Talking about a life of writing

By Katie Nichols (Contact) | Selma Times-Journal

Published Thursday, March 5, 2009

Growing up in the Black Belt, Mary Ward Brown remembered all too well how the area got its name. She recalls walking in the rich, wet soil and seeing the black, fertile ooze come up between her toes.

The wet soil from her childhood in Perry County also seeped into all three of her books — “Tongues of Flame,” “It Wasn’t All Dancing: and Other Stories” and the latest, “Fanning the Spark: a Memoir.”

Brown, 91, spoke at the Selma-Dallas County Public Library’s Lunch at the Library series Thursday. People from Selma, Mobile, Florence, Tuscaloosa and, of course, Perry County, gathered to listen to the award-winning author’s own story.

“My memoir came about because I cannot speak extemporaneously,” Brown said. “When I would accept an award I would write speeches. Someone got the idea that the speeches should be published, and that evolved into ‘Fanning the Spark.’”

Brown read several excerpts from the memoir, including about the day she knew she wanted to put writing on hold.

When her son Kirtley was playing outside with some friends, she had to interrupt the story she was writing at an important part.

“I went downstairs to start lunch,” Brown said. “I started to bang pots and pans. You see, I was obsessed by then with writing and I hated to stop for anything. I knew then I would have to put writing on pause. It was a gut decision.”

Brown also recalled the first time one of her stories was published. It was called “Flesh Spirit and Willy Mae,” and the University of Kansas City Review published it in 1955. The story went through a rewrite and ended up as on of the short stories in “It Wasn’t All Dancing: and Other Stories” under the name “The House Asa Built.”

Though University of Kansas City Review published Brown first story, the University of Alabama Press has published all of Brown’s books.

Betty Motherwell, a representative from the University of Alabama Press, remembered when she was a marketing manager for Brown and went to meet her in Marion. Brown’s words had already impacted Motherwell, but the author was about to inspire her as well.

“I meet her at the Calico Kitchen and from the minute I saw her I knew I was just going to love her,” Motherwell said. “She is just such a kind, gracious person and I know her work will be remembered, but I also think the kindness she bestows will also be part of her legacy.”

That day in 2001 when Motherwell and Brown met, Motherwell also visited the family home in Hamburg. Brown grew up in Hamburg, moved away to Auburn for a while and then settled again in Hamburg at the same house in which she grew up. She lives there today with what Motherwell described as books from the floor to the ceiling.

Brown drew not only Selma and Marion residents, but also members from her fan club in Florence and John Sledge of Mobile.

“When I first read her book, I was just blown away,” Sledge said. “She writes with such beauty.”

Brown’s familiarity of the characters she creates impressed Motherwell in the beginning and continues to do so.

“I think about some of her characters still well after reading them,” she said. “Like the waitress in ‘The Catch’ who makes a decision that is bad for her, but good for her daughter. I asked Mary Ward once how she knows her characters so well. She told me they live in her head and talk to each other for months. Finally, they have a story, and she writes it down.”

Brown ended her reading at the library with a selection of a speech. She spoke of the “unsung heroes” of the literary world — the libraries.

“Book stores and writers live to sell,” she said. “Book stores sell for survival and writers sell for their publishers’ survival, but after all the book tours libraries are the home for the books. They keep the work alive, sometimes too long on life support, but they are the ones who do it for the books.”

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