(Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Tayori Jones, and Stephanie Powell Watts) During the Great Migration, many African Americans relocated to the US North. Yet southern culture survives in ancestral memories and in black women's writing in particular. Why do so many black women writers remain fascinated by the South? This panel features five African American women authors who discuss why they set their work in the South and how they confront specific craft issues when writing fiction about this region of profound cultural resonance.

Published Date: May 10, 2017