HarpoAce: Welcome everyone to Oprah's Book Club's featured event with the author of "Ellen Foster" and "A Virtuous Woman," Kaye Gibbons! Give her a big round of applause! ;-)
OnlineHost: Author Kaye Gibbons joins us from her home in North Carolina to talk about her two Oprah's Book Club selections, "Ellen Foster" and "A Virtuous Woman. "On December 14, 1997, Hallmark Hall of Fame will present "Ellen Foster," starring Julie Harris, on CBS!
HarpoAce: Welcome, Kaye Gibbons!
Kaye Gibbons: Hello everyone. Thank you for tuning in. I thought the show went fine. I was very nervous, and it's gonna make me lose some more weight. LOL. But, it turned out to be....I would compare to doing the show to anticipating a hypodermic needle, but it didn't hurt at all. They were proud and pleased. They loved what they saw, it was a special time for me, and I hope everyone who has read "Ellen Foster" and "A Virtuous
Woman" will ask anything that's on their mind. This should be fun.
HarpoAce: Our first audience question comes from Kim535,
Question: How old were you when you knew you wanted to become a writer?
Kaye Gibbons: I wanted to be a writer as a child, but I was very practical about it, because I was so poor. I thought I would have to be Jane Austin to make a living at it. I didn't think a southern woman could do this as her job. And, I felt so deeply about writing, I knew I would be obsessed with it and what I look forward to each time. Then, when I was in college, I realized through studying Mark Twain that I was capable of doing art for a living. I was 27 when I wrote "Ellen Foster". It was published about two years later. But after I wrote it, there was nothing else in the world I could be. As FDR said "this is the jolliest job on earth".
HarpoAce: Our next question for author Kaye Gibbons comes from young TRAVELR87,
Question: I am 10, and am wondering how do you become an author, because I always have wanted to be an author and I love books?
Kaye Gibbons: Read. Read everything in sight. Read everything from cereal boxes to Shakespeare. One learns to write a book the way a watchmaker learns to make a watch, by seeing how they are made. I study a book, understand it, and that helps me write. Take real joy in reading.
HarpoAce: Zuri5 has our next question for author of "Ellen Foster," Kaye Gibbons,
Question: Some have criticized the one-sideness of Ellen and Starletta's relationship. We see little of Starletta's emotional or intellectual makeup. How do you respond to that concern?
Kaye Gibbons: Starletta is important in the book because she, a little girl, 10 or 11 years old, represents her race through history, through time. To understand the book is to understand the last page when Ellen says, "I know I came a long way to get here." But, when you look at it, Starletta came even further. But, you look back at 1840 and march through to 1968 and see Starletta equal, free, happy, in school. I didn't have her talk, not intentionally, but when I began the book, the book started as a poem written by Starletta. So, Starletta is the heart of the book. So, I'm a little bit flabbergasted to think people thought of her as minor, because I certainly did not.
HarpoAce: Our next question for Kaye Gibbons is from Jo Anders...
Question: Did you know someone on whom you modeled the title character in "Ellen
Foster?"
Kaye Gibbons: The book is mainly autobiographical. I consider the book more emotionally true than in a concrete way. As a child, I endured the same jeopardy as Ellen. When my parents died, I went to various homes and I did fine a new mama. She was on the Oprah show this afternoon.
HarpoAce: JM497 has our next question,
Question: Kaye, I was just wondering if you intended for Ellen to come across very uneducated (besides her street knowledge) with the use of language you gave to her?
Kaye Gibbons: Right. I will say that Ellen is an avid reader. See the first chapter.
HarpoAce: Swhit4810, you're up!
Question: Hello Kaye. I have just started reading your book, "A Virtuous Woman,"
and am enjoying it thus far. I would like to know, what was the impetus behind
your writing of this story?
Kaye Gibbons: The first impetus was the day my editor said after I wrote "Ellen Foster," and I said, "What do I do now?," and he said, "Go home and write." "Ellen Foster" was so autobiographical, "A Virtuous Woman" was a change. I based it on neighbors. They had a very deep and quiet love and no one could understand it. I also needed someone besides my children to love, and I imagined a partner. Strangely, five years later, I found him in my husband.
HarpoAce: Tortoise5, here's your question for author Kaye Gibbons,
Question: Did you participate in the screen writing for the movie of "Ellen Foster?"
Kaye Gibbons: I know as much about screen writing as snow boarding and that is nothing. I was happy to sell the movie to Hallmark, because I trust them. They promised to make a fine movie. I saw it last week and I thought it was extraordinary. Julie Harris is wonderful. I had the same opinion that Hemmingway had about selling a book to the movies. I did not want to participate in something I could not add anything to. I gave them the book and thought they would have enough to work with. I have my husband and children. That's enough for me, so I didn't do it. Maybe I'll write a book called, "How to be a screenwriter," but not now.
HarpoAce: SERountre, you're up!
Question: What has been your biggest surprise as a writer? What have you discovered about your readers?
Kaye Gibbons: My biggest surprise as a writer was the discovery that what I had to say was worth hearing. I think that when the first person bought the first book, I became another person.... a new person. It gave me tremendous self-esteem and gladness. In fact, I often wonder who bought the first book. What surprises me about readers is their vast intelligence as a group. I think there's a lot of talk about the dumbing down of culture. I see that because of MTV, but in the readers I have accumulated, I see a wonderful and exciting curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.
HarpoAce: CBeautyIn has our next question for Kaye Gibbons!
Question: How do you get a publisher's interest? How did you go about the process
of being published as a woman in the south?
Kaye Gibbons: Well, let me first mention names of woman southern writers who are literary and read in high schools around the world and that list includes: Eudora Welty, Alice Walker, Katherine Anne Porter, Lee Smith, Joe Humphries, Elizabeth Spender and Miss Welty, who is also a southern girl. So if I sound defensive, it's because I am. I don't like the attitude of southern being ignorant. I was lucky in writing. I studied the literature of writing at Chapel Hill and I showed my teacher some pages of Ellen Foster for his advice, and he was an editor. I didn't know. That's how the first book was published. He found a publisher for me. The best way to find a publisher is to get in touch with a writer, someone you may have met. But sometimes if a writer has some time, that can be done. That's a good way. As a matter of fact, at the foot of my bed, I have a book from a friend in Georgia that I'm going to read. Scores of books are read by teachers of writing. Making contact with a writer is the soothing way also to find a publisher. And literary fiction is hot right now. There used to be a fine line. But no longer....I'm so glad that happened.
Question: Who are your influences?
Kaye Gibbons: I can rattle off a list of influences and not feel the need to explain any of them :Gabriel Garcia Marquez, William Faulkner, John Updyke, James Joyce, Thomas Hardy, Eudora Welty, Isaac Singer, William Butlter Yates and Robert Penn Warren..... and finally, Saul Bellow. That list probably does reflect a 60s education and for that I cannot apologize, because that happens to have been when I was trained, when I learned to read serious fiction. Now as for who taught me how to conduct myself as a writer, how to be gracious under pressure, i.e. when some says I didn't "get" your book, I credit Jo Humphries.
Question: It's known that you're a poet as well as a fiction writer. How do you balance the desire to write both?
Kaye Gibbons: I crank out a decent poem about every 2 years. What I do in between is wishful writing. I think poetry requires greater stamina and perseverance and concentration into a few lines that have to stand on their own with no book jacket copy to boost it. A poem says "here I am, take me for what I am". I started writing poetry before fiction. In high school, I started writing poetry because mainly I listened to too much Joni Mitchell. I find that one needs some life experience to write fiction and poetry. The last decent poem I wrote was "The Heart of Ellen Foster," and I never tell where the poem is. Once a book reviewer guessed it, and I felt like sending her $100.
Question: You mentioned that "Ellen Foster" was a poem that turned into the novel. How do you decide what subject matter is to be written about as a poem, and what is to be made into a novel? Could you explain that process some?
Kaye Gibbons: A poem begins with a feeling of spirit and a voice, and a novel is more fun. I always start a novel by hearing a voice saying the first line. It may not end up in a book store, but I do hear the first line and it's as though I write the book to go with that. After I graduated from college, I intended to get a Ph.D. and teach literature, so I'm aware of what makes a novel, and I aim to put those elements in each one. I'm not known as someone who is going to describe a sunset for three pages, because I figure everyone knows what one looks like. I want to hear what people said about the sunset. I'm a very curious person by nature. I want to know why my daughter is walking around with Sunday shoes, but no shirt. I hurt every time I read a bad poem that's been published. I have completely different feelings about the two art forms. My favorite "dead" poet at the moment is Robert Lowell.
HarpoAce: I wish we had more time, but that's our last question for Kaye Gibbons!
Kaye Gibbons: Thank you!!!!
HarpoAce: On behalf of Oprah Online, we want to thank you, Kaye Gibbons, for
joining us tonight!
Kaye Gibbons: Thank you for having me. I've enjoyed it.
HarpoAce: Remember to watch Hallmark's made for TV movie of Kaye Gibbons' heartfelt book, "Ellen Foster" on CBS, December 14, 1997. Thanks again everyone! Have a wonderful evening! Happy reading! :-)
