Kathya Alexander On Books And Writing
Kathya Alexander joins me for my latest author interview. She resides in Seattle, Washington.
This interview has been edited lightly.
“Keep A’ Livin’” was released this year. Would you tell me a little bit about it?
“Keep A’ Livin’” is a coming-of-age tale told from the perspective of Mandy and her mother, Belle, in a small rural Arkansas community just outside of Little Rock during the Civil Rights Movement. Mandy dares to dream of a future outside the limitations of the racism and patriarchy that define her existence, while also grappling with grief, ancestral trauma, and a family, community, and society in flux.
It is an in-depth history lesson of the Movement between the Children’s Crusade of 1963 thru the death of Martin Luther King in 1968. Telling the story from the [point of view] POV of this ordinary Negro family makes the Civil Rights Movement up close and personal as they adjust to the extraordinary changes happening all around them every day. History is told thru their family’s stories as well as thru the stories of the local grassroots activists who are often left out of history books.
It speaks to the reality of activism as more than just a handful of speeches given at protests, the costs to those who dedicate themselves to activist work, and the passion that drives them ever onward to a better, more just future.
How long did it take to write? Do you have a writing routine?
In many ways, it felt like I’d been writing this novel all my life, although the first vivid images started coming to me about 25 years ago while I was living on an island outside of Charleston, South Carolina. It actually took me about 20 years to finally figure out the structure, how to tell this epic story using flashbacks instead of making it strictly linear, and how to use a specific time period during the Civil Rights Movement as scaffolding to build the story of this family on.
I used to get up early to write before my sons woke up. But, since I’m not really a morning person, now I usually write really late at night when the world is quiet. I think, tho, that a writer is always writing; no matter what else I’m doing the characters are always playing inside my head, speaking snatches of words to me, coming up with new ways to figure out things I’m struggling with. Sometimes when I’m watching a movie or TV, I get an aha moment that solves a problem in my work. I have learned to write those snatches of story down immediately lest lose them forever.
I’ve also written several plays, and those have to be done on a strict deadline, so I really write every minute I get a chance while I’m working on a script, so it’ll be done in time for the actors to start working on their characters.
How long have you been interested in historical fiction?
I’ve always loved historical fiction starting with the Bible story books I read as a child, being the baby daughter of a Black Baptist pastor. When I started writing “Keep A’ Livin’” I didn’t think I was writing historical fiction because I was writing about a time that happened during my own childhood.
How could it be historical when it was something I lived thru? LOL! I use the stories in “Keep A’ Livin’” to pass down the history of the most successful social justice movement in this country. It is important, especially in the current political climate, to understand and recognize that ordinary Black people changed this country in ways that, at the time, were unimaginable. People all over the world use this as a model of non-violent resistance, often without recognizing where it started.
Why do you write?
I write because I’ve always written. I don’t remember a time in my life when I couldn’t read and write, certainly long before I started school. Writing, for me, has always been a way to make sense of the world, traveling thru it, as I am, clothed in the skin of a Black woman. Growing up in the South as a child of the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement greatly impacted my life and continues to influence my writing.
My memories of that time are deeply personal and are still filled with the sights and sounds of the music, rage, revolution, and redemption of that era. It is my mission, always, to use those memories to leave a legacy that honors the s/heroes living during that amazing time. Most often my plays, on the other hand, explore the beauty and complexity of contemporary African American life.
With all my writing, my goal is always to expose the truth about how living in America affects the lives of Black people and how life in this country is influenced by Black culture. I write to give voice to the untold stories of my community, especially the ones that take fearlessness to talk about. I write to lay bare the injustice African Americans face daily just trying to stay alive in a country founded on principles of racism, sexism, and caste. If I didn’t write about it, my head and my heart would probably explode.
