News4U Online

N4U: You're originally from the South. How did you end up in Evansville?

Margaret McMullan: I was born in Newton, Mississippi, which I like to say is between Chunky and Soso, which is another way of saying it's in the middle of nowhere. I loved growing up in Mississippi. We moved to the Chicago area when I was nine, then I attended Grinnell College in Iowa, then I moved to New York to work at Glamour magazine, then I went to graduate school at the University of Arkansas, then I got a job teaching at the University of Evansville in 1990 where I've been since.

Your novels tell stories about people from all walks of life and all kinds of subjects, from the magazine industry of the 1980s to Civil War-era historical fiction to growing up in modern day inner-city Chicago. What inspires you tell these stories?

I like writing about how historical events affect ordinary people. The historical elements are usually marching forward in the background of my plots. If you know history, most people know how those historical events end. Then there is the personal, more human plot going on in the foreground. I think it's fair to say that everything I write about has some personal element. I worked in the magazine industry in New York in the 1980s; the novel HOW I FOUND THE STRONG is loosely based on my great great uncle's recollections of that time period; and CASHAY is loosely based on my sister's experience tutoring a young girl who lived in Chicago's Cabrini Green housing projects.

Tell me a little bit about your next book and how it came to be.

SOURCES OF LIGHT came from several different inspirations. When my 12 year-old son was campaigning in Indiana for Barack Obama, he went door to door in strange neighborhoods, and he did not understand why I was so concerned for his safety. I told him that when I was growing up in Mississippi in the 1960s, I wasn’t allowed to discuss politics with anyone because it was too dangerous. People all around us – in the news and in our neighborhood were getting threatened, shot, or run out of town. “Mom,” he said. “The sixties are over.” I didn’t think he really understood how dangerous things were in the American South not so long ago. And then, when I was teaching at the University of Evansville, preparing a class for Martin Luther King Day, I was surprised how many students did not know exactly what happened back then. And some had never discussed race relations or civil rights in America.

            I was teaching a creative non-fiction writing class that semester and I assigned an essay by James Baldwin. No one had ever heard of him, and they certainly didn't know that he was African American. We went on to read essays by Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and others. One student came up to me after class one day and said she wasn’t used to discussing race in class, that it made her uncomfortable, but she was glad to listen to others doing so.

            I have always wanted to write about the 60s and growing up in Mississippi. I also wanted to write about the love/hate relationship with the South so many southerners feel. Often, we spend a good deal of our lives apologizing for being from the South, while, at the same time, we’re trying to make our way back “home.”

            So I decided to write about a 14-year old fictional girl named Samantha (Sam). In SOURCES OF LIGHT it’s 1962, a year after the death of Sam’s father--he was a war hero—and Sam and her mother must move, along with their very liberal views, to Jackson, Mississippi, her father's conservative hometown. Needless to say, they don't quite fit in. Both Sam and her mother fall in love, and then there’s a murder.

How do you balance working as a writer with your teaching career?

When my publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offered me a contract to write two books, the University of Evansville was good enough to allow me to teach every other semester (in the spring), which allowed me to write the books and stay on schedule. Otherwise, I write in the summer and on holidays every day, starting at 8 a.m. Writing requires conscious discipline.

CASHAY is loosely based on her sister's experience tutoring a young girl who lived in Chicago's Cabrini Green housing projects.

What's the one subject you haven't written about yet that you'd love to tackle?

What a great question. Hmmm. There are several subjects I’d love to tackle. I want to set a story in Israel. I’m interested in how some towns die – as a result of natural or unnatural disasters. I would like to write more about science. All of this is very vague, I know.

Who, in your opinion, is one of the most under-appreciated writers working today?

Many of my friends and former students – published and unpublished.

What's the most indispensable piece of advice you've ever been given in your career?

Writing is something like 95% sweat and 5% inspiration. You can’t wait around for an idea to come to you. You have to be at your desk, working. That’s when the ideas come.

What advice would you give to writers today?

Read, read, read. Then see if you have anything new to add. Then see the answer to the previous question!