Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 109
August 8, 2010
big dig
Later on today at 5pm I'll be a guest on DuEwa Frazier's web radio show, Rhymes, Views & News—feel free to call in!
I didn't sleep well last night; was up late poring over my mother's family tree and corresponding with her first cousin, Carolin, up in Ontario. If you watched Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. you know that family histories aren't always factually accurate. We're trying to compare notes and come up with an exact date—I have 1820 in my head as the year my African...
August 7, 2010
the best
These young women were just the best—I felt so honored to have the chance to speak to them, and then they graciously agreed to be filmed. And FINALLY I found some readers who are on Team Judah! Mary and Kafela are part of the Sister Sol Rites of Passage program—it's an amazing group run by Cidra Sebastien, Associate Director of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol (you go, girl!). They're always hosting great parties and fundraisers, but accept donations as well—do check out all the great work they ...
round two
Which do you prefer? This is a small chapbook that will be given to middle grade students who have taken my poetry workshop…
August 6, 2010
blind ambition
Do you know what you want for your life? I think I'm gaining clarity on that point, though I still wonder sometimes if it's really possible to be all things in all moments. I want to stop changing hats every five minutes! As I wrote in my Book Smugglers post, I want everyone to know that first and foremost, I am a writer. But I don't want to have to subordinate the other aspects of my identity—I am simultaneously a writer/scholar/educator/intellectual. I want to learn how to paint like G...
August 4, 2010
bearing witness
I'm more than halfway through my adult novel, One Eye Open. It's fascinating to look at this manuscript and see the writer I was back then; this is the story I had to write in order to evolve into the writer I am today. I started this novel when I was 21, and I was clearly still a romantic at that point…by the time I went back to the novel in '98 I was five years older, and things were happening in the city that changed my point of view: in 1996, TWA Flight 800 went down, killing a member o...
August 3, 2010
delish
I meant to post these links yesterday, but got caught up in my own "stuff." So today, allow me to direct your attention to these excellent blogs:
August 2, 2010
One Eye Open
I'm feeling kind of random today—as my previous blog post suggests…now I'm back from the park; I did shave, I did exercise, I did have some raspberries. And now I'm getting ready to revise my first novel, One Eye Open. I dropped out of graduate school to write this book—or to finish it, rather. I started it after my first summer in Brooklyn—1993. I started it and then stopped; moved back to BK, started a new writing project with some of the same characters, then went to graduate school...
back on the horse
So we've reached the midway point of summer—I'll forever be on an academic calendar, so for me, summer ends when September begins. Right now, August is wide open so I've got to get busy—the academic job search has drawn to an unsuccessful close so I better try to schedule some workshops, finish a few chapters, or switch gears and try writing a new play. This week I need to get back on the horse—time to start exercising again, which means I need to shave; after mashing my big toe I finally s...
July 31, 2010
my bad attitude
I can remember just about every instance when someone (always white) told me that I had a bad attitude. It happened a lot in high school—when I started a new job, when I ran into a new teacher who didn't know about my reputation for being a straight-A student leader…if I dared to speak up, speak out, or ask a simple question, I was accused of having a bad attitude, which had better be adjusted quickly—or else! In my family, I was designated "the troublemaker," once again because I dared to ...
July 30, 2010
Caribbean children's literature
Welcome back! Today we're learning more about Caribbean children's literature with our guest, Summer Edward. Even though my focus is usually on the problems facing US authors, it's important to remember that publishing communities around the world have their own unique struggles, some of which are directly linked to the legacy of colonialism…
You've done a lot of research on Caribbean children's literature. What makes it distinctive?
I have done some research on Caribbean children's...
