It’s a pretty big accomplishment for a first-time author to land on the New York Times bestsellers list, but Isabel Wilkerson definitely deserves it. The Pulitzer-prize winning journalist spent 15 years researching and conducted over 1,200 interviews for The Warmth of Other Suns, an account of the men and women who lived through the Great Migration, when 6 million African-Americans moved to the North.
One of the biggest challenges the author says she faced was time. ” I tried to find the oldest members of this migration and capture a range of experiences,” she explained in the latest Mediabistro feature.
“One of the men I chose, the one from Florida, was keenly aware that he was speaking to unborn generations of people. He took it very seriously. At one point he said, ‘If you don’t hurry up and finish this book, I’m gonna be proofreading from heaven.’ And he was right. He didn’t live to see the book.”
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Full Name: Isabel Wilkerson
Birthplace: Washington D.C.
Website: IsabelWilkerson
Genre: Narrative Nonfiction
Most Recently Published Work: The Warmth of Other Suns
How frequently do you update your site? The website is updated about once a month. I'm hoping to update more often. Facebook is updated several times a week.
Is your site designed for interaction? The site is not currently designed for interaction. That is a top priority in the coming months. Please check back soon.
Can you tell us a little about The Warmth of Other Suns?
The Warmth of Other Suns is a work of narrative nonfiction about one of the biggest underreported stories of the 20th Century: the Great Migration of six million African-Americans from the South to the North and West throughout much of the century. This migration was a defection from a caste system that controlled the lives of everyone in the South until it was finally dismantled after the civil rights era. This migration changed the country North and South and reshaped American culture as we know it.
In "The Warmth of Other Suns," the story of this migration is told through three people who set out for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles along the three main migration streams out of the South. They each left under different circumstances, for different reasons, from different states, during different decades and their lives unfolded in different ways in the New World.
I don't read a lot of nonfiction but I loved The Warmth of Other Suns. When I finally picked it up I couldn't put it down.
How often do you hear similar sentiments from other fans?
Thank you for the kind words about the book being hard to put down. I hear that all the time, and it warms my heart to know that all the work that went into making the stories come alive was worth the effort. Another thing that people say is that they sometimes have to put it down and contemplate what they have just read because parts of the book -- or rather, parts of fairly recent American history -- are so difficult and at times, wrenching.
They also note the funny and ironic parts of the book that come through because each of the protagonists, despite the hardships they faced were keen observers of human behavior and had a great sense of humor. Others have said they were sad as they neared the last pages because they had grown to love the three characters and did not want the story to end
What's the key to writing engaging nonfiction?
I think the key to writing engaging nonfiction is, first, to have a passion for the subject because you will need it to get through all the hard work this entails. Second, finding fully realized protagonists who are dedicated to the truth of their experience, through whom to tell the story, because in nonfiction, you can't make it up!
Finally, telling the story as a narrative -- meaning a character-driven unfolding of things with a beginning, middle and end, rather than a dry recitation of facts based on categories or subject headings. This helps draw the reader in and stay with the story to see how everything turns out
African Americans mass exodus out of the South during Jim Crow changed the landscape of America, yet your debut is the first to focus solely on this movement. Why do you think
Working at a bookstore, whether I liked a book or not, or haven't even read it, I get tried of seeing the same titles on the bestseller list for weeks then months. Years ago I thought Dan Brown's, Da Vinci Code would stay a bestseller forever. Now I feel the same way about Chris Cleave's, Little Bee and Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Cleave and Larsson's novels have been paperback bestsellers for months. Neither is going anywhere anytime soon. Especially Larsson's since the American version of the movie is in the works. Yes, I am hating.
I wish I could hate on a few female authors of color. I would love to get tired on seeing The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow, or Wench by Dolen Perkins - Valdez on the paperback best seller list.
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is currently number 15 on NYT paperback bestseller list. Wench is popular with book clubs and I believe it can break back into the list
It would give me great joy to get tired of seeing The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson on the hardcover bestseller list. The Warmth of Other Suns was choosen one of the 10 best books of 2010 by the NYT. It is also a non fiction finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Honor. The winners will be announced on March 8th.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
I don't read much non fiction. Since I review it even less, I am going to do this a little differently today, linking to reviews and interviews.
When this book came out in September, many customers were looking for it on the day before it was released, because it was featured in the
NYT. Henry Louis Gates interviews Wilkerson. Wilkerson for
The Root and NBA Legend Bill Russell interviewed on
C-Span's Last Word Selected by Publisher's as a
Best Book of 2010 I took the time to include so many links because I absolutely loved The Warmth of Other Suns. It's the story of African American leaving the South during Jim Crow in hopes of better way of life in other parts of the United States. Wikerson tells the story of three people. Ida Mae Brandon Gladney from Chickasaw County, MS. She and her family left in 1937. George Swanson Starling from Wildwood, FL. He left in 1945. Dr. Robert Joseph Pershing Foster from Monroe, LA. He left in 1953.
I love that Wilkerson choose three very different people leaving at various periods during the migration. I found The Warmth of Other Suns to be very engrossing from the very beginning. It was simply very well done, so many levels. Due check out some of the provided links.
In 1994 Wilkerson was the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. The Warmth of Other Suns is her first book.
An excerpt
Ooo I like that the main characters (that seems to weird to say when talking about a non-fiction but it seems the most apt description...) have a sense of humor :) And yes, yes, yes to writing a non-fiction book as a story, with a narrative. It definitely keeps me hooked!
I was going to wait for the paperback version of this book but I simply don't think that's possible...
I have this waiting for me on my Kindle. One of the first books I bought. Can't wait until I can sit and read it.
Ari- The Warmth of Other Suns is very very hard cover worthy. It's so good.
Karen - Enjoy it and once you read it, you'll be very tempted to buy the HC for your collection