Author's Statement

When I got the call about the NEA fellowship, I was stunned. Receiving this vote of confidence in my work at this particular moment, personally and historically, was like a $25,000 kick in the rear. I saw it as evidence of two realities: A.) The NEA still exists, there is still support for the arts in this country, and we, as creative people, have the power and the responsibility to make art/literature/possibility/community/space; and B.) Like arts administrators and educators everywhere, I had been prioritizing everyone’s work but my own, but here was a representative of the NEA on the phone telling me that that my writing matters.

For the past couple of years, I have been working on a manuscript tentatively entitled Descent. The project began when I acquired a copy of the diary of my great-great-grandfather, a white Confederate veteran who fathered twenty children by three of his former slaves, black women who have been silenced by history. It has been about two-thirds done for the last year, and though I chip away at the manuscript, I have struggled to find the sustained time to finish it. With the fellowship, I am planning some modest research trips related to the project and also expect to carve out some expansive time and space to write over the next couple summers, so I can finish this book and perhaps let that kick in the rear propel me toward the next one.