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American Short Fiction’s annual Story Session series attracted its biggest audience yet Wednesday at Huston-Tillotson University’s King-Seabrook Chapel.
The third installment of this literary program, which pairs writers who have a connection to Austin with other nationally renowned writers, featured Tayari Jones and ZZ Packer
Jones, who hails from Atlanta, recently published “Kin,” her first work of historical fiction and the focus of the night’s discussion. Packer, who posed questions to Jones, once resided in Austin and now lives in Nashville. The author of “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” is a writing professor at Vanderbilt University.
American Short Fiction editor Rebecca Markovits said a record number of people turned out to see the two award-winning authors. The 250 or so attendees included Lauren Cerney. She read “Kin” with her book club and jumped at the chance to attend after reading about it in a newsletter from First Light Books, which sold the featured authors’ books at the event.
“It really blew me away,” Cerney said about “Kin”. “I got their newsletter and I saw this and we had just finished the book and I was like, ‘I have to come.’ And it was free — I mean, why not? Just take advantage of these things.”
Cerney enjoyed “Kin’s” sense of place. The book focuses on Jones’ hometown of Atlanta, where one of two main characters relocates to study at the historically Black Spelman College.
But the evening’s central theme was motherhood.
“I was interested in matrilineage,” Jones said on stage. “I really wanted to write about the women who did not plan on raising children, because we really act like women just love to raise children. And I think that women have to act that way, or else you’ll hurt the child’s feelings.”
After an hour’s discussion, the Story Session took questions from the audience, which also included HT and local high school students, who received extra English-class credit for attending.
“When writing this book, because you’ve written about Atlanta many times, did your understanding of the city change?,” asked Cerney, who’s also an Atlanta native.
Jones replied that her parents “made it seem like Atlanta had always been a Black playground.” After brushing shoulders with other major American writers in Brooklyn, Jones said that she realized that returning to her hometown might distinguish her writing from the many books set in New York City. She now teaches English at Atlanta’s Emory University.
At the start of the event, Markovits recognized five winners of the “Insider Prize,” which American Short Fiction awards to incarcerated Texas writers.
Past Story Session events have featured Susan Choi and Deb Olin Unferth, as well as Percival Everett and Roger Reeve. To curate these pairs, Markovits said that she looks for writers who are already friends, making Jones and Packer an obvious pairing. “I’ve been a fan of hers for the longest time,” Packer said of Jones. “No one puts to the page the sound and voice of the Black South” like she does.
Credit: Ellington Tough
A City of Austin grant enables American Short Fiction to host Story Sessions each year. The city “was particularly interested in placing cultural events in different communities from the standard communities where they were happening,” Markovits said. Most literary programming takes place at the University of Texas in West Austin, she explained. Hosting authors at a historically Black university in East Austin expands their impact.
The city’s $80,000 grant for the program covers use of HT’s facility as well as payment for the authors. Markovits, who says she intends to renew the grant, doesn’t yet know which authors will appear next year. The city grant also might allow American Short Fiction to start a potential new “Field Day” event in December to celebrate new authors.
“We’re really excited for the city to support an event that brings somebody so well known in,” Markovits said about Story Sessions. “The idea behind the event is to pair that well known, nationally esteemed writer with local writers for the event. It puts Austin into the national literary conversation, which it should be. Austin is a literary hub.”
Ellington Tough is a senior at Austin’s Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA), where he serves as the editor-in-chief for the LASA Liberator. He is professionally certified in Adobe production and has won multiple awards for his work.
