Interview of Jacqueline Woodson Re Brown Girl Dreaming - WSJ

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blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/11/21/author-jacqueline-woodson-on-memories-verse-and-the-national-book-award/


Author Jacqueline Woodson on Memories, Verse and the National Book Award
By Anna Russell – 11/21/2014


After three years as a National Book Award finalist, Brooklyn-based author Jacqueline Woodson finally won the prestigious literary award Wednesday night for her young adult memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming.

“I’m used to the ceremony, I’m not used to winning,” said Ms. Woodson. “It was kind of mind-blowing and fabulous.”

In verse, “Brown Girl Dreaming” tells the story of Ms. Woodson’s childhood in the 1960s and 1970s. The author grew up between South Carolina and New York, and the book explores her early love for reading and writing, her family life, and her experiences with the Civil Rights movement.

Speakeasy caught up with Ms. Woodson following the announcement. Below, an edited interview.

At the National Book Award finalists’ reading on Tuesday night, you read a passage from your book about not being allowed to listen to any song that included the word “funky.”
Why did you pick that particular passage?

It was about the kind of music I grew up listening to, and the kind I wanted to listen to. I chose to add that to the book because I think it gives more insight into what kind of childhood I had. And also to the different worlds I lived in. So much of the book is about going between the North and South, choosing between many different worlds. Even when it came down to something that people take for granted, like music.

Why did you want to write about your childhood?

What I said at the National Book Awards was that I wanted to understand who my mom was before she was my mom. My mom died suddenly a few years back, and it kind of sent me on this journey of wanting to understand how I got to this place of writing all of these books and winning these awards, and being recognized as ‘A Writer.’ You know, who got me here? How did I get here, given the various circumstances of my life? Once my mom died, I realized the people I loved were quickly becoming ancestors. They were dying, they were getting old, they were losing memory. And with them went these stories. Growing up African American, in a culture that’s steeped in the tradition of telling stories orally, I knew that I had to speak to the people. I had to hear these stories.

What kind of interviews did you do for the book?

I did a lot of interviewing. I went back to South Carolina, I went to Ohio. My aunt is a genealogist; she just has generations and generations of stuff written down. I talked to my dad, I interviewed aunts and uncles and cousins. It was amazing. I don’t know if you have ever done it, but I just encourage every young person, old person, whoever, to get those stories out of the people. Because, I can’t say enough, how once they’re gone, the stories are gone. It was so humbling for me to know—I mean, a part of me always knew this—but to know that this is the history I come from. These are the people who made a way out of no way. And as a result, I am able to be here telling my stories.

“Brown Girl Dreaming” tells the story of your childhood in verse. When did you first start reading poetry?

I was exposed to poetry as a young person. Some of it was poetry I didn’t understand for a long, long time. And my first sort of coming-to-consciousness of poetry was with Langston Hughes’s poem “Well, son, I tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” It was the first time I got the story inside the poetry.

As you were conceiving of this book, were there any memoirs or children’s books you looked to for inspiration?

Nope. I had no idea what this book was going to be, or how it was going to be it. I just knew that I had to get these memories down. So what I did was, I read a lot of poetry, and I wrote down a lot of memories. And I just started looking at the memories as though they were photographs, and trying to use the line breaks and the shape of the memory on the page to get the reader to understand the feel of the story.

Which poets did you read when you were getting ready to write?

I read Marie Howe, I read Cornelius Eady, I read Nick Flynn. I read a lot of Borges. Who else? I read Terrance Hayes. I have a friend, Michael Klein, who is a poet—I read his work. There are so many.

Do you remember the first poem you ever memorized?

“Hold fast to dreams/ For if dreams die/ Life is a broken-winged bird/ That cannot fly.” It’s just that verse and that’s why that’s in the very beginning of the book. I know it like I know my name.