River City Writers Series Returns

One of the English department's newest creative writing professors, Sonja Livingston, will speak about how anyone's life story can be the basis of a non-fiction piece at The River City Writers Series.

Tonight at 8 p.m. in the University Center room 300, Livingston will open the series with a reading from her award-winning book "Ghostbread."

"Ghostbread" is a memoir that follows the narrative of Livingston's childhood, when she found herself in Western New York surrounded by her many brothers and sisters and their mother who struggled to provide for them.

"I'm pretty shy, so it's funny I ended up writing about myself," Livingston said.

There are two reasons Livingston decided to write a memoir about her childhood struggle with poverty, she said.

"One, growing up poor I was embarrassed. We were always the strange family with lots of kids, no money and no father. I kept it inside and when I started writing, it all came to the surface," Livingston said.

"And two, I found a lot of people didn't know what it meant to grow up poor. A lot of people didn't know what it was like to grow up in the north or even in a city. I wanted to show people a world they didn't know or understand," she said.  

Published by The University of Georgia Press, "Ghostbread" has received an Iowa Review Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and was a Winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2007.

Cary Holladay, River City Writers Series director, describes the book as, "lyrical, understated and powerful."

Determined to live an adult life without poverty, Livingston did not pursue her love of writing until after receiving her master's degree.

Livingston received her masters of fine arts degree from the University of New Orleans and masters of education from State University of New York at Brockport. She is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at The U of M.

The River City Writers Series was founded in 1977, making it one of the longest-running writing series in the United States.

"The purpose of the River City Writers Series is to bring outstanding contemporary writers to The U of M campus and community. These visits give students the opportunity to meet and learn from the masters," Holladay said.

Livingston will discuss the role of creative nonfiction in today's literature landscape, said Courtney Santo, creative writing program administrator.  

Livingston said she hopes to teach students and aspiring writers that nonfiction writing doesn't have to be boring.

"Writing about life is something people like. Just learning about one life can be a good way to connect to a lot of people. We think we know about someone's story, but we don't. People can never really judge a book by its cover. We are all more alike than we realize," Livingston said.