Jewell Parker Rhodes is the author of three historical novels, Voodoo Dreams, Magic City and Douglass' Women; the
memoir Porch Stories: A Grandmother's Guide to Happiness; a children's book, Ninth Ward; and the contemporary mystery novels Season,
Moon and Hurricane. Hurricane was published April 12, 2011, by Washington Square Press.
Books in my computer bag:
Ordered by my two children, I am reading: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh.
Evan, 20, my poet son, will quiz me and want to discuss whether we're living a good Aristotelian life. Kelly, 23, also a writer, will want discuss how children's literature is the best literature in the world and how rats, despite my shuddering aversion, are "people" too.
Books in my car:
At Arizona State University, I'm teaching "Short Story" so my car is overflowing with The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (edited by Oates), NPR's Selected Shorts CDs and a DVD of Faulkner's Barn Burning (screenplay by Horton Foote) starring a very young Tommy Lee Jones. My students and I are absolutely loving Southern tales by Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Conner, Jean Toomer and William Faulkner.
Books in my office:
When I'm deep into writing, I can't read novels (only chapter books about rats!). So, I read nonfiction as research for my future books. Right now I'm reading First Family: Abigail and John Adam by Joseph Ellis, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos and Hawaiian Mythology by Martha Beckwith.
Favorite book when you were
a child:
I read anything and everything. I loved the stories where impoverished/abused children/animals overcame and found true happiness! I also loved the Classic Illustrated Comics. My favorite was Prince Valiant. I would tell anyone who asked that I wanted to live my life "valiantly." It's a beautiful word.
Favorite books as a mom:
My husband (who had a happier childhood) and I bought tons of books before I was even pregnant. We used to read the books to our Sheltie, Macacroo Bonzai. No kidding!
I'm proud to say I can still recite Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Jambo Means Hello. As our children got older, I read The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden and Garth Williams to Evan, and Charlotte's Web by E.B. White to Kelly. These books were their favorites.
Book that encouraged my career:
I always wrote poetry and stories, but it wasn't until I was a junior in college that I discovered Gayle Jones's Corregidora and realized that I, too, could be a professional writer. Growing up, I had NEVER been given or assigned to read a book by a writer of color so I didn't know that it was possible.