . The high school was as quiet place where nobody bothered her. She could go to theto next thin. So thank you for choosing that passage because it really does give a false sense of how she operated. She was a small woman but her mind was huge and are planning and thinking and accomplishments were amazing. But she had that resilience that had to do with her fearlessness and when i met her i was constantly asked how did you do this . That was always my question, how did you thank you could do this because it seemed impossible. But what she planned, she executed and often allotted was done from a hospital bed. Im intoi my third question. As authors you are used to reading reviews of your own works and probably all of you havein decades critiquing the work of other authors as well so if youre assigned to be a reviewer of your own work on youru ul biker free tell us howu would assess how well you achieved what you would hope to accomplish where you completed a published biography. Wayne. C was once determined in the early process of riding writing what you represent history or fiction or nonfiction. I am an historian and i had written multiple books. Therefore when people found out i wasy writing it [inaudible] she didnt want a biography written in ikes respected her. This is a storybook. Its a book of stories. I 64 opinions with a woman after she left the university of alabama for new york city. One of the great tragedies of my life was on two occasions we took her to dinner and said since you are an alabamian historian do you know anything s about [inaudible] she said i cant believe that. I said would you like to meet harper lee and she said id give anything to make harper lee. We will come overac and pick you up. She comes home at thanksgiving and she stays through christmas. I called no little sister and i said could you call no and see if noel would extend a meeting at your house 30 miles from our house . Miraculously harper lee said i would love to spend an evening with you. We had the mostal magical day in the history of literature in my opinion. J listen listening to them sitting there and talking to each other. One week before was supposed to happen we get a call from nils sister. She said what has happened . The know shes home. She is terrified at being in the same room for an evening and what she would say in what she would do to impress her what would she do . And i thought what an incredible insight into harper lee. I also thought what a tragedy to the world of literature that no one heard that nonexistent conversation. When i started writing the book i thought well you are an historia and you threatened what is this going to be . The dual world in remarkably closed off many people have had that experience im maybe in that regard miriam thats a good the jury is still out i guess i would the jury is still out. I guess i would start by saying the publishers industry has changed radically. Utwe have had to figure out, whn i say we i work with my publicist to decide how to place this book. That same issue has confronted me when i was writing the book. What kind of biography do i want to write . And you think about your readers. Do i want literary people just to tell me about this woman development, her contribution, what she wanted too accomplish f i got it right. Do i want the average woman to understand the difficulties of being with a woman at a particular moment in the history of our country and in the south were she chose to live her life. And so on. Different populations i was thinking about. The success for me is how my going to get those readers. Knowing he had a very diverse audience biography with the intellectual and ordinary womans life family cook three meals a day, figured out how to make a living to keep her job and do everything she wants to do and more. And so on i think this is still out i think of those at different audiences are gradually coming to the book. Different readers are giving me different kinds of feedback. Im getting comments and notes from people who say this is my grandmothers book. The sounds just like what happened to my grandmother and i feel like i when i got a comment like that. Blended biography is a more difficult sell. Then everyone is looking for your story. Not Pulitzer Prizewinning but everyone is looking for the story. Or if youre somebody in the history filled with all kinds of intrigue and secret love affairs stuff then youf need to have a tell all. But theres a little bit but not a lot this is a woman with great integrity. Unhurt sensibility is set she was a Victorian Woman living in the 20th century. She would not have tolerateded that even if she did it you werent supposed to talk about publicly. Talk about a little bit but not a lot. Though i do not know if i have been successful if i were a readerer or a reviewer of this book. I think i would say i did do a good job at reaching audiences. Can Say Something about the experience they know or are familiar with, or heard about in this book and it readers can find themselves in the book. But i ask you to tell me you can find your self or find your story. Many ways are very ordinary but its also extraordinary. That interesting combination is very hard to tackle. The accomplish extraordinary things yet had every day existence that characterizes the lives of so many women southern women in particular. I have to wait for you to tell me. You have to be my book reviewers. Ou i will share this i heard you tell virginia before he came out of the holding room you had lately been getting a critique out there. You are the lady with what . The big a book. Thats the nickname. [laughter] clicks virginia . It mentioned i was a researcher for the 50th anniversary of the snowy day. They sent me back into the collection has everything he ever touched almost. It is extensive so i went to back in their get some things to go in the 50th anniversary i was on a deadline and i kept thinking w i fight with her all the things i wish i would have known this when i was using his book with my kindergartners and second graders. How i wish i would have known this. I kept going on. I had to get there fast and i did and then i headed back hoping to get something people were using his books and return them to the book to the classics in childrens literature. There up to date is the date hereof them. Such intimate experiences of children that are universal. In the hands of people who use it. I am kind of like you are i dont think im a good person to decide a how well this is done. Like you asking me to evaluate my 10 grandchildren and i can tell you they are all wonderful. [laughter] if they are like that with the book the reaction ive gotten the most from the m book our people would say i read your book and now i want to go back and read his book. That is really what i wanted people to do. I had not even thought about. What year in high school is teaching in atlanta predominantly black school and thinking ap english. Went outng there for a visit ana book signing out there she came and got my book this fall id like to use us with mite students and have you do a zoom call with us. I am thinking the book is not going to just appeal to teachers andde students, but to older students who are on the fringe if theyre trying to decide what they want to do with their lives. That would such a big issue. So far ive been very pleased, ive had good reviews and good people interested in doing the book. I am lucky im hoping this is going to go wellin you will enjoyil it. I think we can take one question. Youll have to go to the mic. You have to move into the mic. Could you describe any concessions you had to make in writing the book . Something you didnt want to get in the publishers had to make you do . X that is an interesting question. This is a big a book. [laughter] and its bigger than it b was expected to be. I felt like id won a shot at it and i needed it to be as complete as possible. Young adult biography that helps a lot and left me to the rest. I didnt leave out probably wouldve wanted me too leave dout. Decided theres not a chance for second book. On this subject. I had so much richness all of the documents and i was the guardian and i knew to give it the best shot that i could. That was the purpose the challenge i had. That was definitely more than expected. Waany concessions . I was extremely fortunate they have been supportive of this book from the very beginning given me extra resources that were not in the collection. Places to go and look i have nothing i felt like i needed to be in their. [inaudible] [laughter] parts i believe a human being has a right. I should tell her stories i will tell the stories that dont affect what she wase. Like on te other hand theres just some things you should not know about a person. I would to thank our wonderful authors here. Our panelists will give them a hand. [applause] if you are enjoying book tv sent for newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive a schedule of upcoming programs, author discussions, book festivals and more. Book tv every sunday on cspan2 or anything online at booktv. Org. Television for serious readers. Cspan student camp documentary is back this years theme looking forward while considering the past. Asking middle and High School Students to create a five six minute video addressing one of these questions. In the next 20 years what is the most important change you would like to see in america . Or over the past 20 years what whatis been the most important change in america . As we do each year we are giving away 100,000 in total prices with the grand prize of 5000 and every teacher who is students participate in the surest competition have the opportunity to share a portion of additional 50000 for the competition deadline is friday generate 19, 2024 prer for information best of our website student cam. Org. Healthy democracy doesnt just look like this. It looks like this too. Americans could see democracy at work. Citizens are truly get informed, straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered unbiased word for word pay from the nations capitol to where ever you are because it is the opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan powered by cable. Had a smug resident doctor andrew weiss, as University Distinguished professor of history in the school of humanities at the university of southern mississippi