Not even a year after the publication of a new manuscript, Go Set a Watchman, American author Harper Lee has passed away at the age of 89. Lee is perhaps remembered most lovingly for that grade-school book report staple To Kill a Mockingbird.
I want to take this opportunity not to mourn, because authors have the unique ability to live on in their works, but to focus on a moment in Lee’s early life and writing: her friendship with Truman Capote. Continue reading
Today, February 9th, is the birthday of writer and activist Alice Walker. Among her accolades and things you should know her for, is her Pulitzer prize-winning The Color Purple (1983). Much of her work has explored womanhood, the black American experience, and human rights.
Below is a clip from the PBS “American Masters” special “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth.”
Walker has spoken before about art being good for the soul, saying “If art doesn’t make us better, than what on Earth is it good for?” I’m taking her 72nd birthday as an opportunity to reflect on these artistic insights in my own work.
The Wordsy 