Literary Matters

Trio of Authors Discusses “Strong Women”

By Jenny Shank, 10-21-05

Novelists Masha Hamilton, Judith Ryan Hendricks and Daniela Kuper met at a writer’s seminar where they were all speaking, and hatched an idea for a different kind of book tour. Last night at the Boulder Book Store, Kuper explained their thinking: “Why don’t we stop doing what fiction writers do at readings—pump only your own book, read from it, take questions, then go home. Instead, why don’t we cooperate and push each other’s work.� The result was the Strong Women Characters: In Fiction, In Person tour. The night opened with each author reading a quote from a female fiction writer about a female character, including an excerpt from Carol Shield’s “Unless� and Amy Bloom’s short story “Silver Water.� Then each woman spoke a little about herself, read an excerpt of her book, and introduced the next writer on the panel.

As might be apparent by the tour’s title, things got a little Oprah-y from time to time, with panel and audience members praising “strong women� who had changed their lives, and Kuper advising an aspiring writer in the audience to stop making excuses and get on with her writing, Girl! Okay, she didn’t say “girl,� but everyone in the mostly female audience probably filled in the blank.

Kuper was a Colorado businesswoman for many years, living in Boulder for 25 years, working at an advertising agency and eventually starting her own company. She spent nine years writing her debut novel, Hunger And Thirst, a book set in the 1950’s that concerns a woman who runs a “frock shop.� “My mother seemed to have her lips sewn shut like a lot of women in the ‘50s,� Kuper said. “I wanted to write a book about women in that era doing what they wanted to do.� The main character leaves her family and child, and Kuper believes she does this to “save her life.�

Masha Hamilton was a war reporter in the Middle East, covering stories in Afghanistan when she realized that she “had more room to tell the truth in fiction than in reporting the news.� She described strong women she’d met in Afghanistan, including one who “lived in Kabul during the time of the Taliban and held secret meetings in her home for women.� She was caught and jailed, and as soon as she was free she resumed the meetings. The situation for women in Afghanistan now that the Taliban has been deposed is still grave, Hamilton explained. Another woman Hamilton met after the fall of the Taliban “was jailed for fleeing her husband who’d beat her for years,� Hamilton’s novel, The Distance Between Us, is a fictional story of a female war correspondent in the Middle East who realizes she can no longer remain neutral and that “she’s part of the story she covers.�

Judith Ryan Hendricks was a baker before she began writing, and she uses her background to fuel her novels including The Baker’s Apprentice. Hendricks discussed how her grandmother influenced her. “She was married in New York, and her husband took her to California away from everyone she knew.� Hendricks’ grandfather cheated on her grandmother, gambled, and drank all their money away, so her grandmother was forced to supply all the income for the family’s four kids during the depression, killing chickens, working in factories, and raising her own food. “My grandmother used to ditch school to go be in silent movies, and when she got married that was all over. She was too busy raising and supporting a family to have time to do anything creatively. In the past, women really suffered from a lack of creative expression.�

The Strong Women Characters: In Fiction, In Person is a part of the growing trend in alternative book promotion that moves away from the traditional single-author-reading-in-a-bookstore format, allowing low-budget authors whose publishers wouldn’t normally foot the bill for a tour to get out and discuss their book.

On Tuesday, October 25, a similarly-styled event will hit the Wynkoop Brewery in Denver, the First Fiction Author Tour, featuring a group of first time novelists touring the country together, reading at bars rather than bookstores. Last year’s First Fiction tour was a huge hit at the Wynkoop—the reading area was so packed that I couldn’t even squeeze into the room, and attendees were clearly enjoying the $1 microbrews. And the Strong Women Characters tour seemed to be a success last night as well, with Hamilton and Hendricks benefiting from the home town crowd that Kuper drew, each of them probably selling more books and connecting with more readers than they would have been able to on their own. So, I guess they’ve earned it: You go, girls!

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