鈥淎ccording to my family鈥檚 oral history, down eight generations, I descend from President Madison and one of his enslaved cooks,鈥 says Bettye Kearse.
The retired pediatrician from Boston, now a 疯客直播 Fe resident, is the author of The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President鈥檚 Black Family (2020, Mariner Books). She is also the organizer of a new literary event 鈥 and fundraiser for Reading Quest 鈥 called 鈥淎 Day with 疯客直播 Fe Authors: Memoir and Mystery,鈥 which takes place Saturday, September 7, at the 疯客直播 Fe Woman鈥檚 Club.
The event will feature eight author-presenters, divided into two groups: memoirists and mystery writers. Kearse, who loves literary events, says most of them have readers and fans listen to authors talk without ever interacting with them 鈥 except for the occasional Q&A 鈥 which left her wanting more.
She envisioned 鈥淎 Day with 疯客直播 Fe Authors鈥 as a radically different space, one where readers, writers, and authors come together, ask questions of each other, and share ideas. To promote this exchange, and to help spark new friendships, Kearse opted to forego the traditional seating arrangement with chairs set in rows and facing the front; instead, participants and presenters will sit together at round tables.
Kearse is donating proceeds from the event to Reading Quest, a local nonprofit that provides reading support to 400 children and youth as well as English-language lessons to local refugee families from Afghanistan.
鈥淚 was looking for an organization that had to do with literacy,鈥 Kearse says. In her former role as pediatrician in inner-city Boston, she not only treated ear infections and the like but also supported patients who experienced reading difficulties in school. She鈥檇 visit schools and talk to reading specialists and encourage her patients and their parents in their efforts. So literacy work is close to her heart.
鈥淚 heard of Reading Quest and thought it was perfect,鈥 she says, adding that Rayna Dineen, the executive director at Reading Quest, not only makes a mean chocolate chip cookie but also inspired Kearse with her dedication to the cause.
The four memoir authors who will speak at 鈥淎 Day with 疯客直播 Fe Authors鈥 include Kim Fowler, Mary Beth Wilkas Janke, Deborah Jackson Taffa [Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo] 鈥 the director of the MFA program in creative writing at Institute of American Indian Art 鈥 and Kearse.
Kearse is her family鈥檚 eighth-generation griotte 鈥 an oral historian whose role is to preserve her family鈥檚 genealogy, oral traditions, and historical events. Her mother was the family鈥檚 seventh griotte, and she bestowed the role upon her daughter in the early 1990s, with the request that Kearse make her family鈥檚 story become part of America鈥檚.
To do so, Kearse first turned to nonfiction, then later to fiction. 鈥淚 joined a very rigorous writing class called Writing for Publication at Radcliffe College in Cambridge [Massachusetts],鈥 she says. 鈥淭here were very talented writers, and they just didn鈥檛 like my fiction. They said that the characters stayed on the page, and that the story didn鈥檛 evoke any emotion, which really shocked me. But clearly, I was not succeeding.鈥
What worked in Kearse鈥檚 attempt at telling her family鈥檚 story via fiction, she realized, was the voice she had used in the introduction to her novel. It was personal, and she was in it, too 鈥 something she didn鈥檛 think she needed to do. But it was exactly what telling her family鈥檚 story required.
Her memoir was published on March 24, 2020, at the height of the pandemic, so Kearse and hundreds of other writers whose books came out that spring were left without a way to share their works. She is now working on a new book and is excited to now be able to share lessons learned and stories of craft with readers and authors at the event.
The four mystery writers who will join their memoirists include Amanda Allen, Kari Bov茅e, Sonja Dewing, and the event鈥檚 keynote speaker, Anne Hillerman.
Hillerman, the daughter of famed detective novelist Tony Hillerman, is a mystery writer in her own right and has published nine novels. She also enjoys discussing the writing life and is the first to admit what she finds most difficult. 鈥淭he hardest part of writing for me is the first draft,鈥 she says. 鈥淪o, when I鈥檓 starting a new book, often the first thing I鈥檒l do is write a letter to myself, kind of giving myself a little pep talk and saying why it is that I want to write this book. What it is I鈥檇 like to accomplish? And what will make this book different from the other books I鈥檝e written?鈥
She is also happy that the event supports literacy. 鈥淚 thought that the idea of getting mystery writers and memoir writers together to help promote such a wonderful cause just made a lot of sense,鈥 she says. The joys that reading has brought her throughout her life are innumerable, she adds, and wants everyone to be able to experience the same.
