Download or read book Kite Flying and Other Irrational Acts written by John Carr and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1999-03-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews with: Doris Betts Fred Chappell Shelby Foote Jesse Hill Ford George Garrett Larry L. King Marion Montgomery Willie Morris Guy Owen Walker Percy Reynolds Price James Whitehead What does it mean to be a Southern writer in the 1970s? What is the nature of today’s South and what prospects does it offer a writer? These twelve interviews with writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction elicit some thoughtful and revealing answers. Because the interviews were taped, there is a spontaneity that brings forth the personality of each writer and provides a text that is interesting and entertaining as well as instructive. In the first interview with Shelby Foote to appear since the early 1950s, the Mississippi novelist discusses his fiction and extensive writing on Civil War history. A thoughtful conversation with Walker Percy ranges over his three novels and reveals their philosophical roots. Marion Montgomery speaks perceptively about his fiction and poetry as ceremonial efforts “to reconcile the private act with the public act.” A two-part interview with Reynolds Price suggests the nature of one novelist’s mind as he chronicles a world beneath the one other people perceive, “that world which seems to impinge upon, to color, to shape, the daily world we inhabit.” Willie Morris tells about growing up in Mississippi, about going home to Yazoo, and about the effect of New York on his Southernness, while Larry L. King speaks of race relations, literature, and Texas and talks frankly about how he and Morris came to resign from Harper’s. The short story is Doris Betts’ forte, and she comments significantly on the form which allows her to “speak briefly on long subjects.” The business of writing is as irrational as kite-flying, observes George Garrett in a candid discussion of the publishing world, his own ups and downs as a writer, and his latest novel, The Death of the Fox. Jesse Hill Ford, talking about his fiction and his writing career, speaks up proudly for the South: “Nest to a bulldozer blade a magnolia is probably the hardest damned thing in the world.” Both the mountain country of North Carolina and the fantastic landscapes of his imagination have influenced Fred Chappell, who remarks on the grotesque in his novels and poetry. Guy Owen tells about his interacting roles as fiction writer, poet, editor, and teacher; his compelling interest in the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina; and his experience with Hollywood. Poetry, the novel, football, and a passion for teaching are the subjects of a provocative and free-wheeling conversation with James Whitehead. “Have you ever stopped to think that for the first time there have been no rational rewards for writing in the way that there were in the past. . . Nowadays, it’s about as rational as saying, ‘What do you do for a living?’ ‘Well, I’m a kite-flyer.’ I mean there’s not a great demand for kite-flyers around. There may be a few who draw a little money. Therefore, today, writing appeals to a different mentality. A Shakespeare today might be doing something else that’s more rational. Now the other thing is that because this is true, fundamentally writing doesn’t matter in the world of commerce. It has a certain kind of—I wouldn’t say purity, but freedom that is never had.”—George Garrett

Download or read book Contemporary Southern Men Fiction Writers written by Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully annotated bibliography lists sources of criticism for thirty-nine Southern male authors, each of whom has published at least one significant book of fiction between 1970 and 1994.

Download or read book Black Professional Women in Recent American Fiction written by Carmen Rose Marshall and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-01-24 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last three decades of the 20th century have marked the triumph of many black professional women against great odds in the workplace. Despite their success, few novels celebrate their accomplishments. Black middle-class professional women want to see themselves realistically portrayed by protagonists who work to achieve significant productivity and visibility in their careers, desire stability in their personal lives, aspire to accrue wealth, and live elegantly though not consumptively. The author contends that most recent American realistic fiction fails to represent black professional women protagonists performing their work effectively in the workplace. Identifying the extent to which contemporary novels satisfy the "readerly desires" of black middle-class women readers, this book investigates why the readership wants the texts, as well as what they prefer in the books they buy. It also examines the technical and cultural factors that contribute to the lack of books with self-empowered black professional female protagonists, and considers The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara and Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan, two novels that function as significant markers in the development of contemporary black women writers' texts.

Download or read book The Fiction of Walker Percy written by John Edward Hardy and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hardy's study is concerned only with Percy's fiction, rather than his life, thought or his essays. He covers all six of Percy's novels from The Moviegoer (1961) to The Thanatos Syndrome (1987), and treats them only as fiction, rather than as philosophical disquisitions or religious treatises. Hardy presents a close reading of each novel, focusing on the internal artistic consistency of the works in regard to their subgenres, adopted conventions, narrative focus, and reader/text interactions. He reveals Percy as a judicious and knowledgeable practitioner in control of his medium. ISBN 0-252-01387-5: $24.95.

Download or read book Willie Morris written by Jack Bales and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-06-14 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Weaks Morris was a writer defined in large measure by his Southern roots. A seventh generation Mississippian, he grew up in Yazoo City frequently reminded of his heritage. Spending his college years at the University of Texas and at Oxford University in England gave Morris a taste of the world and, at the very least, something to write home about. This volume is a comprehensive reference work dealing with Willie Morris' life and works. It is also a literary biography based on hundreds of primary sources such as letters, newspaper articles and interviews. The principal focus is on Morris' literary legacy, which includes works such as North Toward Home, New York Days and My Dog Skip.

Download or read book Texas Literary Outlaws written by Steven L. Davis and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the height of the sixties, a group of Texas writers stood apart from Texas’ conservative establishment. Calling themselves the Mad Dogs, these six writers—Bud Shrake, Larry L. King, Billy Lee Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Dan Jenkins, and Peter Gent—closely observed the effects of the Vietnam War; the Kennedy assassination; the rapid population shift from rural to urban environments; Lyndon Johnson’s rise to national prominence; the Civil Rights Movement; Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys; Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, the new Outlaw music scene; the birth of a Texas film industry; Texas Monthly magazine; the flowering of “Texas Chic”; and Ann Richards’ election as governor. In Texas Literary Outlaws, Steven L. Davis makes extensive use of untapped literary archives to weave a fascinating portrait of writers who came of age during a period of rapid social change. With Davis’s eye for vibrant detail and a broad historical perspective, Texas Literary Outlaws moves easily between H. L. Hunt’s Dallas mansion and the West Texas oil patch, from the New York literary salon of Elaine’s to the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, from Dennis Hopper on a film set in Mexico to Jerry Jeff Walker crashing a party at Princeton University. The Mad Dogs were less interested in Texas’ mythic past than in the world they knew firsthand—a place of fast-growing cities and hard-edged political battles. The Mad Dogs crashed headfirst into the sixties, and their legendary excesses have often overshadowed their literary production. Davis never shies away from criticism in this no-holds-barred account, yet he also shows how the Mad Dogs’ rambunctious personae have deflected a true understanding of their deeper aims. Despite their popular image, the Mad Dogs were deadly serious as they turned their gaze on their home state, and they chronicled Texas culture with daring, wit, and sophistication.

Download or read book Vale of Humility written by George Hovis and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inviting look at the influence of the yeomans small farm on six modern southern writers

Download or read book Encyclopedia of American Humorists written by Steven H. Gale and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 1324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1988, this book contains entries on famous American Humorists. Humor has been present in American literature, from the beginning, and has developed characteristics that reflect the American character, both regional and national. Although American literature was, in the past, treated as inferior to British literature, there has always been a large popular audience for the genre, which this book shows. The figures with entries in this encyclopedia not only amuse in their writing, but also aim to enlighten- setting out to expose the foibles and foolishness of society and the individuals who compose it. It is the manner in which these authors try to accomplish this end that determines whether they appear in the volume. Indeed, the book will demonstrate that the best humor has at its base, a ready understanding of human nature.

Download or read book Larry L King written by Larry L. King and published by TCU Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Larry L. Kings life story.

Download or read book The Family Saga in the South Generations and Destinies written by Robert O. Stephens and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Poetics of Revelation written by Diana Culbertson and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 1989-06 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Experimentation and Versatility written by Casey Clabough and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Experimentation and Versatility considers Chappell's first four novels and his short fiction - the novels chronologically and the short stories thematically - in order to demonstrate the unique range and importance of his fictional prose. Rather than inserting Chappell's fictional variables into a single theoretical formula, Clabough traces and celebrates their various and multifaceted excursions into genres as disparate as Appalachian pastoralism and experimental science fiction. Containing both an interview with Chappell and a previously unpublished short story, Experimentation and Versatility also offers new primary sources on Chappell's work, even as it contextualizes him as one of our most exciting and multi-talented contemporary writers. Investigating the complexities of Chappell's work, Clabough's study offers new ways of considering Chappell, who has been characterized variously as a Appalachian, Southern, and fantasy writer. However, as Clabough demonstrates, he is, in fact, all and none of these things - a writer of immense gifts constantly reinventing himself through his experiments in seemingly disparate genres."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book Authors on Writing written by B. Tomlinson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on some 3,000 published interviews with contemporary authors, Authors on Writing: Metaphors and Intellectual Labor reveals new ways of conceiving of writing as intellectual labor. Authors' metaphorical stories about composing highlight not interior worlds but socially situated cultures of composing and apparatuses of authorship. Through an original method of interpreting metaphorical stories, Tomlinson argues that writing is both an individual activity and a collective practice, a solitary activity that depends upon rich, sustained, and complex social networks, institutions, and beliefs. This new book draws upon interviews with writers including: Seamus Heaney, Roald Dahl, Samuel Beckett, Bret Easton Ellis, John Fowles, Allen Ginsburg, Alice Walker and Gore Vidal.

Download or read book History of Education Debates in the history of education written by Roy Lowe and published by Taylor & Francis US. This book was released on 2000 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major work brings together some of the most significant and influential writing on the history of education during the past thirty years. It illustrates key themes and their relevance for our understanding of the development of schooling.

Download or read book Interviews and Conversations with 20th century Authors Writing in English written by Stan A. Vrana and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

Download or read book The Mississippi Encyclopedia written by Ted Ownby and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2017-05-25 with total page 2548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recipient of the 2018 Special Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and Recipient of a 2018 Heritage Award for Education from the Mississippi Heritage Trust The perfect book for every Mississippian who cares about the state, this is a mammoth collaboration in which thirty subject editors suggested topics, over seven hundred scholars wrote entries, and countless individuals made suggestions. The volume will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about Mississippi and the people who call it home. The book will be especially helpful to students, teachers, and scholars researching, writing about, or otherwise discovering the state, past and present. The volume contains entries on every county, every governor, and numerous musicians, writers, artists, and activists. Each entry provides an authoritative but accessible introduction to the topic discussed. The Mississippi Encyclopedia also features long essays on agriculture, archaeology, the civil rights movement, the Civil War, drama, education, the environment, ethnicity, fiction, folklife, foodways, geography, industry and industrial workers, law, medicine, music, myths and representations, Native Americans, nonfiction, poetry, politics and government, the press, religion, social and economic history, sports, and visual art. It includes solid, clear information in a single volume, offering with clarity and scholarship a breadth of topics unavailable anywhere else. This book also includes many surprises readers can only find by browsing.

Download or read book Catalog of Copyright Entries Third Series written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by Copyright Office, Library of Congress. This book was released on 1974 with total page 1076 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: