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Parting the Curtains John F. Blair, Publisher When Maya Angelou writes, she rents a room in a hotel where none of the staff will admit knowing who she is. James Dickey stations typewriters around his house and circulates among them, his various works cross-pollinating one another. Whenever Pat Conroy needs jump-starting, he phones his friend Doug Marlette, hoping to catch him on a mean day: "When Doug is vicious, it's poetry." At times when the words wouldn't come, Alex Haley used to mix cake batter, pop it in the oven, and pull up a chair to watch "that absolutely miraculous process of something being created from raw material." The twenty-three Southern writers perceptively interviewed here by Dannye Romine Powell are as varied in their approaches to writing, their habits, and their opinions as they are in the kinds of art they produce. But though they are as distant in years as Kaye Gibbons and Eudora Welty, and as different in background as Dori Sanders and Walker Percy, each "braves his or her way onto the blank page day after day, trusting the subconscious, believing in the power of language to lift us out of ourselves," as Powell says. Whether their triumphs involve getting inside the skin of a Confederate widow, like Allan Gurganus, or completing some of their best work after suffering personal tragedy, like Reynolds Price, all these writers share the goal stated by William Styron: "To finish a work of literature that fulfills every shred of my talent." Writers featured in Parting the Curtains include:
Reviews “These diverse, engaging interviews, in question-and-answer format, were conducted by Powell, a poet and journalist for the Charlotte Observer from 1976 to 1994. While the 23 subjects encompass such well-known authors as Eudora Welty, Reynolds Price and the late Alex Haley, Powell also includes first-novelist Simmons Jones (Show Me the Way to Go Home) and cartoonist Doug Malette. The writers discuss their work habits (Shelby Foote writes with a fountain pen) and how they keep their creative juices flowing (Gail Godwin credits journal writing). William Styron talks about the severe depression that immobilized him; Pat Conroy describes the abusive childhood that inspired his novel, The Great Santini. Each interview begins with a black-and-white photo and a gracefully written introductory page by Powell.” “Powell presents insightful interviews with a wide spectrum of writers, from Maya Angelou to William Styron, from Reynolds Price to Doug Marlette (the creator of the comic strip Kudzu). The unifying factor in the choices is the Southern background or character of the various authors, but the exciting aspects are the individual delineations of the creative process and the varieties of style, both at work and in their writing, described vividly by each of the subjects. James Dickey's definition of the process of poetry alone is worth the price while the insights into the very souls of these writers is inspiring to would-be authors, and even to those of us who just enjoy learning from the experience of others. Many interviews were originally done 10 or more years ago, but most have been updated within the last year, and the biographical as well as scene-setting materials are current and helpful, even when readers are not familiar with the writings. Each profile is accompanied by one or more photographs. A welcome addition to biography collections as well as fodder for students fascinated with the process of writing.” “This book covers many authors over different periods in their careers. You feel like you are in the room with them. The most outstanding element is the photo of Shelby Foote smiling. To my knowledge no picture of the man with a smile on his face has ever been published. This may seem trivial, but if you are a fan of Shelby Foote, you know he makes a point of not smiling for photographs. This is a good book with great insight into the minds of many Southern writers.”
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