Television Companies Support cspan2 as a public service. Moderator for today dr. Stephanie w mcdaniels is a longtime friend of the festival having served on the board of directors for many years she is a professor of english and dean of the graduate school at the jackson state university. Dr. Mcdaniels. [applause] its all yours. Of course, i cant sit down yet. I just want to remind yall whenever if you want to ask questions you will need to come to the microphone at the podium right there and no matter how loud your teacher voice is, try not we dont want you to shout itou from your seat, okay, because as we said we are filming this. Now. Great, thank you, thank you guys for coming. [applause] thank you for joining was the autobiography panel and at this time i have the pleasure of introducing our 3 distinguished panelists and their great work. First we have miariam, native of augusta, georgia, University Distinguished professor of english at the university of cay aand founding director of the history of black writing which she establishedh tat university of mississippi in 1983. The history of black writing has led national and international initiativesto to promote resear, teaching and Public Engagement with black literary studies with support from the National Endowment for the humanities, foundations. Professor graham is the author of 12 books that have helped redefine the field especially the cambridge companion and with ward, cambridge history of africanamerican literature, on occasion of 40th anniversary and retirement to writing fulltime, im sorry, Intergenerational Panel of distinguished scholar, january 2023 conference to celebrate accomplishments, ongoing significance and new ventures in archiving programming and Literary Research and its expanding community of digital scholars and practitioners. Graham lives in lawrence, kansas and work at two new books. The book that we are looking at today the house where my soul lives, the life of Margaret Walker and she will be at the book signing tent at 3 00 p. M. Today. I just want to mention the modern language association, there were mud slides and just everything was going on. So people had to really want to be there to be with you, miriam. Next wayne flint. Wayne flint iser southern historian and educator who was hired after teaching for decades at a Burn University where he directed more than 60 graduate programs. He has lectured in china, at queens university, northern ireland, at the universities of new castle, oxford, cambridge in Great Britain and author of 14 books dealing with southern politics, history, white poverty and culture, religion art music and literature. His numerous awards include the patrick award for florida history, the lilian smith for nonfiction, from the southern regionalth council, the Alabama LibraryAssociation Award for nonfiction, 3 times, the franklin prize by the fellowship of southern writers, the F Scott Fitzgerald museum award for excellence in writing, nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 and the alabama governors award for arts. His book is entitled afternoons with harper lee. He will be signing at 3 00 as well. And our third panelists virginia mcgee butler. Shes the daughter of a country pastor. She grew up in north mississippi, usually lost in a book. She married alan butler, pianist, she and her they children accompanied him for 23 years as heil pursued military career. She taught kindergarten in san antonio, texas, second grade in west germany and fort pope, louisiana and Language Arts in louisiana. This last assignment helped l hr figure out just what she wanted to be when she grew up, a writer. [laughter] attracted by thete literature collection and Francis Center for gifted studies at the university of southern mississippi, usm, she retire in 2001. Involvement with usm, the childrensll literature collectn led to t becoming the researcher for the 50th Anniversary Edition of the snowy day where she found a biography that needed to be written was published in 2023. Her writing has appeared in highlights, crickets and other publications. Each of her children has an approved spouse she says and there are ten grandchildren, six boys and four girls. She can also be found hanging out at the childrens literature collection or writing in her blog, reading, writing but not much, like the others she will be signing at 3 00 p. M. So we will open with our first question. So on the published schedule for the 2023 mississippi book festival the Panel Summary designed to join the room and we are glad you did, lives of notable authors whose work resonate with things of resilience, cultural tension and universal human experiences deeply influencing literatures landscape focusing on the latter part of this blurb talk a bit about how authors walker, keith and lee their bodies of work deeply influenced literatures landscape. Deeply influenced literatures landscape. Thank you, hello, everybody. Thank you for being here today. Im happy to be here as well. This morning one of the volunteers of the book festival askedme me how i got to mississippi in the story that i said i came in 1973 and he immediately said, oh, that sounds lake a foundation. And i said, exactly right. Walkers work was foundational in every way and writing biography i discovered just how foundational it was. Intersection between if she knew literature it was like its not sufficient for me to know it, i have to translate it to public spaces, i have to share it more broadly. My role as somebody who has benefited from all this knowledge is to deliver it in different ways and i think she was that transition, that person who needed to have a community who could be as richly as she was. She felt that she had a brilliant education, greek, latin, the whole 9 yards but was poet, novelist. But short of that, she really figured out how to transfer and translate her experiences to a broader public and so this morning when i heard that someone who was searchy driving me here would say that she gave us the foundation, she did it in many different ways in terms of poetry, the title of her first collection for myy people says t all. She was not just writing poetry in modernist tradition which is what she was writing in, she was figuring out in a way to embrace her people and everybody. Which i assume most of you know about. He had been writing for 10 years and has been illustrating for 1 years for other writers. He was really bothered by what he saw what he had to illustrate. The books he got all the children were white. He looked out the window at his studio and said children of various cultures playing outside he knew something was wrong with that. One of the assignments was to illustrate childrens reading books. The bill asserted the entire reading text panorama. There is a one story and it panorama that is of a child of color. All the other stories in their were white kids. The picture in the teachers manual the school and the children come again and that teacher is standing at the door. Of course she is white. Every child coming up that stairway going to the school is white and middleclass. That bothered him. All children should see themselves in books. That year snow in day it was published to percentages children of color would not have been enough in Childrens Book to been statisticallyly significant. 96 theres an article in september 1965 which is a couple years after snowy day cameca out called the allwhite world of Childrens Books. She addresses that in her statistic she said of the three year period from 1962 to 1964 only four fifths of 1 another way thats a. 008, thank you. [laughter] [laughter] soda start over . Okay. Anyway another way to say that. 008 of childrens from 63 publishers told stories of american and negra was the word they use then. Other ethnicities would have been similar and they were not even mentioned. So he started writing his snowyd not find children from other ethnicities and books. There are very, very few here and there. Even those were in sums during a typical fashion not as real children. So this pastor in 2022 the diversities but counsel at the University AvenueMadison Wisconsin one statistics on multicultural Childrens Book all the time said 40 had at least one creator was a person of color, 70 had one critter that was white. 46 had a person of color was a character in the book 39 had a primary character who was of color. In addition tohi that other this have happened this year this years 20222 newberry award and all the honor books for newberry were women of color which is also significant. If you go back and look at your guide for this festival and look at you were at panelists and look at the people whoho were he presenting you will see people who are not allwhite. I can go to my library oak grove on any given day of the week, go into the children section i will see a multitude of enticing Children Books that represent children from many ethnicities. That happens all the time for butthat is the global picture wt happened took it upon himself to write a book about a little boy and decided that little boy could be black he does the same thing in the so that any kid could do in the snow he is representative of all kids but he could be black. Thats the big picture. Individual pictures are just as important and counted one by one when my book came out one of my followers used to sit in my class ive thought about him a lot when he wrote thehe section about sitting in his class in the back corner drawing pictures will that teacher is teaching about english. He knew what she said would occasionally contribute if he had something to say. When i read about that i thought about larry used to sit in the back corner of my class and draw pictures while i was teaching. He was a young black boy when i posted this on my blog he posted right under his comment i want to read it. I wish you could see it as he had punctuated it. But this is what he said. Teach was so formative for me i remember the snowy day as early as kindergarten how his incredible illustrations and parentheses of a black all in caps little boy just like me impacted me. I was determined to live in the snow and eventually did all because of him. Now as an adult and designed and illustrated professor hos work continues to impact me motivate me and my students. Brian is one of the best childrens illustrators today if you ask me, of course i have my own opinion. Gave a speech at the National Society of Childrens Book writers and illustrators produced during the keynote and he began his speech by saying when i was a little boy might mothers taught head start she brought home purple create an snowy day and for the first time i saw myself in a picture book. One of my Favorite Books is hes got a picture of the pet show with all the kids coming the kids are tall, short, thin, faty you can think about. They are all in line for the judge which strangely looks like Andrew Jackson himself. [laughter] the other thing he did besides letting us know all children should be in books. Every child should be able to find somebody int a picture book that looks a little bit like them. The other thing he did was used tos, settings. Writing most of the Childrens Books were in the country, the suburbs, in front of beauty in the city and all the books are set in that environment. You think about somebody is somn the world around the journey of 1000 miles begins with one step. He made a giant step in setting diversity into our childrens literature and in the world of literature onto its head. We are not there yet we have a lot to do but he got it started. Crooks talk about harper lee. Marks first won a Pulitzer Prize or the most important moment in our lives. Took one of the most women i know in my lifetime and hurt the most in terms of aspirations but not in terms of response. After the pulitzer as before the pulitzer trenton away shoot right other books her answer was i didnt have too. [laughter] more particularly about that still sells aea million copies a year after all of these years was the book. The book in australia the question was what was your favorite american book . And i told her that and she said. [inaudible] [laughter] she sing it better than i did. Contest for six months. The contest was a very simple one. What is your Favorite Book . And by a landslide americas Favorite Book was to kill a mockingbird. Most interestingly in 2021 and december of 2021 the book review section had a contest based on their anniversary of public the New York Times book review section the question was very simple. The question was what is your Favorite Book and who ishe your favorite author published in the last 125 years . By a landslide it was to kill a mockingbird. I dont really know what literary critics i pretty much know we think of to kill a mockingbird. Its the worlds most beloved book all of these years after her book was published. Ive found so many profound passages which i cannot wait to market share of my colleagues. I will refer to a favorite passage in each of your books and ask you to expound on that passage. So im quoting here. As my mothersr lemonade tent took the tartness of his own life, added sweetener created an idealized childhood overtly and subtly included people who were important to him and his storyline the stories he wrote sometimes mirrored his memories sometimes adjusted to his own experience to make it a more friendly for those of you have your book thats on page 137 to virginia . Parts of going to start and went with which he adjusted it to make it better. When he was a boy he frequently got disturbed by what was happening at home. One day he got disturbed remember in his reading book its cool you read about a little boy who put on the end of the stick and run away from home so that does he decide how he was going to take of his problem as well. His mothers cleaning the floor so he tells her its going to run away from home. Instead of saying anything about staying at home she said look, you think is not tied right, let me help you tie so she sent him out into the World Running away from home. He spent an afternoon first outside of the boys playing cards and doingrd things 100 ovr to uncle louie at aunt roses house stayed there a while and decided maybe things fracture better at home. So he went back in the dark a little scared as he goes back to get home and starts knocking on themo door and his mother it wil not let him in. They are having a party inside and she will not let him in. He begs and begs families father intercedes and said just give them another chance. Finally they let him back in spends the next few weeks to say yes, maam and no, sir and please and thank you and all those Little Things to make sure he doesnt get gone w again. When he begins to write his book is a little disturbed the new Little Sisters getting all of his furniture peter decides to run away from home. I have been kinda get a glimpse of a picture i know you are too fary away but when he runs away from home he doesnt run very far. He is right outside the window of his house and sets up shop there. Pretty soon his mother instead of keeping him locked out is out the window leaning over saying weve got something really good for lunch would you like to come in . Thats how you fix that family setting as he got a little older he and the boys were out monday. They were roughhousing, running, screaming, doing things boys do. They ran across the garage door which was a holy man but spends a lot of time in prayer. Finally got mad and came storming out of the cellar i was trying to pray you boys go away. He went home as a brother went back and said ill talk to this lady for you. Goes back and talks to him and comes back there was a board like out by the garage door and ezra decided the lady had left it for him to paint on. He really is a nice guy. In his book louie is looking for a stepfather he makes several attempts i dont quite work out and are not very good. Until he gets in trouble and theret is a miss understanding junkman yells at him that junkman looks exactly like he tells about when he was a little boy. The only difference is this book has the same as as her himself. And he finds out the junkman is really a nice guy they just had aa misunderstanding i figures ot the junkman is really a good person. He frequently did that with his own life. It seemed wrong to him as a little boy. Quick some afternoon with harper lee o is how people come analyze friendships. Some friends we know from childhood and never lose touch with. Other best friends from our consciousness but we leave for college, married, moved to a different state, change ideology, or political affiliation. Middle age or even later. We often thought if we had known her earlier in our life we might not have. Its pages 171 if you have the book. I read about folks they know because people are like them. Tim times they write about people they know because they are not like them. We would not have had a friendship but for april 5 in 2005th and all this said this ts incredibly independent woman who for instance almost never took a taxi when she was it new york city because she walked everywhere proved you can imagine her stamina she was also extremely athletic growing up. Her independence away to which she dealt with it new york city the way she protected him when she was growing up by that way she fought boys and pick on him for being a sissy. Her personality is really strong personality but a very private personality. One day when she was telling, i did not like cap she and my wife like cats and did not like a dog she sided with my life on everything and every little argument like that. And so she said we were a cap family. And she said my brother, ed, who unfortunately