The Journal of the Alabama Writers’ Forum NAME OF ARTICLE 1 FIRST DRAFT VOL. 9, NO. 2 FALL 2002 COPYRIGHT SUZE LANIER FANNIE FLAGG: Welcome Home 2NAME OF ARTICLE? From the Editor FY 02 The Alabama Writer’s Forum BOARD OF DIRECTORS President PETER HUGGINS Auburn Vice-President BETTYE FORBUS Dothan Secretary LINDA HENRY DEAN Auburn First Draft Welcomes Treasurer New Editors Jay Lamar FAIRLEY MCDONALD Montgomery Writers’ Representative We are pleased to announce two new book review editors for the coming AILEEN HENDERSON Brookwood year. Jennifer Horne will be Poetry editor, and Derryn Moten will serve as Ala- Writers’ Representative bama and Southern History editor. Horne’s publications include a chapbook, DARYL BROWN Florence Miss Betty’s School of Dance (bluestocking press, 1997), and poems in Ama- JULIE FRIEDMAN ryllis, Astarte, the Birmingham Poetry Review, Blue Pitcher (poetry prize Fairhope 1992), and Carolina Quarterly, among other journals. An MFA graduate of the STUART FLYNN Birmingham University of Alabama, Horne has taught college English, been an artist in ED GEORGE residence, and served as a journal, magazine, and book editor. She is currently Montgomery pursuing a master’s in community counseling. JOHN HAFNER Mobile Moten is associate professor of Humanities at WILLIAM E. HICKS Alabama State University and holds a Ph.D. and Troy RICK JOURNEY an MA in American Studies from the University Birmingham of Iowa, as well as an MS in Library Science DERRYN MOTEN Montgomery from Catholic University of America. Recent DON NOBLE publications include “When the ‘Past Is Not Tuscaloosa Even the Past’: The Rhetoric of a Southern His- STEVE SEWELL Birmingham torical Marker” (Professing Rhetoric, Lawrence PHILIP SHIRLEY Erlbaum Associates, 2002) as well as “To Live Jackson, Mississippi Derryn Moten and Die in Dixie: Alabama and the Electric LEE TAYLOR Monroeville Chair” (Alabama Heritage, 2001). Moten is a FRANK TOLAND board member of the Southern Humanities Tuskegee Council, the Alabama Prison Project, and the ASCA Liaison Alabama Writers’ Forum. RANDY SHOULTS Montgomery Executive Director Please continue to send books for review to JEANIE THOMPSON Montgomery the Alabama Writers’ Forum, 201 Monroe Street, Montgomery, AL 36130. And please con- First Draft is a quarterly journal for communication among writers and those interested in literature/ Jennifer Horne tact us if you are interested in reviewing books. publishing in Alabama and elsewhere. Contact The Alabama Writers’ Forum, Alabama State Council on the Arts, 201 Monroe Street, Montgomery, Alabama 36130-1800. Phone: 334/242-4076, ext. 233; FAX: 334-240-3269; email: [email protected]. Website: www.writersforum.org. Editor: Jay Lamar Copy Editor: Tess Ware The Alabama Writers’ Forum is generously funded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts, with additional funding Editing and Graphic Design: from the Children’s Trust Fund of Alabama and corporate, institutional, and individual associates. Bob and Faith Nance, Auburn Vol. 9, No. 2NAME OF ARTICLE 3 Alabama Writers’ Forum Greets FALL 2002 New Board Members In This Issue The Alabama Writers’ Forum adds three names to its board for FY 03. Philip Shirley of Jackson, MS, Stuart Flynn of Birmingham, and Julie Fried- man of Point Clear, AL, join continuing board members Peter Huggins, presi- Welcome Home, dent, Bettye Forbus, Linda Henry Dean, Aileen Kilgore Henderson, Daryl Fannie Flagg! 27 Brown, Ed George, John Hafner, William E. Hicks, Rick Journey, Derryn Alabama Center for the Book Moten, Don Noble, Steve Sewell, Lee Taylor, and Frank Toland. We bid fairwell to Kellee Reinhart, Rick Shelton and Denise Trimm. Welcome to the Cassandra King 2 new board members and thank you to those continuing to serve. Write What You Know JULIE FRIEDMAN Julie Friedman is a former member of the Alabama Clear Eyes and Truthful State Council on the Arts, as well as a current member Spirits 5 of the Alabama Committee for the National Museum ASF Young Southern Writers’ Project for Women in the Arts and the Mobile Arts Council. A staunch supporter of community arts, she has served Black Warrior Review 6 on the boards of the Museum of Mobile and the Mo- Alabama’s Literary Mainstay bile Opera Guild and was a member of the Cultural Plan for the City of Mobile steering committee. A How the Black Warrior resident of Fairhope, Friedman graduated magna cum laude from the University of Alabama with a BA in Art History and was a Review Was Won 8 member of Phi Beta Kappa and recipient of the Mary Morgan Art Award. A Reminiscence Alabama Humanities STUART FLYNN Foundation Award Winners 9 Poet Stuart Flynn is the chair of Creative Writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. He has an MFA Opening the Door 10 in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama, a JD degree from the University of Arkansas, and a BA Book Arts and Creative Writing from the University of Central Arkansas. Before join- ing the faculty of the ASFA, Flynn served as associate Red Mountain Reading Series 10 editor of Alabama Heritage magazine, where he man- aged the day-to-day operations as well as wrote and The Writing Life 16 edited articles for the award-winning publication. ASCA Fellowship Winners William March 30 PHILIP A. SHIRLEY, APRP, APR Former associate director of the Alabama Humani- Mobile Literary Giant ties Foundation and director of public information for Birmingham-Southern College, Philip Shirley has AWF New Board Members 1 since 1994 served as president and chief operating of- ficer of Godwin Group in Jackson, Mississippi, re- University of Alabama Press cently named by AdWeek for the sixth year as a “Top Prizes 12 50 Southeast Ad Agency.” Shirley grew up in Ozark and Monroeville. A University of Alabama graduate, Shirley produced a radio program titled “The Poet’s DEPARTMENTS Corner,” which received the Obelisk Award in 1980 for Best Radio Arts Pro- gram. He was on the editorial staff of The Black Warrior Review and was Reviews 18 founder and editor of Baltic Avenue Press and The Baltic Avenue Poetry Jour- Book Briefs 33 nal. Shirley has served on the committee for Writing Today at Birmingham- Southern College and is a published poet whose books include Four Odd Literary News 34 (Baltic Avenue Press, 1977) and Endings (Thunder City Press, 1981). The Back Page 36 24NAME OF ARTICLE? Cassandra King Write What You Know by Bethany A. Giles Write what you know. Some- and national ambitions within the times trite, sometimes as inspiring church. and common as “fasten your “Because of the incredible de- seatbelt” or “you want fries with mands on your time and energy, that?” it turns out to be a good it’s not easy living with another rule of thumb for Dothan-area na- writer. But being with someone tive Cassandra King and her hus- who understands the creative pro- band, Pat Conroy. cess and to have the needed soli- For years, readers have enjoyed tude for that process is Conroy’s novels such as Prince of wonderful,” King confessed. She Tides, The Lords of Discipline, and Pat have separate work and The Great Santini—all works spaces in their house and rarely that feature characters not just share details of their projects, but based on his family and friends King said they do work creatively but actually depicting them, King and happily in similar ways. said. His new novel, My Losing “When I was teaching, I em- Season, due out later this year, is phasized different writing styles no different as it focuses on bas- of students. Some had to bounce ketball teammates from his Cita- things off others, but it depletes del years. my creative energy to bounce In King’s case, her September ideas off someone else. I read of release by Hyperion, The Sunday Wife is set in the reli- another writer couple, Robert Olen Butler and Betsy gious culture of the South—something she experienced Dewberry, who get together and read to each other, but first hand as the wife of a Methodist minister. that’s not our style. Instead it’s a supportive atmosphere Careful not to speak badly of her ex-husband, King to allow the other one to have the space to do what they admits that he was not particularly interested in her cre- need to.” ativity—he may have even been resentful of the time King said her first thought about their simultaneous her writing took from him and her church work. In The writing projects of recent months is “helter-skelter.” “Re- Sunday Wife, a similar—though more extreme—dy- flecting on it, though, it’s very exciting—and I also think namic takes place between the Rev. Ben Lynch and his about how, for lack of a better word, I feel privileged,” wife, Dean. Her childhood in poverty, her quirky per- King said. “Before, between classes and grading papers sonality, and her musical talent are seen as embarrass- and that kind of stuff—well, we have the time now and ing elements to be hidden so they won’t hinder his local we mostly devote our time to our writing, so it is not as WRITEN AMEWHAT OF Y AOURTICLE KNOW 35 helter-skelter as it one is coming for din- might be otherwise.” ner, we purposefully King said writing don’t start writing or The Sunday Wife was we suddenly find we “tremendous fun.” don’t have dinner for “Keep in mind that I them to eat. I can wrote Making Waves write until way after [in Zion] (Black Belt midnight... Press, 1999, to be re- I have days when I released by Hyperion COOKING LIGHT write until I can’t.” in 2003) as my That outpouring master’s thesis,” she created believable per- said of her first pub- sonalities, adventures, lished work.