Many moons ago, back in college(circa 1985) I attended a symposium in Oxford MS on this author. It was the first literary event of acclaim I was fortunate enough to become part of as a student.
A personal friend of Mister Wright and celebrated author of Jubilee, Margaret Walker joined our small group of aspiring and hopeful writers. She was kind of grandmotherly and during the lectures and dinner, she sat with us and seemed to be having a good time. The next day she was on the panel and she was full of fire, refuting the misconceptions about the life and times of Richard Wright. "Because I was there," she said several times, sometimes softly and sadly. She got a standing ovation at the end. That's really all I remember well from her lecture- oh, and the the title of the new book she wrote: The Daemonic Genius of Richard Wright.
We also met Joyce Joyce and some guy with a salt and pepper beard. I don't remember his name, but Doctor Newsome, one of my instructors was really impressed. Believe it or not, Joyce Joyce just came right up to us doing the cocktail hour and introduced herself, shaking our hands individually. I was amazed, to say the least. She was so pretty and gracious, even danced with a couple of the boys in our group.
Anyway, that weekend was priceless. That weekend in Oxford, for the symposium on Richard Wright was the point in time, I knew I really wanted to be part of this fantastic world of literature.
Richard Nathaniel
