Display Interview

Conducted by Dan Wickett on 3/31/2005
EMERGING SOUTHERN WOMEN WRITERS AND BLOGGERS DISCUSS …. LABELS



Introduction by Shannon Ravenel

This lively conversation between Gwenda Bond, Quinn Dalton, Carrie Frye and Tayari Jones takes me back.  As a brand new college grad working at my first publishing jobs first in New York and then in Boston, I felt very much like the “house Southerner.” I am sure I was hired at Houghton Mifflin because my name conjured up images of magnolias and mint juleps.  My boss, a formidable Boston Brahmin, a direct descendent of John Hancock, who ran Houghton Mifflin’s trade editorial department, complained that she was picking up my accent and that Boston taxi drivers teased her about it.  But it was clear to me that she loved the disguise.  I was myself teased by taxi drivers as well as by almost everyone else I met in Massachusetts.  I found it didn’t bother me a bit though I sometimes noted a slight condescension…to my inferred lesser intellect, I guessed.

We’re walking labels—age, gender and race-wise, anyway.  Certainly, as an old, female, white editor from the South, I’ve never succeeded in dodging any passing label.  Plus, my generation is stuck with whatever accent we acquired growing up.  Nowadays there is a TV- bred universal American accent that may provide at least temporary camouflage.  But age, gender, color?  One way or the other we have to own up to those.  

They may even prove to be useful.  It’s a big, wide, elusive world of potential readers out there.  Think of the number of new books put out every year to try and attract them.  Book store shelves are designed for fast turnover and it’s a marketing rule that categorizing helps sell them during the brief time they are on display.  I wish I could remember which writer it was who said, “I don’t mind being called a Southern writer as long as I’m called a writer.”

Personally, I think we Southerners are having our cake and eating it, too.  Our writers are incredibly diverse in their writing styles, goals, stances, conceits, passions, personalities.  At the same time, they all belong some place and in some deep way benefit from it.  As Lee Smith said, “the house of Southern fiction is in the process of remodeling.  It needs so many more rooms that we’ve got brand-new wings shooting out from the main house in every direction.”

I don’t think it hurts to keep at least a toothbrush and a change of clothes in that old house.  It’s home and once in a while we need to spend a night there to recharge our creative batteries.  The right readers will respond to that light.

						--Shannon Ravenel


Dan Wickett: 

Welcome to the Emerging Southern Women Writers and Bloggers Discuss…Labels Panel. Would each of you participants like to give a brief introduction? Quinn? [long pause] Maybe we’ll let Tayari go first?

Tayari Jones: 

I’m a novelist, born and raised in Atlanta. My first book, LEAVING ATLANTA, is about growing up in Atlanta during the Child Murders. My new novel is called THE UNTELLING, again set in Atlanta.

Dan Wickett: 

Great, Gwenda?

Gwenda Bond: 

I’m a blogger and writer living in Lexington, Kentucky. I’ve lived in some part of the state for most of my life. I’m concentrating on young adult fiction right now.

Dan Wickett: 

CAAF?

Carrie Frye: 

My name’s Carrie Frye, and I keep the lit blog “Tingle Alley,” out of Asheville, North Carolina. I’m also finishing my first novel, ALEX & BABETTE DO WICCA.

Dan Wickett: 

And Quinn?

Quinn Dalton: 

Sorry, a little slow here. I’m from Clemson, South Carolina, have lived in Ohio for 8 and Greensboro, North Carolina, for 12 years. My new collection, BULLETPROOF GIRL, is set in the North and South.

Dan Wickett: 

Great! As we’re all here to discuss labels, the panel title is loaded with them. Which label do you most identify with of those in our panel title?

Gwenda Bond: 

Women!

Quinn Dalton: 

Woman!

Tayari Jones: 

Woman! That is the one that really isn’t up for debate. There isn’t much of a “depends on what you mean by that” factor. 

Dan Wickett: 

That’s true.

Carrie Frye: 

Although sometimes people want to define “woman writer” certain ways, in that you only write about certain topics.

Dan Wickett: 

In terms of these labels – do you think that being female is the one way that you are always differentiated? That sometimes you’re not separated as an emerging writer, or Southern writer?

Quinn Dalton: 

Yes. It’s the first thing we want to know about another person – gender.

Tayari Jones: 

For me, yes. There are some people who hesitate to describe me as a “black writer” but no one stutters before mentioning gender. Truthfully, I usually get both, “black woman writer.” The Southern thing hardly comes up for me. 

Gwenda Bond: 

Absolutely; and I travel in speculative literature circles too, where there is a huge gender imbalance in most of the magazines and many of the anthologies.

Quinn Dalton: 

Having a male name has made it interesting in the email world…I thought about not including a photo on my book.

Gwenda Bond: 

I know several women writers who have abbreviated their names to initials and had better luck selling.

Dan Wickett: 

Throwing around some of the labels which can be debated then: Southern. Tony Earley wrote in the preface to NEW STORIES FROM THE SOUTH (1999) that he felt there was a specific story that all Southern stories descended from, like Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” He claimed that it has all the familiar Southern sensibilities: caricature, overstated eccentricity, broadly-drawn humor, colorful names, etc. Do you find this is still a general definition of Southern writing?

Gwenda Bond: 

It is still one prominent definition of Southern writing.

Tayari Jones: 

I do think that there is a certain brand of Southern writing that is easily recognizable as such. The kind of work that brings to mind the word, “quirky.” I hate that word: “quirky.” 

Gwenda Bond: 

But, the thing about the South, to me, is that it will claim anyone it can. Live here for a few months and win an award? We will claim you.

Carrie Frye: 

Quirky’s up there with “quaint.”

Tayari Jones: 

Maybe it’s the “Q”…sorry, Quinn!

Quinn Dalton: 

I think it’s pretty tough to say all Southern writing is descended from one source. 

Tayari Jones: 

And how can you say it descended from such a recent source!  I  know a lot of black writers that don’t claim the Southern label.

Carrie Frye: 

Tayari, what black writers are you thinking of? And why do you think that is?

Tayari Jones: 

I think it’s because the term “Southern” kind of connotes racism.

Gwenda Bond: 

In Kentucky, one of our most recognized groups of writers are the “Affrilachian” writers, several black writers who created that term to describe themselves. Frank X Walker, Crystal Wilkinson, to name a couple.

Tayari Jones: 

I know Crystal – Crystal is fantastic! And you see they didn’t call themselves Appalachian, though that is their landscape. I claim the term Southern because the South is my home, too! It’s sort of the same idea.

Dan Wickett: 

One of his (Earley’s) concerns is that many writers today use Welty’s story as a jumping-off point, and grab these caricatures and don’t have anything substantial to say. Do you see much of that being described as Southern?

Gwenda Bond: 

Well, it was a political comment. But I do think it’s claiming their Southern heritage.

Tayari Jones: 

The idea that themes that scream “South” don’t include us. Yes, I think it is…modifying it…to be included. You know what I mean?

Quinn Dalton: 

Maybe Tony’s spent more time thinking about it than I have. But there’s so much range, and truthfully, I’m not interested in where someone’s from…place is important in story in ways other than a function of marketing. I definitely don’t consider myself included in the term.

Carrie Frye: 

Do other people label you that way, Quinn? Do you think it’s helpful as a marketing term?

Dan Wickett: 

The term “Southern”?

Carrie Frye: 

Yeah.

Quinn Dalton: 

No; I haven’t had the kind of notice that leads to labels. I think it’s helpful as a marketing term for other people. I don’t sound like I’m from here, and I wasn’t born here. Disqualified. 

Gwenda Bond: 

I consider myself a Southerner, but not a Southern writer. Nothing I write is what I would claim with a straight face is Southern fiction. But I find myself writing about the South much more on the blog.

Tayari Jones: 

Warner tried to market LEAVING ATLANTA as “Southern,” sending me only to Southern cities…not such a good idea for my book about the Atlanta Child Murders. I think I would have been better received in the urban centers of the country. 

Dan Wickett: 

In terms of marketing, Mark Winegardner wrote a fairly well known essay for the Oxford American, regarding traveling with a true Southern writer (now known to be Tommy Franklin), and his essay is really about the Southern Literary Mafia. In his opinion, once you’re in, you get treated VERY specially by Southern independent bookstores.

Gwenda Bond: 

It exists. There are definitely regional celebrities. I must say that I often feel like the South doesn’t support writers who don’t fit comfortably under the Southern banner but live here as fully as they could – until and unless there is a “ka-ching!” factor.

Quinn Dalton: 

You know what I noticed about Mark’s essay? All men. I don’t think it’s real easy to get in the club otherwise, though not impossible.

Dan Wickett: 

Certainly not impossible – there are women such as Suzanne Hudson, Mary Lee Brown, and others that have been Book-of-the-Month selections at Lemuria and Square Books, too. 

Carrie Frye: 

I wonder about the corralling of the Southern fiction at Southern independents: it’s in its own little section of the bookstore.

Gwenda Bond: 

I wonder about it too, CAAF. I hardly ever dip my toe in that section of the bookstore.  

Tayari Jones: 

I feel very well supported in my hometown, Atlanta. But I get more love in NYC than in Memphis. 

Dan Wickett: 

Do you think that has anything to do with race, Tayari?

Quinn Dalton: 

I feel well supported here, but not as part of the fold of Southern writers.

Dan Wickett: 

Do you think most writers are supported in their hometown areas?

Tayari Jones: 

You know, support is support. Who cares why they are doing it, you know?

Dan Wickett: 

I know that Dean Bakopoulos had a difficult time getting readings set up here in Detroit, but [bookstores] are stocking his book and front-tabling it. 

Gwenda Bond: 

What I’m saying, I suppose, is, that I think that genre writers are less supported by the formal literary communities. At least, that’s the case here in Kentucky. 

Carrie Frye: 

Yeah, I think it hinders as much as it helps. I think people translate “regional fiction in their head to mean “provincial.” 

Dan Wickett: 

Why do you suppose that there is such a label as Southern writing, when there really isn’t another region that has such a well-known label? 

Gwenda Bond: 

There is a school of fiction that I would characterize as “I Remember Mama” and emerging writers doing that have a much easier time in the local/regional scene. They are more immediately respected in many ways.

Tayari Jones: 

Labels are used for any group that is considered inferior: the more labels that are attached to you, the lower you are on the totem pole. I am sure there is a great exception out there, but for the most part, the labels are used to “mark” marginalization. 

Quinn Dalton: 

But Southern Writer is a badge.

Tayari Jones: 

I’m not saying that the labels CAUSE the marginalization. I think the Southern Writer badge is a reclaimed thing. 

Gwenda Bond: 

They are marketing terms, in many ways. Does anyone know if the Southern marketing label works? Does it move more books?

Dan Wickett: 

In certain stores it certainly does. In Lemuria or Square Books or Over the Transom – books by authors like William Gay, Tommy Franklin, Steve Yarbrough – sell nearly in the thousands. In Detroit, I’m lucky to find copies if they’ve been out over a month.

Tayari Jones: 

Ya-Ya Sisterhood?

Gwenda Bond: 

Like any other label, a big part of it has got to be pointing the arrow to the audience that’s looking for this stuff. I always had this mental image of the stuff in the Southern section of the bookstore being for tourists. Or non-Southerners. But perhaps that’s also a wrong impression.

Dan Wickett: 

I’ve not been to a store that had a Southern Writers section, though.

Gwenda Bond: 

Very interesting, Dan.

Carrie Frye: 

Here at Malaprop’s, it’s an immense (and well-stocked) section. But they rope in just about anyone, even writers you wouldn’t think of as “Southern.”

Tayari Jones: 

Is Alice Walker in the Southern Writer section?

Gwenda Bond: 

That’s the case at Joseph Beth here, and our local Barnes & Noble. 

Dan Wickett: 

Again, no Southern section here in Michigan, but if I want to find Alice Walker, or Percival Everett – or you, Tayari – I have to go to an African-American section. 

Tayari Jones: 

Well, I am glad you can find me!

Quinn Dalton: 

Wow, very interesting!

Dan Wickett: 

What do you think about Borders sectioning off books by African-Americans and also by Gays/Lesbians? There are authors I never knew were gay until I stumbled on their books there. 

Tayari Jones: 

I don’t have a problem with those African-American sections. I feel that most people who want to read books by African-American writers are specifically looking for them. 

Gwenda Bond: 

Our biggest bookstore here cross-shelves those sorts of books in Literature and African-American fiction; sometimes also in Southern. 

Quinn Dalton: 

I guess cross-shelving works well if they are going to stock more than one copy of your book.

Carrie Frye: 

I can see pros and cons. Malaprop’s has a huge Gay/Lesbian section, and it’s meant as a service to customers. 

Dan Wickett: 

I think at times it makes it difficult to find certain authors.

Tayari Jones: 

Well, I think only difficult for people who don’t really look for these writers. 

Gwenda Bond: 

Anything that helps the audience find the books. It’d be great if one big bookstore with no categories did, but in practice I doubt it would work. 

Tayari Jones: 

It kills me how people say, I was looking for Toni Morrison and I had to go to the black section!” I always wonder how many years they’ve been shopping and only now realized that the “Literature” section has no diversity.

Dan Wickett: 

Tayari, my example would be Greg Johnson. I never knew he was gay until I couldn’t find his third short story collection. When I tried to special order it, they told me they had it in stock. Had I not been diligent enough, I never would have found his book.

Gwenda Bond: 

I’m lucky – I married a former bookstore guy, so he always knows exactly where to find what I’m looking for. 

Tayari Jones: 

Well I think that when people are looking for a specific book, they go ahead and ask. 

Gwenda Bond: 

I don’t; I wander around like an idiot.

Tayari Jones: 

I think that the sections become more significant for the browsers.

Dan Wickett: 

Don’t you think that limits your sales, though?

Tayari Jones: 

But the thing, for African-American writers, at least, is that most people who are willing to buy a book by a random black author they never heard of are people who like black authors in a specific way.

Dan Wickett: 

What if most customers have that Toni Morrison attitude you mentioned before?

Tayari Jones: 

If my book was just mixed in, this person would never find me.

Dan Wickett: 

They’ll never wander into that section, though…

Tayari Jones: 

If you look at my book on Amazon.com, you’ll see that the people who bought my book also bought books by other black authors…and there are no sections online!

Carrie Frye: 

I’d like to hear more about Tayari and Quinn’s books. Dan, can you lead the way?

Dan Wickett: 

Tayari, your new book, THE UNTELLING; what can you tell us about it?

Tayari Jones: 

THE UNTELLING is another novel set in Atlanta. A family is devastated by a car accident – half of them die. The survivors try and reassemble their lives. The main character has decided that the way to escape family is to make her own family. And when these plans are thwarted, she has no choice but to go back and try and heal the wounds of the past. It is set in Atlanta, and it’s about the changing Atlanta. 

Carrie Frye: 

Atlanta’s a fascinating place.

Dan Wickett: 

I don’t know much about Atlanta, but it seems to be described as a modern urban city – maybe that “changing” you speak of. Do you think this might keep books set in current Atlanta from being lumped into the Southern category? Sort of like Florida often not being considered the South?

Tayari Jones: 

Well, I don’t know. Tom Wolfe is a “Southern writer” for sure. 

Dan Wickett: 

That’s true…

Tayari Jones: 

His book, A MAN IN FULL, was all over the “Southern” scene. I like claiming Southern. I think my very being problematizes it. 

Gwenda Bond: 

I read the first chapter [of THE UNTELLING] online today and adored it, Tayari. Can’t wait to read the whole thing. 

Tayari Jones: 

Oh thank you! That’s nice of you, Gwenda.

Dan Wickett: 

Quinn, you say you don’t consider yourself a “Southern writer.” Is much of BULLETPROOF GIRL set in the South?

Quinn Dalton: 

No. BULLETPROOF GIRL is a collection of eleven stories, written over ten years. All the narrators are women. My book has been called “domestic” – women writing about women. Do they have a “Domestic” section in bookstores?

Dan Wickett: 

Not that I’ve seen.

Carrie Frye: 

What are your settings, Quinn?

Quinn Dalton: 

My stories are set in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida. All the stories are so individual to me.

Tayari Jones: 

It’s a really fantastic collection. It will tear your heart out…in a good way. 

Dan Wickett: 

I’ve read a good number of the stories and agree completely.

Quinn Dalton: 

I was kidding re: “domestic.” Thanks to both of you!

Dan Wickett: 

Gwenda, you mentioned you blog more about the South than you write about it – how is that? 

Gwenda Bond: 

Maybe it’s because I feel guilty that I hardly ever deal with it in my fiction. 

Carrie Frye: 

One way that I think placing a story in the South changes thing for a writer is dialogue. Has any one here had trouble rendering the Southern accent? There’s been a lot of back-and-forth in my writing class about it. Some people take a lot of pride in doing dialect. Other people feel it cheapens the characters, makes them stereotypes. 

Quinn Dalton: 

No – it’s how things are said and timing.

Gwenda Bond: 

You just drop all the g's right? It's so hard to get dialect right; such a gamble.

Carrie Frye: 

Well, and it can get overdone!

Gwenda Bond: 

When it works, it works. When it doesn't, nothing is worse.

Tayari Jones: 

LOL! I don't do phonetic dialect; I go with idiomatic. I feel that idiom IMPLIES accent. For example, “I ain’t going.” The “ain’t” implies that the “g” on the end of “going” will be lost. 

Carrie Frye: 

I agree, Tayari. I think that, a lot of time, if you can get the cadences and word choice right, the accent follows.

Gwenda Bond: 

Definitely. And that can be a more subtle way to get to the same place. I do think the patterns of Southern speech are one of the appeals – so much of what we see/hear is homogenized: with broadcaster accents, for example. Different voices can be nice, whether they are Southern or something else.

Dan Wickett: 

That's interesting. Which side of the debate do you find yourself on, CAAF?

Carrie Frye: 

I have writers I admire who are all across the board. I think you have to have a great ear, and a good sense of how much the reader can bear.

Quinn Dalton: 

Like eyeshadow, my mother said – a little goes a long way.

Carrie Frye: 

Heh.

Dan Wickett: 

Tayari, you mentioned you like claiming Southern, but that your very being problemetizes it.  Can you explain that in more detail?

Tayari Jones: 

Well, It's sort of like this: When I say I am a Southern writer, though I am obviously an urban, African-American woman...it causes a pause in the conversation.  If I talking to white folks or black folks, people often say, “You're not really Southern.” I say that I am, and that this is what the South looks like; this is what it sounds like: My books and my self. I try to bring the conversation around to what the south is TODAY.

Gwenda Bond: 

That is true – people say you're not Southern or "like a Southerner" if you are urban/intelligent/well-traveled/so many things.
 
Dan Wickett: 

So you self-identify as a Southern writer, Tayari. And Quinn, you don’t?

Quinn Dalton: 

I've lived in the South for all but 8 years of my life, but I don't. It doesn’t feel right, though I know it affects my behavior, nodding to people on the street – so why not my writing?

Tayari Jones: 

I identify, but I haven't had any formal declaration ceremony.

Gwenda Bond: 

You mean you haven't gotten your Mafia membership card yet? 

Tayari Jones: 

I didn't pay my dues.

Carrie Frye: 

What's interesting is that if you read a NEW STORIES OF THE SOUTH collection, there are so many styles of writing, and so many different types of authors. 

Dan Wickett: 

That includes a story by Tayari in this year’s collection!

Quinn Dalton: 

Congrats, Tayari – I didn’t know that!

Carrie Frye: 

Her Mafia card should be arriving in the mail shortly. 

Tayari Jones: 

Yes.  It's a story set in a small town in Louisiana. 

Carrie Frye: 

That's excellent, Tayari! 

Gwenda Bond: 

Very nice.

Dan Wickett: 

And a great story at that.

Tayari Jones: 

Thank you. I was pleased to be included. Shannon Ravenel does a good job of trying to find the “new” South in that anthology. 

Carrie Frye: 

I agree – it’s a very inclusive definition. 

Gwenda Bond: 

And the Oxford American (in some of its many permutations!) has done a good job publishing a range of types of fiction, I think.

Dan Wickett: 

The University of Nebraska Press is beginning a new line – Flyover Fiction - stories set in the Midwest.

Quinn Dalton: 

Ooh, I like that.

Gwenda Bond: 

Wonderful, Dan. I hope the audience it's targeting has a sense of humor. 

Tayari Jones: 

I think that "specific" anthologies are a lifeline to writers who are excluded from the mainstream.

Dan Wickett: 

This is actually going to be single-author books.

Gwenda Bond: 

Interesting.

Dan Wickett: 

The first is ORDINARY GENIUS, short stories by Thomas Fox Averill. I know Kellie Wells’ novel SKIN will be the third book next spring.

Quinn Dalton: 

Anthologies are very in now supposedly. There was a New York Observer article about [the trend] recently.

Gwenda Bond: 

I saw that story.

Tayari Jones: 

I think they are inexpensive to produce.

Dan Wickett: 

Anthologies are a long haul for the editors from what I hear - lots of hassle getting stories for the little money they have to spend.

Carrie Frye: 

Well, and "mainstream" can be a pretty narrow definition, if the South doesn't count, and the Midwest is a flyover.

Gwenda Bond: 

Or mind-numbingly huge. Depending upon who is using the term.

Tayari Jones: 

New York is the center of the universe... I thought you knew!

Carrie Frye: 

Yes, and we should all be writing sensitive coming-of-age tales set in SoHo!!!

Dan Wickett: 

One more label, or title, that is in the header of our panel: blogger.

Tayari Jones: 

I blog now!

Dan Wickett:  

Carrie, Gwenda, Tayari - how is “blogger” different from “writer” in your mind?

Gwenda Bond: 

Much easier! And you don't really need an agent.

Carrie Frye: 

Um, one keeps me from accomplishing the other.

Tayari Jones: 

I'm too green to really say.  But I enjoy it.

Dan Wickett: 

Do you think it's easier to decide if you are to have any other labels as a writer? Such as woman, or Southern, or black? When you’re a blogger, that is.

Gwenda Bond: 

Or book blogger? Etcetera?

Tayari Jones: 

Once, again, I'm too green to say.

Carrie Frye: 

On the blogging note, I'll just say one of the reasons I started is that it allowed me to talk about books that weren't just by local authors.

Quinn Dalton: 

I like that balance in your blog, Carrie.

Gwenda Bond: 

I started mine so I wouldn't have to keep up with email. When I realized people I didn't know were also reading it, I broadened the scope some.

Carrie Frye: 

Email ... and the money and the groupies, eh?

Gwenda Bond: 

Well, yeah. And free dog treats. Also, meeting people, like Carrie.

Dan Wickett: 

Was there anything else specific that any of you wanted to bring up in regards to labels? 

Tayari Jones: 

Here is something that I think: I think that labels would be more interesting, and even subversive, if we used them on people who are not normally labeled.

Carrie Frye: 

You are a genius! Like "so and so is a New York City writer." 

Gwenda Bond: 

Labels are infuriating, narrow, terrible, but they can also be useful and interesting, sometimes all at once. That is a GREAT idea.

Tayari Jones: 

Jonathan Franzen, a well-known male writer.

Dan Wickett: 

Hey, didn't that happen with the National Book Award this year?

Gwenda Bond: 

Speaking of which, and labels, how hard did the National Book Award ladies get slammed with that one? “Five women from New York City.”

Gwenda Bond: 

(Great minds, Dan.)

Gwenda Bond: 

A well-known middle-aged white male writer!

Dan Wickett: 

Hey, toss in “reviewer” instead of “writer” and “not” for “well” and you've described the EWN…

Tayari Jones: 

Remember when Colson Whitehead called Updike "An old white male writer" in response to Updike's description of Whitehead?!!

Dan Wickett: 

I thought that was brilliant when Whitehead did that.

Quinn Dalton: 

Really – agree, Dan.

Carrie Frye: 

Doesn't Everett avoid labels, Dan?

Dan Wickett: 

Everett does his absolute best to do so, yes, and he doesn't much like it when you ask him about labels.

Gwenda Bond: 

Christopher (my husband) and I have a running joke. I will pick up whatever science fiction magazines we have and say, “Look, old white man, old white man, one woman, old white man.” When there is more than one story by a woman in an SF magazine, I feel like I should write a letter in praise of the editor.

Tayari Jones: 

But here's the thing: if you avoid the label is it a sort of "passing"? What I mean is this...if someone doesn't "know" that I am black, then does that mean they assumed I was white?

Quinn Dalton: 

Yes, T.

Tayari Jones: 

So, if I avoid the label, does that mean that I am encouraging the idea that I'm not black? So is that okay?

Quinn Dalton: 

They might assume you're black because your characters are for the most part.

Dan Wickett: 

Or does it just mean that you're a writer?

Gwenda Bond: 

Very interesting. And what about for characters in stories? If it's not immediately clear, is there a default assumption who the character probably is, in terms of gender/race/age?

Tayari Jones: 

But does "just a writer" mean white in this culture? Yes, there is a default. You can really tell with sexuality, gay/straight...you know.

Gwenda Bond: 

I know a very good editor who says she automatically assumes a first person narrator that is not identified as female immediately is male.

Quinn Dalton: 

People always assume the author is similar to the character in some way. Often it's true. People default to “white male” if no other indicator is given.

Dan Wickett: 

Madison Smartt Bell wrote the introduction to the reprint of Percival Everett's GOD’S COUNTRY. He mentioned that when he read Everett's earlier CUTTING LISA, he got to the end, saw Everett's picture, and thought, I didn't realize the doctor (in the novel) was black.

Tayari Jones: 

It's like it's supposed to be a compliment when people don't notice that you're black/woman/gay or whatever.

Gwenda Bond: 

But is it?

Dan Wickett: 

I'd have to think. If I were black/woman/gay, it wouldn't be a compliment.

Gwenda Bond: 

That was a rhetorical question.

Quinn Dalton: 

A reader in an agent's office said I'd have an easier time selling a story to the New Yorker with a male narrator.

Carrie Frye: 

But as readers we're more willing to read books by men, about men. Men are less likely to branch out.

Gwenda Bond: 

In Young Adult, they very much tell you that. If you want boys to read it, it better have at least one main male character.

Quinn Dalton: 

Yes, that's a rule, I hear. Otherwise it's for girls...domestic!

Gwenda Bond: 

Kitchen fiction!

Quinn Dalton: 

Right.

Tayari Jones: 

Really, though.  I feel like it's easy to forget why we started writing in the first place.  I didn't start writing to win prizes. I had never heard of the New Yorker when I first tried to write stories. I had an experience recently that really really made me remember why I wanted to be a writer. I was reading at a community college in Atlanta, and a woman about my age stood up.  She was almost in tears. She said that my book, LEAVING ATLANTA, gave her proof that her childhood really happened.

Gwenda Bond: 

That's amazing, Tayari.

Tayari Jones: 

And that is why I wrote it: because there was a truth I wanted to tell.  It's so easy to get side tracked with all this other stuff. And it will kill our writing.

Quinn Dalton: 

Good point – what do we want basically, as a writer? I wanted those pictures, those emotions that someone had put in me with their story – I wanted to do that, too.

Dan Wickett: 

That's what I look for as a reader.

Tayari Jones: 

To write at all is a revolutionary act. The nerve to document your world-view and to actually publish it, that's courage.

Dan Wickett: 

It certainly leaves you wide open. I think we’re all set then, in terms of discussing the various labels. How about if everybody gives a final statement? Carrie?

Carrie: 

Oh, someone else go!

Dan Wickett: 

Gwenda?

Gwenda Bond: 

No fair!

Tayari Jones: 

I think I've already said mine.

Dan Wickett: 

I was saving you for last, Tayari, but I agree, I think. Your final comments were dead on.
 
Tayari Jones: 

Thank you!

Gwenda Bond: 

Well, I think what Tayari said can describe the best parts of blogging, too. And just what she said.

Dan Wickett: 

Quinn - any final words from you?

Quinn Dalton: 

I always thought of writing as a guilty, secret luxury – the idea of being labeled feels strange to me: because it's so public, and so much about other people.

Dan Wickett: 

Thank you all very much, and thanks, of course, to Lauren Cerand for putting this together!

Quinn Dalton: 

Thanks to all of you!