Shes been. Im pleased to introduce the event behind the scenes with block letters. Jericho was last in 2019 and talk about poems, conditions in poetry. Mark is the Charles Howard professor of english and creative writing at Emory University and editor of the magazines a believer. Today brown is here for discussion title how we do it, black writers on practice and skill which he describes as a book of answers, answers to questions new writers every day how to produce writing to prove their identity as a more than 30 conservators to how we do it and we are delighted to have to join us on stage. Camille is the author of four poetry collections and edited black nature, african naturist University English professor at Colorado State university. The author of two novels, a poetry collection. Most are in the middle. This years list and a professor of english. Join me in welcoming camille and tiffany. But mark. Thank you for the introduction. Im doing something a little different doing whatever i i do with the poem so i will recite a poem. Cruelty. Dont talk to me about cruelty of what i am capable of. I wanted them dead and i killed them. I took a broom to the country and smashing sliced without warning,ok stopping and i smiled the entire time i was doing it. It was a holocaust of motors, bodies, parts of bodies, but all over the ground. They didnt ask my name, i didnt ask their name. They had no names with knowing. Now i watch myself when i entered a room, i never know when i might do. [applause] im particularly happy to share the stage withh writers i admire so much who have known for a long time and make me feel like a real person because i get to sit with these people at Emory University. Their work has meant a great deal and im glad so thank you. [applause] i want to say thank you to dan williams and Darlene Taylor in the audience. They are my coeditor, the people came to me from Howard University and when they came to me they told me i could be the editor in name only if i wanted but i wasnt going to do that because i didnt know what they were going to do with the book. [laughter] when people ask you matter what happens, you will be too busy to do it. The reason i decided to do thiss book i wish i could say it was anything my love of black people but thats noth why. I decided because when they asked me if i understood if i said no i would not be able to control who they asked after me. [laughter] i dont want to see the book was greg perlows name on it. [laughter] i put my hands deep into the. Im very proud of it. Does anybody any audience have a copy of the book already . If you do, hold it up for me. Do you see that . And pleased with the work this book is doing in the world. Im going to read a short piece and then we will hear from geniuses on stage. How we do it is not anthology of craft. I request writers in these pages is a statement literally explaining how they go about making they make. What happens when you move from a blank page two a book. This is thehe book of answers to questions writers ask everyday how to produce writing that proves their identity as a practitioner. This is a book for anyone who is a student of the craft. More particularly a book for younger and newer black writers and undergraduate graduate workshops or no workshop at all. We hope teachers find these words useful and we hope students will have yet to find their teachers learn from these pieces of generosity and hope of black buddy. My dream was to o create a classroom we would have the teachers you always wanted to have without having to pay tuition. Lw [laughter] we have arranged this in a way we hope to find. Im certain there is news, i believe the poet is in conversation with barrye jenki, which if you dont like midnight, i dont like you. That comes from how much i learned about my work and attempts at work from the process of organizing. Its a book i wish existed 20 years ago. I would have led an easier life and its you at and how you live and what looks like, who you are with and how to read and going back. The titles here are intended to communicate that it could not be narrowed down. We were going to name the sectionsng or good advice becaue every essay is more than any topic. I want to start there and in all how we do it is kind of selfish. I want you to have what i always wanted. It gives us modes to close. This is proof that nothing ever is deemed failure. This is something my grandmother used to say so remember anything you did well you only did it well because you tried to do it so if you dont try, you dont get anything. Do you understand that . I want to ask my panelist, camille and tiffany, why do you think it is important for emerging black writers to read essays like the one included in his books . Camille is so pretty. I also want to think asl interpreter appear who is doing so well, keeping up with what we are saying but also keeping up with the way in which we are saying it. Re the importance of language and the pizzazz and this book is so important because growing up conversion islands where im from, we have a rich history and legacy of literature in the region but the Virgin Islands the United States and i didnt grower up learning about korean literature. You should say that. Costs officially the United States beyond Virgin Islands of the United States and highlight our predicaments but in this particular predicament you dont need major from the place youre from, you dont experience cultural realities and a lot of your learning is about the place that owns you so for me i learned a lot, i read incredible editor written predominantly by white americans and british writer so i didnt see black writers or africanamerican fighters, ick didnt have that t my availability so when i became a writer, i would be the first one, thats how ignorant i was. [laughter] what it meant for me was i stumbled forte years and i feel this book would have kept the okyounger me from struggling so much. I had to learn what it meant to uphold thein language and th joke, i didnt learn until late. One of the things that havent to writers of color in particular for also they are not necessarily incorporating marginalized communities, much of looking for guides available in the conversations about those will would figure out how to do it and conversations being interviewed in the questions have everything to do with identity and plot and little to do with craft so when i conduct an interview, i asked specific questions and we have only been talking about the plot and limiting nature understanding myself as a maker of craft of an object particular decisions, it means we must doo something so having access to work on the craft by identifying people and all aspects would have people and john and mary oliver and i remember a reading during the day they came to the campus and people only ask them, one of them had mentioned in the poem and the entire conversation was about that i dont mind but we never talked about their poem which i think happens often to black writers and therefore trying to get answers you dont get them unless you want to play the trumpet. [laughter] so next question is writers who teach others embrace creativity, is certain is that it taught you something you have not before considered reflecting on your own writing practices . Thats an interesting i dont think the answer is something i havent stopped to consider. A genius of our time, black political experience and its nothing new, the idea that we are out there experimenting with language and trying to create a fresh way of seeing what has been there, that part wasnt new grateful for the ways that are articulated and specific necessity of doing this reframing and rethinking as a black writer and talking about the history of marginalization and it is built into the language we are using and the forms used and how as black writers we reimagine and shift and change and empowerment and reclaiming so as to articulate in this essay and to have that captured. Some things about the book, there is clear articulation so it is exciting. This allows us to pull up geniuses in the book, introduce you guys which is important but also i hope it demonstrates those of us on the stage, we each have multiple books, professors, he would think we have it together and we note everything get we are continuing to learn and work hard on our craft especially given your earlier, the content of our work not the making of the work so we continue to make literature more meaningful but im learning in the piece im actively learning, how to write a memoir and it can stay safe and i have been writing this, cerebral and academic and getting personal in the essays that i am rethinking with bravery she writes my father was the first man i have loved and that is the first sentence of my book. It reached the love of his eye focus and told them that is an outline for the book. Letting a memoir to take ownership which means claiming your life and the final reckoning. No secondguessing, this was who i was, this is who i am in the sunny emotions i felt and this is my mother, this is my father, this is me. Writing a memoir means being prepared to uncover and discover all that and shape it into a story about to understand how to love my parents howto much they love me andmu my strength and resilience the ways my life is a reflection of the lives all of us live. This has inspired me to thing about thisns memoir keeping safe and conclude my own and my own body has been less danger and think about the ways my mother was the fourth person to put my body into danger. Her own instability or a person who was in danger as a baby that my mother was a person in safety because she passed me to my grandmother who was a source of devonian love but in particular for me. [applause] is she here . Good. I get embarrassed when i see her because i was a student in the workshop and every time i see her shes like this person among us want to bow down every time i see her, is anybody here in the workshop . I think all of us did. [applause] one of the things about this is naming a foundation for black writers and creating a safe way to honor the legacy award. Coming out and through the generations. Not only forward and a backwd but in the organization know that there is diversity and black voices and they have come out of this organization and has been proud to be part of. This kind of censorship and the state legislature has tried to outlaw it. [applause] how much are you thinking right now . What is thehe value like this o . I would say i am not the type of writer for what happened. In response to this, i want to do this and in 20 years, thats even better but the current political moment and urgency with which i think is important to uphold, the importance of intellectual freedom made me want to write faster get the book out there more urgently. It makes me realize what im doing although it might be private and personal but it is importants for everyone and mas me question about my writing and it makes me want to work on this more quickly and focus on them and my motherhood is very important, my friendships areo important in the role i have in my family and at my university is important but it made me remember how important it is to put pen to paper to get to work so put a fire under me. One thing i find most puzzling and surprising. [laughter] thank you for that. Many of the books are banned because they represent lines certain people dont want to have the world. They dont want to have the power of language and being in a book which gives it kind of authority. Somehow unsurprising this idea these worlds are given the power of language people will be like recruited and made a certain way as opposed to what tends to happen which is recognition. You read thing and you see also, i am also seeing myself there are someone i love her could love in disguise. My essay in how we do it is riding with engagement with awareness, particularly of the senses which is so frequently what is important good writing, as to attention to the world and the world that wants to distract us all the time. Not most of us are paying attention one could not have people stop and really feel how everything is happening to other people and thats a world thats easier to get them to think alike and act alike and etc. World that demands artistic haattention, a wellwritten book demand of us and anti authoritative world and expansive one. For some people, that is incredible but for those of us understand this, its just the facts of how the world works because we are paying attention so to me i think i agree because whenever i see a friend of mines book, go you. [laughter] touched a nerve with somebody which means you are also touching parts and thats whats important. I have to say, camilles essay is ultimately about how to Pay Attention and thank you for it. Im about to ask you toso read some of it if thats okay. Tiffanys essay we often think about form as it relates to poetry, tiffanys essay is on form and it relates to fiction. If you could read a bit of your essay i would appreciate it. This kind of practice is how you process your surroundings which means your daily life and how you go about that life. That is part of the power of heightened perception, you will be able to feel and convey significantly more and must time. Consider how we react in a moment of crisis. People will often Say Something like it felt like it forever. That car crash lasted forever. Really, it could only have been a matter of seconds. When you are in a moment of crisis, you start to Pay Attention to the things around you. Most of our lives will tune out a lot, sounds and for instance, your underarm deodorant is likely sensitive after the initial application out on yourself, the new country detergent, orders that linger in your kitchen even when youre not in the middle of having a meal, looked around the room youre in right now. Paper, ink, wood, plastic, metal, all of these smells your rain has likely tune smells out, we just dont Pay Attention most of the time. That is to be expected, we would be overwhelmed to process every sensory experience around us all the time unless its in it new or surprising manner, ive learned not to Pay Attention that. When youre in a moment of crisis, emergency, you do Pay Attention to a lot more. Hes not here and see things that otherwise tune out. What this means is you mightve taken what seems like 30 minutes worth of material in 30 seconds. You Pay Attention different, more precisely. If can start to practice this, you can begin to Pay Attention, really Pay Attention all the time by training yourself, five minutes worth of data in one minute for instance. Thank you. [applause] , but with 15 but seems like you held about 41515. Youre just not going to say that. [laughter] okay, its okay. Its 4 07 p. M. , tiffany. [laughter] i have it wrong so we are not done at 4 30 p. M. With that i have long . Youre taking my time. Im done in 11 minutes. Okay. Okay, come on. Youre wasting my time now. [laughter]ow im teaching environmental literature creative slight writing class. Im done at 4 18 p. M. Bus that okay, im sorry. I have a thing with time. [laughter] eleven minutes. [laughter] my essay, fiction writers to interrogate farms in the way poets have been trained so one of the most familiar forms of journey and ive been more than one classroom with teacher argued they heroes journey is the only fiction. The heroes journey is in our culture and can be applied to all stories. Writers and teachers have simplified to say all stories where they come, it is the same form as opposing perspective. The idea that there is one form a narrative as a begin attempting to write this form, s its racist and sexist elemens became clear to me that racism and sexism aside savings there is only one form is another way to tell a fiction writer not to worry about other influences or interventions, a way to leave it. Novelists and short story writers, why should we do that . There is one version of the heroes journey. The deals and went back and freedom to live, you can look at the bottom line. Its in one example such sure, this is a useful way to look at the story. This journey has been seen as the hero returns. There is character it is often their typical. The journey is heavily focused on lot which j is why it works r what we think of plot genre like maybe fantasy. All you do is follow these steps, whichever version you want to follow and so many movies uses formula many of us can predict how most blockbuster videos are going to go. This is to say it is very rough, a form to express adventure and risk thatth has defined white masculinity. That goes forth, it conquers and brings the ring, the sword, whatever back home and further examination shows it is a form of white masculinity coming of age. The form has inherent limitations. This is the pleasure of working within and against foreign. What if we push the heroes journey, what happens if we make our hero a woman, what happens if we take her femaleness into consideration . Keep her journey looking the same as with the boys. Does she need a goddess, or does she encounter her own self . What if the hero is not young, does he lose because he does not have the strength and naivete . In my novel i work i work each story through a different form of fiction. I thought first about what the form is meant to deal and if that meeting is subverted when i put my own skill set and occupations to work. What would happen if i put a young black man into this white male structural form of a heros journey. What would they have to say with black males coming of age specifically. The loan black man does not often get to be a hero in our culture. Often they are victimized by Police Brutality and other kinds of antiblack realities. When we are a policy, when we are a team, when we are a collective we are able to get through heroism. It allows me to realize it in my ownan writing. [applause] i think we have tons of questions. Asking rob to come up. I do want to say based on something both of you said in response to one of the questions i asked, writing is a solitary act and so it can get lonely. It is nice to have friends. Its good to have friends. Its gooder to be part of the community so when you come away from your computer screen your deep reading that somebody is there though you have disappeared. You know this if you are a writer. Waits, i live here . [laughter] this is my house, thats not my house that i was just writing about. You will understand what i mean. What is really important about this book where i met camille is that they create for us. I know books do this when i was a kid in shreveport louisiana. Books create for us community. It makes somebody who has been through what we are going through available to us. And it makes available to us somebody is going through something we will never go through. We know what is available to the world. Part of what i really love about this book is that it is a book that gives you a community. I am really happy that i was able to be part of that. Now i will take questions. Thank you. Please come up and ask questions. The point of having u. S. Questions and me doing this is silly. He has talked a lot about working on this. Not about work. Please, go ahead. I. My name is catherine i wanted to ask about how you incorporated it into the book. You talk a lot about fiction. More interested in nonfiction. My writing is more centered around my professional work. Yeah. That is a really great question. This book is actually interested in memoir, other kinds of nonfiction screenplays. Obviously fiction and poetry. Part of the reason im really excited to have tiffany and camille here in particular is that they are writers without boundaries. They are writers without genres. Plays, fiction, poetry. No she is working on a Nonfiction Book now. As you know, camille writes essays. She writes poems. Tiffanyy is also working on editing kinds of things. So, the book does get into nonfiction. For instance, as an essay by Ralph Eubanks in the book that i love so much because it is ultimately an essay about place, and essay about mississippi. It seems a very important place in the black mind. If youve never been to mississippi it somehow seems to be part of your mind escape which im really interested in what black people have in mind and there mindscape. It does not happen to everybody else. O [laughter] and, so, i doomed think the other thing that the essay does is it makes use to a poem. In order to talk about how he goes about making his work. Interestingly enough, from mississippi. She has an essay in the book where she is always talking about that. Much of what the work i was doing in any genre even if i had not written or published, many of the writers in this book are talking to one another without knowing they were talking to one another. Everyone mentioned somebody else in the b book. Good afternoon. I like to say thank you for holding this event. [applause] it is a twopart question. You indicated that your mother was the first person. Did you present for that past experience and how do you personalize that in your right . You spoke about the construction and the craft. How many hours a day do you spend rioting. For you to start writing about what you are thinking about. What is your process . Now you are making me say more. [laughter] i think the way that i am processing this is through my writing. I have often been asked what are mymy themes in my writing. My answer is always been it is around belonging. The anxiety comes from being from the Virgin Islands. Are we americans, caribbean people, or we both . We feel sort of lost and abandoned. I talk about that is the root of my desire. What i been doing all along is actually the root of my mother. Abandoned by her as i was a baby it was really vital elements of my life. I think my whole life i did not experience resentment towards my mother. My grandmother and above also held my mother up with empathy. Assuring safety by allowing myy grandmother to take me. As an adult and someone who is now a mother myself, i can recognize times that i was in danger. The inability to take care of me did put me in danger, too. Part of my work itself has been working through that anxiety. In many ways id always have access because im a baby. The writing has been a way to think back through intellectually and emotionally. My mother was a writer before me. So was my grandmother. The other thingr that both of these women gave me was their love of literature, poetry and fiction. My grandmother was a fiction writer and i am now both. They gave me both of those thingsan. It is an important reality of being a writer, too. Bringing them together. [applause] if i recall your question was ihow long do i write every day. How many days you spent writing . Hours. [laughter] it really depends on what moment in my life you are asking me that question. When i was single and not a mother could been 12 or 15 hours a day. It is her job not to put up with that right now. Sometimes i get 20 minutes a day sometimes that is all i get. Starting in the middle of covid when i thought i would be home. I was going to be able to be home and write a book. And then, no, i guess i am homeschooling a fourth grader. I had 20 minutes a day that i could just be by myself. The extra stuff that i write about that saved me. To sit and to breathe and Pay Attention to what was happening in recording. So that when i finally did have time, i had these records as opposed to being white, i will remember that. I wont. Being so deeply caught up in just the words or the ideas as opposed to having them rooted. Wherever i am in my life, i will find a way to think and move through the world as a writer. Curious as to where it was two minutes a day. I was just so traumatized things were going on. For two minutes, i would write down whatever was write down worthy in the tiny dollar 50 notebook that i kept in my purse that was it. That is all i had. Eventually that adds up. When i do have time, i can create a poem learn essay or something from it. I feel like that idea that writers have hours a day, that also is very racialized. There was a time and then the dues were when the major by various leaving the house with a suit and tie a briefcase. That a statement about the value. In order to have value you should treat it like an office job. The great lucille clifton, when people would ask her why her poems were so short, she said thats how long my children now. [laughter] thank you. Thank you. Next question. I do write every day. The neck first want to thank you for the blessings that you are. Teaching people that they gave you thoughos roles. I want to learn and get as many contacts as i can. Rsthe book proposal is done. As i went on this brief journey into this literary world, you will find it is not diverse. Many may say racist. A 7 billion industry. One book can fundamentally change your life. I did expand to a series, 60 minutes to read for a lifetime of what you need. It will be a whole series of books incorporating hiphop, social media, the workup covering the whole range of wills. I want to know, brothers and sisters, helped plug me in so we can bring this to the public. [applause] [laughter] may be you can Say Something. I would be happy to do that. It is not easy. It took me years to find an agent. I got rejected a number of times i was rejected rejected firstrate up [laughter] i want to say first and foremost the journey that you are on is a journey we have all been on. The rejection is always part of being an artist. I will also say that the way many of us found our agents was direct. Telling you our agent would be very matted us. But what is not so different is by being to someone else who then could see me as a valuable member the taking classes and going to workshops. Apprenticing myself to writers that i admire. Finally writing and apprenticed yourself to these writers and other workshops like that. Can i do a thing real quick with the two minutes that we have . We will start right here. Yes, sir. The question part of your question. I was just wondering how you reach out and how you break through into the industry. That is something ive been trying to do for a long time. How do you demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about crafts while separating it from the content. The reason why ask is because i have since been in this for some time. What i will get is you are aat great writer. Make it mainstream. How can i demonstrate that i am knowledgeable without going completely mainstream. Right here. Hi. I will just do the question part hopefully the contacts will reveal itself to you. How is your experience with undoing as you kind of uncover and recover your own unique black void after having read a bunch, like you mentioned, the colonized writing. How has that been shown up in the way you use your craft. The second part of my question is, what is a source of great stability for you right now . Inspiration is a miss. I want to know what your thoughts are on that as People Struggle to get started. What are your thoughts on that . He was in a talk earlier today. I believe that you have to sit down and do it. Be up for one minute another time. The stability, mine is whatever mine is. Otherwise, you dont have the strength to keep doing what you need to do and make the connections and etg cetera. Finding that stability and trust and believe and home in your community and all of that, that is crucial. I am very sorry that we could not get to these questions. If you ask us those questions there we will definitely answer them. Thank you so much for coming here. I think you may want to go. Thank you. God bless you. More from the 2023 library of Congress National book festival. We are pleased to have joined us here in the book tv set author and historian Doug Brinkley whose most rect
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