Ask the Author: Katie Singer
Answered Questions (7)
Katie Singer
In graduate school I was part of a team that digitized a 1990s oral history collection out of Newark, New Jersey. I had to listen to the interviews over and over, annotating, separating them into "stories," etc. I became slightly obsessed with both the stories and the storytellers. I thought that they told the history of America's Great Migration way better than I ever could. So a dissertation was born -- and then years later it turned into an actual book!
Katie Singer
It's just how I want to say stuff about the stuff I think. So usually I am moved to write. But I must admit that deadlines can be helpful!
Katie Singer
So many things: research on the history of a local cemetery; an article on "rust belt" cities; revising an article based on the oral history collection I used for my upcoming book; my presentation for a local oral history conference at the end of the month.
Katie Singer
Write. Which I know lots of folks say, but maybe more specifically *trust* that you can write. As a writing instructor, I see so many students who have been convinced they can't write. Yes they can. It's simply one form of communication, yet one that is held in such a far away place from others.
Katie Singer
Writing. That was my answer, but Goodreads says it has to be longer. So, writing.
Katie Singer
I have the opposite problem, writer's spillage! So many things constantly seeping out of my brain and onto bits of paper, my desktop, etc. From ideas for my next book on history to a title for my memoir in progress, I'm constantly ready and wanting to write.
Katie Singer
I'm following the American Historical Association's Summer Reading Challenge! My first task is to read a book about a place I'll be visiting. I'm going to Paris in July, so I'm reading Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France by Robin Mitchell.
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