Every book requires research. Authors generally learn way more during their research than they ever share in their novels. During the discovery phase, sometimes there are interesting finds that just have to make it into the author's work-in-progress. Lisa Wingate is here to share one such tidbit that she uncovered while researching her latest book, The Sea Keeper's Daughters.
New Novel
Unearths America's Hidden Treasure
by Lisa Wingate
Caught in the age of worldwide connectivity, many of us don’t realize
that only scant decades ago, our parents and grandparents experienced a very
different America. Its faces and stories might have quietly faded into history,
but for a little-known program that charged average Americans with recording
the stories of their communities.
“Those involved in the Federal Writers’ Project of the 1930s faced
incredible and unprecedented challenges. They were given a task that had never
before been attempted and they were asked to do it during one of the most
difficult times in America’s history,” remarks Lisa Wingate, whose new novel, The Sea Keeper’s Daughters, uncovers
this long-forgotten segment of American history, just in time for The Project’s
eightieth anniversary.
While Wingate’s tale is fictional, the experiences of her characters
mirror those of the hundreds of men and women who were hired as part of
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s then-controversial Works Progress Administration (WPA).
The Federal Writers’ Project engaged poverty-stricken individuals to document
the unseen corners of a struggling but resilient America. In the novel, a
modern woman discovers the long-hidden letters of an aunt disowned by her
wealthy family after signing on with the WPA as a Federal Writer. Through Alice
Lorring’s letters, Wingate describes the experiences of a woman traveling into
the unknown, all for the sake of a story:
Today, during a most thorough
introduction at the state FWP headquarters in Asheville, we new recruits were
made privy to the inner workings of this monumental endeavor. Rooms there had
been filled with the desks of typists and editors. Filing cabinets lined wall,
upon wall, and down the corridors lay further FWP areas. My mind could scarce
take in the magnitude of it all! To imagine that the whole of this space
and the people at work in it are devoted to the documentation of our state and
its stories, and that similar efforts have been simultaneously undertaken in
all fifty states!
In the room was such overwhelming
excitement as plans were detailed! I’d daresay most of us there forgot we had
been forced to sign the dreaded WPA Pauper’s Oath in order to qualify for The
Project at all. Our mission seemed quite vast and important. We are to create not
only a brief guidebook of our state, but a comprehensive encyclopedia to
include all natural wonders, the narratives of farmers and former slaves, the
stories of soldiers returned from The Great War, the last of those who fought
in the War Between the States, the folk tales of mountain peoples,
transcriptions of famous trials and court proceedings, and all else, our
leaders said, “From Golf to the Ku Klux Klan.” Having the soul of true
newspapermen, they desire that no stone be left unturned…
“I think the modern generation doesn’t
realize how bleak times were during The Great Depression. When you read the
stories and view the photographs, you’re literally confronted with the
realities of children dying of malnutrition, not just by the handful, but by
the hundreds. Parents would bring sick children to doctors, and the doctors
often wrote prescriptions for nourishing food, to be filled at local
pharmacies.” Many of the true to life stories of those times wouldn’t exist
without the work of the Federal Writers’ Project. The Field Interviewers
discovered the life’s blood of America literally from sea to shining sea.
Despite its sweeping congressional mandate to “Hold up a mirror to
America,” the FWP was controversial, even for those involved in its inner
circles. Well-known African American writer, Zora Neale Hurston, often told
friends she was traveling to New York to meet with her publisher, when she was
actually canvassing the Florida swamps, recording the stories of workers on
sugar cane plantations and in turpentine camps. “To be eligible for The
Writers’ Project, you had to take a pauper’s oath, stating that you had no
money, no job, no property, and no hope of getting those things anytime soon,”
explains Wingate. “For people like Alice in my novel, who had been well-off
before the Depression, that was difficult.” Eventually the rolls of the Federal
Writers’ Project would include college professors, white-collar workers,
housewives, and former college students.
In The Sea Keeper’s Daughters,
a present-day woman relives her aunt’s long-ago experiences in the remote and
often dangerous corners of Appalachia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. “What Alice finds
in the Blue Ridge is what so many FWP writers unearthed,” said Wingate. “They
were documenting the lives of people who hadn’t been considered worthy of the
history books – workers in fish canneries, ex-slaves in the South, coal miners
in the mountains, women in sewing factories, Native Americans on northern
reservations, jazz musicians in Memphis. The writers often found themselves on
the wrong sides of local powerbrokers and groups like the Ku Klux Klan. For
years, much of their work lay hidden in filing vaults. Now, thanks to the
Internet, the Library of Congress has made hundreds of their manuscripts
available. These stories show us where we come from as a country and as a
people. They are our everyday history. They’re who we are.”
Through Wingate’s novel, that history comes to life again, and perhaps
as the Federal Writers Project reaches its eightieth anniversary, the difficult
and sometimes dangerous work of the Federal Writers will finally receive
long-overdue but well-deserved recognition.
 |
| Lisa Wingate |
Lisa
Wingate is a magazine columnist, speaker, and the author of 25 mainstream
fiction novels, including the national bestseller Tending Roses, now in its 19th printing from Penguin Putnam.
For more about Lisa Wingate
Author’s
websites
Write your story, read other stories http://theuntoldstory.guru
That hidden gem about the Federal Writers' Project sounds so fascinating. Thank you for sharing some of your research with us, Lisa! Now I'm even more anxious to read The Sea Keeper's Daughters than I was after I finished reading The Story Keeper.
Readers, be sure to scroll down for more about The Sea Keeper's Daughters and Lisa Wingate's fall 2015 book tour. Is she making a stop near you? I know she'd love to see you there!
Also, be sure to answer today's conversation starter:
Readers, what is something you've learned about history from a fictional book? Did that tidbit inspire you to do more research on your own (after finishing the book, of course)?
LISA
WINGATE’S THE SEA KEEPER’S DAUGHTERS
RELEASES SEPTEMBER 1, 2015
About the book
From modern-day Roanoke Island to the
sweeping backdrop of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains and Roosevelt’s WPA folklore
writers of the Federal Writers’ Project, past and present intertwine to create
an unexpected destiny…
The Sea Keeper’s
Daughters Book Launch Tour, Fall 2015
Texas, Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida
Come join us for The Sea Keeper’s
Daughters book tour! I’d love to see you somewhere along the way.
Tour Stops are below. Inviting you to come to one of these events.
If you have any questions about the appearances, please contact Lisa Wingate at lisa@lisawingate.com
September
5, 10 – 10:45, Author Panel with Karen White (topic TBA).
Decatur Book Festival 101 East Court Square, Decatur, GA 30030. Public welcome.
FMI: https://www.decaturbookfestival.com/2014/index.php Decatur,
GA
September
7, 9 – 12, Coffee with Conversation and Signing, The
Sea Keeper’s Daughters, Sundog Books, 89 Central
Square, Seaside, FL 32459, FMI contact Laney, sundogbooks@gmail.com
850-231-5481, Seaside, FL
September
8, 12:00, “Preservation of Story”, Rotary Club
Meeting at St. Andrews
Bay Yacht Club, 218 Bunkers Cove RD, Panama City, FL 32401. FMI contact Val Schoegler val@panamacityliving.com 850.325.0050.
Panama City, FL
September 8, 5 – 7, “Preservation
of Story” at St. Andrews Coffee House 1006 Beck Avenue,
Refreshments. Panama City Florida 32401. FMI, James Pigneri standrewscoffee@aol.com
James Pigneri 850-769-3767. Panama
City, FL
September
9, 11:30, Lunch and Learn with author Lisa Wingate. Location: The Cellar Restaurant, 1481 Westgate Parkway #1, Dothan, AL.
Sponsored by Friends of the Library of Dothan Houston County
Library System, 445 North Oates Street, Dothan, AL 36303, Participants pay
for their lunch. Signing for The Sea Keeper’s Daughters to follow lunch. FMI, Lexie
Aldridge, 334-793-9767 ext. 4215, laldridge@dhcls.org.
Booktable by Elise of Books Unlimited, Youngstown, FL. Elisa, 850.867.7687, booksunlimited13@aol.com
Dothan, AL
September
9, 3:00, Preservation of Story speech. Blountstown Library, 17731 N. Pear
Street, Blounstown, FL 32424. FMI Rita Maupinr 850.674.1903 maupinr@yahoo.com.
Blountstown, FL
September
9, evening, “Preservation of Story & Faith
Story” at Wednesday night prayer meeting. First Baptist Church, 17731 N. Pear
Street, Blountstown, FL 32424. FMI, Tim Rhoades 850.674.5923, fbcb@gtcom.net Blountstown,
FL
September 10, 11:30, Speaking
on “Preservation of Story” at Private Event Luncheon & Booksigning. St.
Andrews Bay Yacht Club, 218 Bunkers Cove RD, Panama City, FL 32401. Contact Lana Jane, 850-866-9738. Book Table by Elise, Books Unlimited
6503 Grassy Point Rd,
Panama City, FL 32408, contact Booksunlimited13@aol.com, 850-866-9738. Panama City, FL
September
10, 6 – 8 PM, “Writing Your Story with Highlights about
The Federal Writer’s Project”. Booktable & Booksigning. Eufaula
Carnegie Library, 217 N. Eufaula Ave., Eufaula, AL 36027, FMI contact Ronnie
Smith, library director, dir_ecl@yahoo.com,
224-687-8190. Eufaula, AL
September 11, 6:30 – 8 PM: “Preservation of Story,” Booktalk and signing. by Lisa Wingate.
release, Refreshments. Bookmiser, 4651
Sandy Plains Rd., Suite 106, Roswell, GA, 30075. FMI 770-993-1555, bookmiser@bellsouth.net,. Roswell, GA
September
12, 1 PM, Author Panel with
Ann Hite and Lisa Wingate. Signings
for new releases. Refreshments. Fox Tale Book Shoppe, 105 E Main St,
Woodstock, GA 30188. Contact Ellen Ward, 404-293-2295, ellen@foxtalebookshoppe.com.
Woodstock, GA
September
14, 6 PM, Speech and signing. “Preservation
of Story and Introduction to The Sea Keeper’s Daughters.”.
Refreshments & Signing for The Sea Keeper’s Daughters, Middle
Georgia Regional Library, 1180 Washington Avenue, Macon, GA, 31201.
Light refreshments, public welcome. FMI contact Jennifer Lautzenheiser, lautzenheiserj@bibblib.org,
478-744-0850. Booktable by Christine Curry, A Novel Experience, 426 Thomaston
St., Zebulon, GA 30295, anovelexperience@gmail.com 770-567-1103. Macon, GA
September
15, 11:30 – 1, .J. Joe Edwards Public Library Fundraising
Luncheon. Keynote, “Preserving Your Family Story” by Lisa Wingate.
Booksigning for The Sea Keeper’s Daughters. Limited seating is
available for this no-cost luncheon. Location is First Methodist Church.To
reserve a ticket contact Rosemary Bunn, rosemary@frrls.net, 770-567-2014. A
percentage of book sales donated to the library. Booktable by Christine Curry,
A Novel Experience, 426 Thomaston St., Zebulon, GA 30295, anovelexperience@gmail.com 770-567-1103.
Zebulon, GA
September
15, 1:30. Meet & Greet Signing for Wingate’s new
release, The Sea Keeper’s Daughters. A Novel Experience, 426 Thomaston
St., Zebulon, GA 30295, FMI or to order books contact Chris Curry, anovelexperience@gmail.com 770-567-1103,
Zebulon, GA
September 15, 6:30 PM, “Preserving your Family Story” and Signing. Sponsored by book
clubs “By the Book,” and “Page Turners. ” Desserts served. First Baptist
Church, 1105 Main Street, Perry GA 31069. Public welcome. Contact Beckie
Burnham, 478-988-3212 or 478-960-1812, msudawgtoo@comsouth.net.
Bookseller is Christine Curry, A Novel Experience, 426 Thomaston St.,
Zebulon, GA 30295, 770-567-1103, Perry, GA.
September 16, 3 PM, Story Tellers Parapalooza Panel and Signing, Lisa Wingate, Kim Wright, Mathew
Neill Hull. Fiction Addiction, 1175 Woods Crossing Rd #5, Greenville, SC 29607.
Tickets are $10 each. Each ticket can be redeemed toward a
purchase of the featured authors’ books prior to or at the event, and includes
one admission pass to the event. For tickets and book orders contact Jill Hendricks,
864.675.0540 or info@fictionaddiction.com. Greenville, SC
September 16, 7 PM. “Preservation of
Story” Woodlands at
Furman: Greenville Retirement Community, 1500 Trailhead Ct. Greenville, SC
29617. Residents and guests. FMI Contact Andrea Payment, apayment@thewoodlandsatfurman.org
(864) 371-3100. Greenville, SC
September
17, 11-12:30. “Preservation of Story” Panel with
author Kim Boyken. Booksigning to follow. Co-sponsored with members
of Women’s National Book Association, Inc. (WNBA), Charlotte Chapter. WNBA
contact is Susan Walker, susan.walker.books@gmail.com,
704-439-4596 Or 612-439-4596. Location: Park Road Books, 4139 Park Road
Charlotte, NC 28209, Public invited. FMI and to order books contact Becky
Morriston, becky@parkroadbooks.com,
704-525-9239. Charlotte, NC
September
17, (Following the Park Roads Bookstore event immediately above). Luncheon
at a nearby restaurant with members of Women’s National Book Association, Inc.
(WNBA), Charlotte Chapter. FMI contact SusanWalker, 704-439-4596 or
612-439-4596, susan.walker.books@gmail.com.
Charlotte, NC
September
17, 7 PM, Spartanburg County Library’s Fall for Reading Series.“Preservation
of Story” by Lisa Wingate. Signing for The Sea Keeper’s Daughters.
Spartanburg County Library, 151 S. Church St, Spartanburg SC 29306. FMI
contact Rebecca Mack, rebeccam@infodepot.org
864-596-1247. Spartanburg SC
September
18 – 20. Parapalooza Event & Signing. Southern Independent Bookseller
Alliance SIBA, Schedule TBA. Most events for registered members only.
http://www.sibaweb.com/trade-show
Raleigh, NC
September
21, 12:00. “Preservation of Story”
Luncheon speech and signing for The Sea Keeper’s Daughters. Gaston
County Public Library, main library auditorium, 1555 E. Garrison Boulevard,
Gastonia, NC. FMI David Currence 704.868.2164 X124, david.currence@gastongov.com.
Book Table by Park Roads Book, Charlotte.
To order books contact Becky Morriston, becky@parkroadbooks.com,
704-525-9239. Gastonia, NC
September
21, 7:00 – 8:30 PM, Precursor to Greenville Heritage Textile Festival Lisa
will speak on the Federal Writer’s Project of the 1930’s, life in the mill
villages, and writing one’s own family stories. Booksigning for Lisa’s novel, The
Sea Keeper’s Daughters will follow. Location: Greenville County
Library, 25 Heritage Green Place, Greenville, SC 29601. FMI Mary Frances
Shelato mshelato@greenvillelibrary.org;
864 527 5293. Booktable
by Fiction Addiction. To order books contact Jill Hendrix, 864-675-0540 jill@fiction-addiction.com.
Greenville, SC
September
22, 7 PM, “Preservation of Story” Speech and Signing
for Lisa’s newest Carolina novel, The Sea Keeper’s Daughters. Refreshments.
Malaprops Bookstore/Cafe, 55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC 28801. FMI
Contact Alsace Walentine, 828-254-6724, alsace.walentine@malaprops.com.
Asheville, NC
September
23, 6 – 7 PM, Booktalk with highlights about The Lost Colonists,
300 Queen Elizabeth Avenue, Manteo, NC 27954. Sponsored by Dare County Arts
Council and the Don & Catherine Bryan Cultural Series. Booksigning to
follow the speech. Booktable by Ducks Cottage Downtown Books. Public
invited, no reservation required. FMI: Jamie Layton, jamie@duckscottage.com,
252-473-1056. Manteo, NC
September
24, 4 – 7 PM, Booktalk and Signing of The
Sea Keeper’s Daughters.” Light refreshments. Page after
Page Bookstore, 111 S Water St, Elizabeth City, NC 27909, FMI Susan, 252.335.7243 pageafterpage@mchsi.com.
Elizabeth City, NC
September 25, 12:00, Moveable Feast Luncheon and
Booksigning. “Preservation of Story and Introduction to The Sea Keeper’s Daughter” by Lisa
Wingate. Details TBA. Hosted by Litchfield Books, 11421 Ocean Hwy, Pawley’s Island,
South Carolina 29585. For tickets go to Litchfield Books
website www.litchfieldbooks.com or contact Vicky Warner, litchfieldbooks@att.net, 843-237-8138. Pawley’s Island, SC
September 26, 12 – 2, “Preservation of Story” speech at Luncheon
& Booksigning to follow. Surf City
Welcome Center (beachfront), 102 North Shore Drive, Surf City, NC. Ticket $25. Host
and Bookseller is FMI and reservations,
contact Lori Fisher, Quarter Moon Books, 708 S.
Anderson Blvd., Topsail Beach, NC 28445, quartermoonbooks@aol.com
910.328.4969. Topsail Beach, NC
September
28, 3– 5, “Preservation of Story”. Refreshments served. Booksigning. Edisto Bookstore,
547 Hwy 174, Edisto Island, SC 29438. FMI Karen Carter, (843) 869-1885, bookstorek@bellsouth.net Edisto Island, SC
October 10, 4 – 6. Meet & Greet Signing on Second Saturday Downtown Clifton evening with
stores open until 6. Signing at Bosque
County Emporium, 121 N. Avenue D, Clifton, TX 76634. FMI or to order autographed books contact
Sharon mooshoes2002@yahoo.com 254.675.8133 Clifton,
TX
October
30 – 31. Panel and Signing. Louisiana Book
Festival, Baton Rouge LA 70804,
at the State Library of Louisiana, the State
Capitol, Capitol Park Museum and nearby locations. Detail of Lisa’s events are
pending. FMI www.louisianabookfestival.org Baton Rouge, LA
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2 comments:
Thanks so much for having me and for sharing a bit about The Sea Keeper's Daughters. The Federal Writer's project manuscripts are an incredible resource for writers and teachers… and an interesting read for just about anyone!
Blessings!
Lisa
I might just have to check into those manuscripts someday. They sound so intriguing. Thanks for being a part of Writing to Inspire this week.
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