Foster Dickson is a writer, editor, and teacher who lives in Montgomery, Alabama. Foster’s work has centered on subjects from the American South, the arts & humanities, education, and social justice. His most recent book, Closed Ranks: The Whitehurst Case in Post-Civil Rights Montgomery, about a police-shooting controversy in the mid-1970s, was published by NewSouth Books in November 2018. Foster’s previous book, Children of the Changing South, was published in 2011 and contains memoirs by eighteen writers and historians who grew up in the South during and after the Civil Rights movement. His other published books are biographical works on two often-neglected Southerners, The Life and Poetry of John Beecher (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009) and I Just Make People Up: Ramblings with Clark Walker (NewSouth Books, 2009), and a book of poetry, Kindling Not Yet Split (Court Street Press, 2002). He also acted as general editor for the place-focused curriculum guide Treasuring Alabama’s Black Belt (Alabama Humanities Foundation/Auburn University at Montgomery, 2009).

In the video below, Alina Stefanescu sat down for a pandemic-appropriate chat with Foster Dickson and his works in progress.

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Foster Dickson On Writing, Southern Myths, and New Projects in the Works

Level: Deep South

In March 2020, Foster began a new project called level:deepsouth, which is an online anthology created with the goal of documenting the experiences of Generation X in the Deep South during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s by collecting personal essays and memoirs about our lives back then and since then. The project is now open for submissions. Though any submission that fits the subject matter will be considered, Foster is especially interested in essays or memoirs by writers who were born between 1965 and 1980, and who grew up in the region.

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A writer and his books.

The Whitehurst Case

Foster’s most recent book Closed Ranks: The Whitehurst Case in Post-Civil Rights Montgomery was released in November 2018 and is available in paperback and e-book formats. The release was covered by the Montgomery Advertiser, WSFA, and The Crime Report.If you missed that event or others, the Read Herring bookstore has autographed copies in stock. You can also read the Alabama Writers Forum’s review of the book.

To schedule a signing or book talk, please use the contact form on his About page. While you might think of these as public events that occur in bookstores or on college campuses, Foster will also schedule invitation-only readings and discussions with book clubs, civic organizations, and school groups.

Foster decided to help nurture the local soil by starting a community garden.

Call for Submissions: Modern Southern Folklore

Foster has received one of four Literary Arts Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts for the 2021 year! The fellowship “recognizes artistic excellence as well as professional commitment and maturity. It is intended to contribute to the further development of the literary artist and the advancement of his or her professional career.”

The announcement of this year’s recipients was made in June, and fellowships begin in October 2020. Foster’s project for the fellowship is titled Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern Folklore, which will be an online anthology of creative nonfiction about the prevailing beliefs, myths, and narratives that have driven Southern culture over the last fifty years, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

You can keep up with Foster by liking his author pages on Facebook and Amazon, or by connecting with him on LinkedIn. To view Foster’s complete CV of writing credits and related experience, click here.

An update from longtime publisher, author, and AWC member Joe Taylor—with a reminder that supporting Alabama presses matters more than ever. And buying directly from the Press or ordering it using Bookshop helps support local indie bookstores at well.

Now to pass the mic to Joe …..

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Is Livingston Press having a Summer of Love? Has its director undergone an LSD flashback and reverted to his hippie days? Is California getting ready to drop into the ocean? OR, is there some lurking, dark, deep-state reason that the Press is publishing FOUR works of fiction set in California this fall?

Only you can decide the truth. But it is true, for all four are set in California—and three take place in San Francisco! You decide . . . but don’t tell anyone else the secret you learn. 

Publication for all four comes in November, delayed because of That Of Which We Shall Not Speak. Available through the usual places, but cheapest on our lovely website.

1)      Jon Boilard, Junk City, stories and poems. 222 pages. ISBN 978-1-60489-261-1 $19.95. 

Set in San Francisco, the stories and poems in JUNK CITY are linked by characters and the characters are linked by addiction in one form or another. A hard-drinking mail carrier struggling to find deeper meaning when he comes across a suicide on his route. A seasoned city cop trying to make it to retirement before he ends up viral on YouTube. A teenage runaway selling his body for dope. An aging stripper named Eskimo convinced she can turn over a new leaf by getting her poetry chapbook published (and whose poems link the stories). A cross-dressing accountant running a Ponzi scheme on his clients. And a legend of the local street fighting scene whose life is spiraling out of control in a swirl of brown booze and pain pills. Each character lives in a shadowy down-and-out world, where only occasional slivers of light break through their fog. Not for a faint-hearted reader.

2)      Ken Janjigian, A Cerebral Offer, novel. 336 pages. ISBN 978-1-60489-258-1 $21.95

Harry Gnostopolos is frantically trying to keep his beloved indie theater afloat while his frustrated girlfriend implores him to let it go along with his other neuroses. Harry’s fate suddenly changes with the arrival of an old bohemian friend and an exotic woman who tempt him with a chance to save the theater and his life. All he has to do is join a subversive cabal of thieves, who have planned a heist that will rewrite history. A bang up ending lies in store for the reader. If you’re a Beat poet fan, this novel is a must.

3)      Irving Warner, Student in the Underworld, novel. 250 pages. ISBN 978-1-60489-267-3 $19.95

The setting of Student in the Underworld takes place fifty years ago—in the 1960’s, mostly in San Francisco’s historic Butcher Town. It’s ironic, however, that Student is not about the anti-war/flower child movement; nor is it a work set in academia, although both do appear in the novel’s background. At that time there was far more going on in the city of St. Francis than the media-dominated vision of the Haight-Ashbury/student protest scene. And that much more happens via the framework of the Butcher’s Town Writers’ Guild. The main character, Student, has just left the Vietnam wartime Navy as an officer to find he must deal with anachronistic characters steeped in political causes thirty years gone—from the Great Depression and Wobblie days. But he too must fight his own anachronistic dreamscape of pre-fab homes, starched blouses, and—above all—name-brand normalcy. Student takes a bumpy ride through all this as he comes to terms with modern femininity in the persons of three women. A whimsical tone intermixes with poignancy to carry the reader along Student’s journey.

4)      Al Kline, Journey through a Land of Minor Annoyances, How I came to Embrace Being an Insignificant Speck of Dust on a Meaningless Trip through an Apathetic Universe trade paper ISBN 978-1-60489-264-2 $21.95

Even though the “Journey” is a spiritual one toward death, this is the lightest of the four books. A talking dog, loads of movie and pop tune trivia, ghosts. Whoopee! —After being diagnosed with a cerebral cancer and given three months to live, 20-year-old misfit CHAZ CHASE decides a road trip will help him find the meaning of life—and maybe apologize to certain people for being a jerk along the way. He adopts a dog as a traveling companion, but questions his sanity when MAX suddenly talks, claiming to be the canine reincarnation of a famous Hollywood director. Chaz meets many folk along his journey, some bordering on hallucinogenic in the actions they perform, the wisdom they proclaim. And then comes CLITTY, a pistol-packing femme fatale dreaming of Hollywood stardom. In the most important piece of the meaning-of-life puzzle, Chaz falls in love. Together he and Clitty drive to Salton Sea where Max directs the final scene of Chaz's brief but quirky life. 

There you have it. Livingston’s Summer—er, Fall of Love!

Alina Stefanescu talks to Birmingham author Monique L. Jones about her new book, her web magazine, amazing Black Americans, and promoting a nonfiction book during a time of pandemic.

Author Monique L. Jones.

Because I got to hear you read and share at the book launch The Book of Awesome Black Americans, I'd love to start by asking you to tell us a little bit about your book--which is beloved in my house--and how it came about. I remember being surprised and inspired by the story since, in my mind, we write a book and then struggle to find a publisher. 

MONIQUE JONES: The book literally came about because of my website, colorwebmag.com. Yaddyra Peralta, my editor at Mango Publishing, is a fan of my writing, and she thought of me for this book, which is the second in Mango’s “The Book of Awesome” series. After the editorial team decided between me and another writer in the running, I was officially given the opportunity to write the book. 

I’d always wanted to write a book, but I never knew when that opportunity would come. On the practical, non-spiritual side of things, this goes to show how important putting your best work out there is, as well as making lasting connections, because you never know when an opportunity will strike. But I also count this as a spiritual lesson for me--God had placed the will to write a book on my heart because He knew I could do it, and sought to give me that opportunity specifically at a low point in my life. I’d been--and still am, frankly--dealing with depression and anxiety after a terrible situation at a former job, and I was doubting my abilities, my mind, and even my purpose for living. It was during this dark night of the soul that I was given the responsibility to write this book and use it as an opportunity to give back to future generations so they can be better than the generations that have come before them. That responsibility is something I’ve always wanted to take on, and it’s fascinating to me that the opportunity to put my mission into practice came when I was doubting if I was the right vessel for such a task. It’s a lesson that I’m still learning from and accepting today, even as I write this response. 

This story means so much--it testifies to many things, including the value of having a blog or creating a web magazine that makes space for the writing you want to do in the world. I don't think we can ever imagine who is reading us, or how that will create opportunities, as you said. How did Color Web Mag come about? And how do you decide what to feature? What are your favorite topics? 

Just Add Color’s original iteration, Moniqueblog, started between my sophomore and junior years of college, after my mom said she thought I’d be good at writing about entertainment because of my love for movies and television. I was already the editor-in-chief of UAB’s paper, the Kaleidoscope, so I worked on my blog in between my time at the Kaleidoscope. 

At first my site was generic, more in line with general entertainment news, but it was after a negative comment on a post I made about the then-upcoming live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a Nickelodeon animated series focusing on Asian and Indigenous characters, that I began to think about how race and culture are reflected in entertainment. Even though the animated characters were non-white, most of the actors chosen from the roles were white. 

The negative comment focused on how I had initially excused away some of the bad casting decisions as “people being right for the job,” when in actuality, the casting decisions reflected how racially and culturally biased Hollywood can be, even with an Indian-American, M. Night Shyamalan, as the director. Internally, as I was writing the post, I didn’t agree with the casting choices either, but the comment made me realize how I’d still internalized the harmful thought of non-POC actors somehow being “better” for the role based on “talent” rather than recognizing the racist systems in place that keep POC actors from even being considered for POC roles. It was then that I decided to turn my site into a place for my own self-discovery as well as an avenue where readers can learn along with me. I’ve always used entertainment to learn more about myself as well as the world around me, so the comment presented a challenge to me to bring that personal habit to my website. I’ve kept that challenge alive with Just Add Color as well, applying all of the knowledge I’ve gained to give my commentary on Hollywood and how it intersects with our societal ideas about race and culture. 

One of my favorite parts of my old site was when I wrote a series of articles on Hadji from Jonny Quest and its ‘90s sequel series, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. Through that series, I hoped to teach viewers more about India through Hadji’s character, including learning more about his home country, Bangalore, Sabu--the ‘40s actor who inspired Hadji’s creation, and I even conducted an interview with Hadji’s voice actor, Michael Benyaer, about what the character meant to him as a brown actor in Hollywood. I also loved writing about the series Sleepy Hollow, which pressented audiences with a masterclass of how networks can interfere with a show’s dynamic--in this case, a set-up for an interracial couple on television--and ruin it by being too afraid to portray how love can occur between anyone, regardless of race. 

For my current site, Just Add Color, I’ve loved writing about BTS, the K-pop boy band who has taken the world by storm. I’ve written about a lot of their ups and downs (one of the articles was cross-posted to Asian-American cultural site Reappropriate), but in particular, I’ve written about how they are redefining the K-pop industry, an industry that has routinely appropriated Black American culture without paying proper homage, by actually giving back to African-American fans and the culture, most recently through their $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter. I also have a popular Queer Coded and Color Coded series in which I analyze how some characters in TV or movies are coded in a way for us to recognize difference (usually in a negative way, unfortunately). My brother Julian also writes film reviews for my site as well, and it has been great to be able to give him his first job and foster his writing voice. 

The way Just Add Color has expanded to cover more aspects of the entertainment industry--the way it identified and embraces this challenge rather than shirking it--is incredible. I've heard you mention before that you prefer writing to speaking--that writing is where you feel more comfortable--and your writing output is a prodigious testament to that. It's like you think with the reader as you write, and bring that level of engagement to your words. On that note, you've experienced having your first book launch as this pandemic began to spread. How are you juggling the demands of publicizing your book with the constraints imposed by physical distancing? And what advice do you have for writers who feel uncomfortable with in-person interviews?

I hope I have been juggling the demands of book promotion, especially during the pandemic, well. I always feel there’s more I can do with anything because I’m a perfectionist and have been taught since an early age to try to do everything to my best ability. I’m also someone who has had to become more comfortable with self-promotion despite the fact that I have to self-promote my site on social media. The book, I feel, has required me to up my game of self-promotion, so that has been a challenge. But I have done well, overall, since one of the people I featured in my book, model Leyna Bloom, actually promoted the book to her followers on Twitter and Instagram. So hopefully, along with my own efforts, I can get more subjects from my book to get the word out.

My advice for writers who don’t particularly feel comfortable with in-person interviews is to remember that the interviewer is just a person with flaws, just like anyone else. I’ve learned this as an interviewer myself. 

For my profession as an entertainment writer, I’ve interviewed hundreds of TV and film actors, producers, directors and social media creators over my near-decade in the industry. Before that, I was interviewing students, professors and others at UAB for the Kaleidoscope. At the very start of my journalism career, I was very nervous; I wasn’t someone who was used to public speaking, much less interviewing someone one-on-one. Sometimes, I’d have to push myself out of the car to go complete my interview assignment for the week. But the repetition of doing those interviews helped me gain a quiet confidence and a thicker skin when it comes to managing my social anxiety. Even though I still get nervous before interviews, the nervousness usually lasts for a couple of minutes before a call instead of a week in advance because I know the person on the other end of the call, regardless of their status in society, is just another person who has a full life with ups and downs like me. 

Secondly, it’s important to remember that you, as the person being interviewed, actually hold the power in the interview. It might seem like the interviewer is the one who is calling all of the shots since we are the ones with all of the questions. But we are like any other journalist, looking to the people with the answers and opinions to help us with our story. We are, in fact, trying to elevate other people’s stories and help create better understanding for readers. So if you’re being interviewed, remember that the interviewer is looking to you to showcase your expertise; interviewers are just there to document it. 

You might find that you’re actually a natural at being interviewed. Even though I have anxiety issues, I do recognize that I do have a knack for speaking, particularly when it comes to capturing people’s attention (and hopefully inspiring them). I think some of my success comes from just being myself. That’s the third piece of advice I’d give. Being yourself goes a lot farther in life than trying to be someone you’re not. This is advice I have to constantly give myself in other areas of my life, because I realize that part of my anxiety comes from the false belief of thinking I’m not enough. But if you are yourself, you are at your most authentic, and people can connect to folks who are authentic and real. 

Monique with her sister, Alabama poet Ashley M. Jones at Thank-You Books in Birmingham.

“We are, in fact, trying to elevate other people’s stories and help create better understanding for readers. So if you’re being interviewed, remember that the interviewer is looking to you to showcase your expertise; interviewers are just there to document it. ”

— Monique Jones

From Black American Environmentalists to little-known Civil Rights leaders, your book covers so many important historical and contemporary persons. If you had to pick to Black Americans from your book that inspired you and that you wish people knew more about, who would they be and why?

I’d pick Ron Finley, a master of urban and guerilla gardening. He reminds me a lot of my dad in the sense that both are passionate about putting something good back into the earth. I’ve written in another post, before I was even approached about writing a book, about how my dad’s gardening is inspiring because of how it shows how the simple garden can give so much back to families, nature and the world. My dad can take almost any piece of our back and front yards and make something spectacular. For instance, a part of my parents’ backyard used to support a large child’s wooden fort, built by the home’s former owners. My dad tore down the fort and used the wood as a frame for a large garden. He recreated some other dead space near the new garden into a flower garden, complete with large sunflowers. That’s just two of the gardens in my parents’ backyard. 

Finley gives me the same feeling with how he is able to reclaim dead spots of grass near a neighborhood curb and use it as a small vegetable garden. In turn, those multiple dead spaces he’s able to reclaim can produce food for low-income families, beautify neighborhoods left behind or seen as “unworthy,” and inspire others, especially younger people, to take care of nature. His work also teaches that nothing is ever without value, a lesson that goes beyond just thinking about the environment. Everyone and everything has the ability to contribute something meaningful to life, if they are nurtured and given a chance. Finley gives that chance to his community, and we should take that lesson and implant it in our own communities (and in ourselves) as well. 

Another Black American I had to include was Tamron Hall. I would watch her on MSNBC nearly every day, and I’ve been a fan of her new talk show. Her commitment to journalistic excellence and integrity is something I really admire, and I hope I am imbuing those qualities in my own work. I hope that one day, I can put my book in her hands to tell her how much her work has meant to my career and how I have looked up to her as a beacon for Black female journalists like myself. 

Apart from Just Add Color, are you working on any other projects right now? If you could publish your dream book--the book that you got to fill in any way you wanted--what would it be about and why? 

I’m always working on my site and I’m trying to keep a promise to myself to get back into writing screenplays, something I used to do in college. A dream goal is to have a screenplay of mine optioned for a film or television series. I’m also working on rebuilding my drawing and painting hobbies; I’ve drawn ever since I was 5 years old and I went to the Alabama School of Fine Arts for visual art. But demands for work and adulthood have gotten me out of my long-standing drawing habit. So I’m working on re-aligning myself with my former passions that helped me understand myself in the world. 

My dream book--something I’m going to eventually make happen, I hope--is a YA book series about Black nouveau riche in 18th century England. I love watching period dramas and I love 18th century fashion history among other fashion periods--a book I’d recommend for anyone who loves that period is Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber. I also love the idea of exploring what Black people were doing at this time, because not everyone was a slave, servant, or even poor. One person I will look to when writing this book is the life of Mary Fillis, a 16th century Black Spanish woman who was a servant in England before working her way up to becoming a highly sought-after dressmaker. The BBC has many more clips about under-reported Black history (as well as this Facebook video that links most of the clips in one quick post).

I also have a screenplay idea I’ve been working on regarding POC vampires and other cryptids living in the height of the disco era. Again, fashion--this time, late ‘70s fashion--is a big draw, as well as the music of that time and my own love for vampiric lore. I hope the story will be a creative way for me to merge my love of music, fashion and my spooky side. 

I love this screenplay idea—and your “spooky side"“—and I'm hoping we get to see it sooner rather than later. Thank you for this insightful and incredible conversation. And now, because we are Alabama writers, I have to ask the critical final question, namely, your two favorite places in Birmingham (or Alabama) and your favorite local place to eat. 

My first favorite Birmingham spot is the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Growing up, it’s a place my family would frequently go to on the weekends and now that I live right across from it, it’s a place I go to for exercise and communing with myself and nature. Also, since I work from home, it’s one of the few places I can walk to in order to interact with others and feel like a part of society. 

My other favorite place is Railroad Park. Walking is my preferred form or exercise, so if I’m not at the Botanical Gardens, I like going to Railroad Park to get some sun, walk with family and watch others taking in the scenery. Railroad Park is one of the best things to come to Birmingham in a long time. 

My favorite local place to eat is Taj India. Even though I’m not part of the culture, I always feel at home inside Taj India, and the food always makes me feel like I’m eating a mother’s home-cooked meal. Taj India is definitely a comfort food place for me.  

Thank you so much for the time and insight you offer in this interview. As for readers, don’t miss out on the latest from Just Add Color, and make sure to get a copy of The Book of Awesome Black Americans to share with friends, family, Little Free Libraries, and anyone you love.

Monique Jones is an entertainment and pop culture writer, media critic, and TV/Film reviewer. Jones has graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Communications Studies from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and has written for ShockYa, TV Equals, Racialicious, Black Girl Nerds, The Nerds of Color, Tor, Ebony, Entertainment Weekly, SlashFilm, The Birmingham Times and The Miami New Times. She also writes about pop culture and media as it relates to race, culture, and representation at JUST ADD COLOR (colorwebmag.com).

AWC: When did you start writing?

I was fascinated with literature from the moment it started spilling from my MeeMaw’s lips. She started reading to me when I was a baby and I still can’t get enough. She read to me so much that I memorized my favorite books. By age 2, I would sit with a book, recite the words from memory. Flip the page—repeat—flip the page—repeat. People thought I was a crazy prodigy who could read at 2 years old, but no, I had it all memorized.

I was so hooked that I started writing my own short stories in 1st grade. One was about a horse, and one was about a blue wedding dress. This was the ‘90s, before such things were popular. At 7, I thought it was incredibly hilarious to write about a literally blue wedding dress who was blue (sad) that she was different than everyone else.

I started writing poetry at 15. The angst of young passions left me confused, and swimming with hormones, and desperately trying to make sense of everything happening internally and externally. Poetry came pouring out. I did very little except pick up the pen. I quickly progressed to reading Langston Hughes and writing my own poetry responses. 

My poetry tends to be an outlet for my passions: relationships, social injustice, idealism. It wells up and spills out whenever it wishes.

AWC: What are you working on now and why?

I’m writing prose poetry and sestina right now. I’ve been concentrating on themes of loss because MeeMaw was just diagnosed with lung cancer and the only thing that makes sense is to write, and cry, and write some more. 

It’s interesting how often that’s happened—I think intense emotions tend to spill out into writing and the next thing you know, the computer screen is a complete blur and you’re doing everything you can to see the words as you type them. I remember writing my thesis for my English Master’s at the University of South Alabama. Since I was concentrating in Creative Writing, I  wrote a memoir with poetry at the beginning of each chapter and analysis at the end of each chapter. It’s collage style, with the central story focusing on my trip through Europe at age 16, and thematically related flashbacks throughout.

I began writing about Austria and how I bought my mom a souvenir with an Edelweiss because she loved that song in The Sound of Music. I thought that was the gist of it, until I found myself blubbering on about how my mother had always dreamed of visiting Austria and how I freaked out when she mentioned going with me and my school friends because she would totally cramp my style. It hit me out of nowhere that I was a selfish person—an absolute spoiled brat who had robbed her mother of her dreams when she’d done nothing but encourage mine. The tears flowed and flowed, and the writing was my most honest work.

Catharsis aside, funny stuff happens too, and I laugh out loud more than I cry. I remember writing the flashback that I titled, “Unbound Passion” and I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. I was 4 years old and I was absolutely in love with Matthew McKinley—a boy in my Kindergarten class. I thought he was so hot. I called him, “my hero” because I watched a lot of princess movies back then and some boy was going to save me from something and make me fall in love with him, no matter what. I saw him lining up for lunch one day, and I truly could not resist him. I ran across the room, knocked him down into a chair, and started kissing him all over the face quite energetically. He proceeded to toss his head quickly side to side and scream for me to stop. He resisted in every way possible, but I would not give up. My teacher, Mrs. Turner, quickly came over and lifted me off of him. She sent me down in the lunch line and tried, rather unsuccessfully, to stifle her uncontrollable laughter. much the same as I am doing, even now as I am typing out this interview answer.

So, I am writing these things now because I can’t help it. Just the same as always. These things come bursting out of me and I can’t help it. I would never change it for a moment.

AWC: Tell us about yourself in the daily.

I am the creative director for the City of Orange Beach. I live in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and am married with two step children. I teach, and oversee programming for children and adults in Orange Beach.

I also coordinate special events. It’s a southern thing, and since there’s something special and eventful worth doing all the time, it is one of my favorite aspects of my job. I am also the founder of a nonprofit, Poetic Presence.

AWC: So, Hank, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hank Henly: I was in denial and disbelief on my last birthday when I asked Teri how I could possibly have reached my present advanced age. She gave me a succinct and profound answer—“you lived.”

I still have a hard time adjusting to the idea that I’m 60 years old. In many ways I still feel like I did in my 20s, but despite the stunted emotional maturity that keeps me feeling young, there are days my body reminds me that my salad days have passed.

AWC: Interests?

Hank Henley: Well, I’ve already mentioned Teri, my wife of 28 years (truthfully, the actual number could be anywhere between 25 and 30, but 28 feels right)—she takes up a lot of my time. (Note to whoever keeps the AWC mailing list--please don’t add her). 

Travel is a big interest of ours. Teri and I have visited 35 or so countries together—Vietnam, China, Cuba, and Russia, just to name the Communist nations. This year the pandemic has us dividing our time between our lake house in rural Winston County and our “regular” house in Suburbingham.

My rescue mutt Jasper is a 72-pound chunk of boundless enthusiasm, infinite love and complete idiocy as well as an endless source of fascination and amusement. Jasper thinks the whole COVID thing has been awesome since we’re with him all the time these days.

AWC: Occupation?

Hank Henley: I might be retired but I haven’t quite decided. I spent most of my working years in what used to be called the college textbook industry. It paid the bills, but I was on the road a lot. When you spend 150 nights or more each year in hotel rooms for something like three decades, that adds up to, well, it adds up to a lot of nights in hotel rooms. I’ve got stories about my time on the road, but the life of a road warrior isn’t as interesting as you might think.

A couple of years ago I got downsized along with scads of other great people. I was a bit of collateral damage in a dying corner of publishing. Since then, I’ve done some freelancing and found other honorable ways to make money when I’ve been of a mind. I’d probably be officially retired except Teri tells me that’s not an option for me while she’s still professoring, and she isn’t ready to hang up the cap and gown just yet.

The dream library is complete.

AWC: Tell us about your writing?

Hank Henley: Frankly, I do more reading than writing. I’m a voracious reader. When we built our getaway place, I had one demand--it had to have an awesome floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall bookshelf, complete with one of those sliding library ladders. I am happy to report that I’ve realized that dream and can now die happy.

This year, I’ve been a beta reader of two novels written by AWC members. That was really rewarding, and I look forward to seeing both books in print soon. I’ve completed three pre-published novels of my own, each in its own genre—rom-com, southern romance and comic urban fantasy. I’ve never been brave enough to turn one of my masterpieces loose on the world, but I should probably get over that.

I’ve started work on a military sci-fi, but my timing couldn’t be worse since key plot elements include a virus and civil disruption and opening that manuscript just feels weird right now.  

AWC: What is your role with our organization?

Hank Henley: I’m the AWC treasurer. Before that I served as the Membership Chair. The treasurer is the person who makes sure we don’t spend more money than we take in. That means I have to be the meanie at board meetings who grumpily points out that we can’t afford whatever it is we are talking about just before I get outvoted and we spend it on that thing anyway. 

AWC: Well this interview has certainly gone on long enough.  Is there anything else you want to add?

Hank Henley: All kidding aside, it has been an honor and privilege being part of the AWC for however many years it has been. It is a true joy serving the members of our organization and our board. It’s been an even greater pleasure to watch our members develop and flourish as writers. I’ve seen first-hand how the AWC affirms and supports so many great writers from Alabama and beyond.  AWC—you are my tribe.