What I'm reading

http://www.rillaaskew.com/works.htm

I picked up "Fire in Beulah" by Rita Askew at a weekend conference. I was drawn to the book because of Rita, who I heard speak at a writers conference at University of Tulsa. The book is about the Tulsa Race Riots and although the story is fiction, the historical aspect is not. As I'm reading the book I see the streets and parts of Tulsa that are all too familar for me which allows the book to resonant with me in a special way. I'm excited to have briefly met Rita (she signed my book for me).

But what makes this encounter truly special is that I shared the book with my 15 year old daughter who has been studying the Race Riots in school. It was very special to be able to give my daughter the view that this really did happen and there are people who researched it etc. It gave my daughter a sense of reality that perhaps is missed from textbook lectures.

I could say more about the conference, but I'm still mulling it all over. I'll try to write more on it later. It was a fabulous experience for me, but that sounds so trite, doesn't it?