Episode 7 -- Deborah Wiles

I need to make a confession to all of you before you listen to this episode. Before attending the NCTE Annual Convention last fall, I had never heard of Deborah Wiles or read any of her work. Shocking because I now know all the praise and awards her books have received over the years. Born in Alabama into an Air Force family and spending her growing-up summers in a small Mississippi town with an extended family full of Southern characters. Today they live on in her stories. The moment I heard her discussing her documentary novel Countdown and how she supplemented it with playlists , recipes, and biographies, I was intrigued. (It doesn't hurt that the main character and I share a last name.) This new approach to writing fiction, but filling it with large chunks of nonfiction, is something I have never seen before and I wanted to have her share it with all of our podcast listeners. I think you'll find Deborah's approach to writing and belief in the importance of learning to write your own narrative highly informative. After you listen to the podcast, give yourself a treat by reading her " life notice " written by one of her characters from The Aurora County Trilogy . I promise, it'll make you smile. I wish her books were around when I was being taught English and history. They certainly would have made me enjoy those classes even more. Enjoy! photo credit: Sonya Sones

You can listen to Episode 7 -- Deborah Wiles online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 7 -- Deborah Wiles is an episode from Why I Write by National Council of Teachers of English.

This episode is 33:02 long.

This episode was published on Jan 19, 2017.

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