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Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood
Center
East Harlem, New York
April 19th,20th,and 21st, 1993
Bastard Out of Carolina,
1992
National Book Award Finalist, Fiction
Ms. Allison met
with a group of single mothers in a "Community
Action Neighbors" group, and high school students
studying for their Graduate Equivalency Degree (GED),
to share her writing life and discuss the fine line
between fiction and nonfiction in her novel, Bastard
out of Carolina. Prior to her first visit, students
read copies of her book, donated by Dutton Books, and
wrote letters to Ms. Allison, describing their reactions
to the text. Many of the women in the "Community
Action Neighbors" group in particular, had never
read a book in its entirety.
With Ms. Allison's guidance, they explored themes of
motherhood in literature and their personal experiences
growing up and raising children in New York City's housing
projects. During a final session, students worked in
pairs on oral history projects which were later presented
to the settlement house community. At a closing reception,
Ms. Allison answered questions about her current writing
project and signed copies of her book.
This year's Settlement House program,
co-sponsored with United Neighborhood Houses, featured
four author residencies in Settlement Houses on Manhattan's
Lower East Side, Harlem and the Bronx. National Book
Award Finalists Dorothy Allison, Jessica Hagedorn, Michael
Harper and Cristina Garcia participated in three to
four day residencies, meeting with single mothers, teens,
high school dropouts, English as a Second Language students
(ESL), and adult readers studying for their High School
Graduate Equivalency degree (GED). All participants
received copies of the visiting author's book in advance
and many produced creative written responses which explored
a range of literary genres, including poetry, memoir,
short fiction, and biography.
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