![]() Her studies of classical poetry, she said, started her thinking about what constitutes an African-American epic. from the University of Pennsylvania in comparative literature in 1985. Professor Herron graduated from Eastern Baptist College in Pennsylvania, now Eastern College. ![]() That summer, she said, ''I didn't speak in any other way but in iambic pentameter and blank verse.'' Her teacher did not believe she had read Milton. ''It moved my soul,'' she said of the book. To get it, Professor Herron said, ''She walked me down beautiful, beautiful marble stairs in the Carnegie Library.'' ![]() Then the summer before junior high school, she saw a picture in the library of Satan from Milton's ''Paradise Lost.'' She asked the librarian for the book. From the age of three, she wanted to be a writer. Language and stories were a big part of Professor Herron's family life. ''I grew up with my mother reciting Beowulf and Shakespeare,'' she said. Her mother taught in Washington and was an adjunct professor of science education at Howard University. ![]() Professor Herron was raised in Washington. She said she wrote ''Nappy Hair'' with exactly the same impulses that led her to be a classics scholar. ''I thought of Ovid, who was sent into exile because he was writing against Emperor Augustus.'' Yet, she said, she also felt a strange pride, as if she had joined an exalted group of writers whose books have been banned. ''It struck me deeply in the heart,'' said Professor Herron. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2023
Categories |