Читать книгу It's Good Weather for Fudge - Sue Brannan Walker - Страница 9

Preface (2007)

Wade Hall (1934–2015)

Editor, the Conecuh Series

When a talented poet from Mobile writes an extended poem in which she imagines a visit and conversation with one of the South’s most gifted writers, it is cause for a literary celebration. Such was the event that occurred in October of 2002, when I attended a conference at the Columbus (Georgia) Museum and heard Sue Walker read her new poem celebrating the life and fiction of Columbus native Carson McCullers.

It is especially appropriate that this poem be part of the Conecuh Series, which is dedicated to celebrating diversity in the South. No writer has written more honestly and compassionately about outsiders and misfits in American life than Carson McCullers, one of the South’s most original and daring authors. During her short lifetime she celebrated diversity in her characters, plots, and themes. From Frankie Addams to John Singer, the lonely outcasts of her fiction search frantically for “the we of me”—as do we all.

The meeting of McCullers readers and scholars in Columbus included Virginia Spencer Carr, the noted biographer whose Lonely Hunter is not only the definitive biography of Carson McCullers but is also a model of the genre. We are honored to have her introduction and endorsement. McCullers-Walker-Carr are an awesome and eloquent trio.

Sue Walker’s poem is an inspired interweaving of the symbiotic relationship between writer and reader who, ideally, live together in the timeless world of the word. Indeed, hearing the poet read her poem to the McCullers gathering at the Columbus Museum was an epiphanal experience for me. Now we are pleased to share it with a larger audience.