Conversations with Ernest Gaines
By: edited by John Lowe.
Contributors: Lowe, John, 1945-
Series: Literary conversations series
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Jackson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 335
Subjects: Gaines, Ernest J., 1933-  -- Interviews.; Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Interviews.; African Americans in literature.; Fiction -- Authorship.; Louisiana -- In literature.
Genres: Interviews.
Description: The winner in 1994 of the National Book Critics Circle Award for A Lesson Before Dying, Gaines, whose career spans more than thirty-five years, continues to receive increasing critical and popular attention. In the community of southern authors he finds his natural place. "Southern writers," he says, "have much more in common than differences. They have in common a certain point of view as well.".

Through television productions of his fiction - The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Gathering of Old Men, and "The Sky is Gray" - Gaines has become widely known and appreciated. Although focused principally upon African-American life in the Deep South, his writing bears strong influence of European authors.

In these interviews, two of which have never before been printed, Ernest Gaines casts a retrospective light upon his long and productive career. Drawn from journals, magazines, and newspapers, the interviews are occasions for Gaines to recall his childhood, his "bohemian" days in San Francisco, his long effort to get published, and recent events in his life - including his marriage and his receiving a MacArthur Prize.
Notes: Includes index.