Author Lorene Cary Talks
of Writing and Storytelling

Lorene Cary, author of The Price of a Child, which was selected for the One Book, One Philadelphia project in 2003, spoke at Penn Charter on Nov. 14. As part of the school's Distinguished Speaker Series, Cary addressed Upper School students and read from her latest book, Free! Great Escapes from Slavery on the Underground Railroad.

"We tell stories," Cary said. "We all tell stories. The kind of stories we tell about the past helps determine how we behave in the present."

Cary wrote Free!, she said, because the stories of escaped slaves are an important but overlooked part of our nation's history. She wanted the stories to be accessible not only to young people but to adults who might have been put off by the more literary style of her other books; therefore, she wrote simply while still exploring the complex themes imbedded in the stories.

Cary, a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania, talked to students about simplicity in writing and the agony of revision. She wryly pointed out that it took her longer to write The Price of a Child than it will take students to finish high school - and yet it will take a person mere hours to read it. "The only answer is to keep writing," she said.

Her inspiration for Free! was William Still's 1872 book, The Underground Railroad, and Still's father's own escape from slavery, a powerful story which she shared with students.

"Writing is about honesty and about finding honesty," she told the audience.

Cary's first book, Black Ice, a memoir of her years first as a black female student and then teacher at an exclusive New England boarding school, was chosen as a Notable Book for 1992 by the American Library Association. In 1998, she founded Art Sanctuary, a nonprofit lecture and performance series that brings black thinkers and artists to speak and perform at the historic Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia.