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Black History Month Author Roundtable
7.
AOTW: Tell us about a memorable encounter with a reader either on a tour or via email.
Marcus Major: Nothing stands out in particular because I consider all encounters and correspondence with readers a blessing. It still is very humbling for me to think of people enjoying and supporting my writing.
Jenoyne Adams: One of my most touching experiences was in Michigan when a woman who had been staring at me the whole reading with a cold, expressionless face came up to me to have her book signed. She told me that she was afraid to read my book because she was currently going through a divorce. She said that she would read it though, because if I had courage enough to write it, she would have courage enough to face herself. We both cried.
Ray Shannon: Nikki Giovanni appeared at one of my signings in Washington, DC several years ago, and confessed she was a big fan of my work. Encounters with readers don't get much more memorable than that.
Nikki Giovanni: I'm always surprised and pleased that my work has touched so many people and that they are so generous in telling me about it.
Y. Blak Moore: Even though the book isn't out yet, one of the people that I gave an advance copy to called me at four in morning. That person told me that she had been up all night reading the book and that she had to let to let me know that it was an exciting read and that I was crazy. Then she hung up on me.
Benilde Little: I have many. I'm on tour now and seeing some of the same faces turn up in different cities --- one who I met in Kansas City on tour with The Itch came to Ann Arbor and said I was an inspiration to her. I'm awestruck that people turn out --- in good or bad weather --- and plunk down $23 and say my work changed their life. That thrills and humbles me. I received amazingly supportive e-mails daily. You can view them on my website, www.benildelittle.com.
Nalo Hopkinson: Perhaps the first reading I ever gave, before I was even published, was at a black writers' conference in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) called "Griots Speak." I read a futuristic story that was based on the Jamaican legend of Three Finger Jack. The story was written in Trinidadian English and incorporated elements of Afro-Caribbean culture. After the reading, an older black gentleman came up to me and shook my hand. He said that he was from the Bahamas, and that he'd recognized some of the cultural elements I'd used, and he'd identified with the way I used language. He said that I gave him hope that someday his grandchildren would be able to go into bookstores and buy stories from their cultures off the shelves, the way that other people can. I've never forgotten it. It was a precious, precious moment.
Stanice Anderson: Perhaps my most memorable encounter with a reader via email resulted in a telephone call. Patrice Gaines, unbeknownst to me, forwarded stories from my email series, "Food for the Spirit," to mega-agent, Denise Stinson who was Patrice's agent at the time. I found this out only when Denise called me and asked to see more of my work. Within a month, Ms. Stinson became my agent too.
Stephanie Perry Moore: Everyday I am blessed with a new email that makes me smile. One young lady in particular told me that because of my novel she had the courage to remain pure. Another reader read my adult novel and she was living with a man. She was encouraged to move out.
Victor LaValle: One woman, who I met while teaching in Washington, DC, told me that she really appreciated the way I'd portrayed boys in my first book. I showed that boys are brutal, shallow, conniving and hyper-sexual. She had a son who, like all sons, was a pain in the butt sometimes, and she was grateful to know that he wasn't a particularly bad child. He was just as bad as all the rest of us.
Olympia Vernon: I was in New Orleans at a hotel, downtown. And a very popular female author was standing in front of the hotel. She was not my favorite author, but she was an African-American woman. I asked if I could have her autograph. She snapped: No, if you want my autograph, you have to come to the conference and get it! I wasn't hurt. I felt sad for her. I had asked for an autograph from a woman who had inspired many women I'm sure and how they looked at men. But I never looked up to her, even before the asking of the autograph. But I said to myself that I would never treat another person that way. I don't. I speak to everyone and anyone can walk up to me after a reading or signing and speak to me. I am a human being. I do not have the right to be rude to those with hope. Thank God, I wasn't a hopeless woman. Thank God, I had hope. But she didn't know that. She didn't know if I was suicidal or if my parents were abusive, if I was a rape victim, if I was getting out of an abusive relationship. She didn't know any of these things. This is why it is not good to treat those who read your books this way. You don't know what they have gotten from you, what inspiration they have received from you. So you must be delicate to those with hope and remain humble. You are only a human being. You did not create evolution and cannot stick your finger in it and be rude when it disturbs you.
Harriette Cole: With Choosing Truth, I just met a woman on tour in Washington, DC, who shared how reading this book is giving her the courage to begin a journal, something that made her well up with fear because she wasn't sure if she had the capability of looking at her life honestly. This made me feel especially good, because my intention in writing this book is to inspire people to take action to improve their lives. Keeping a journal is an essential component to that evolution.
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