Kathryn Stockett | |
|---|---|
 Kathryn Stockett speaks at the University of Alabama in 2014 | |
| Born | 1969 (age 53–54) Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Alabama |
| Genre | Adult fiction |
| Notable works | The Help |
| Spouse | Keith Rogers (? ~ 2011) |
| Children | 1 |
Kathryn Stockett is an American novelist. She is known for her 2009 debut novel, The Help , which is about African-American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s.
Stockett worked in magazine publishing while living in New York City before publishing her first novel, [1] which she began writing after the September 11th attacks. [2] The Help took her five years to complete, and the book was rejected by 60 literary agents before agent Susan Ramer agreed to represent Stockett. [1] [3] The Help has since been published in 42 languages. [4] As of August 2012, it has sold ten million copies and spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. [5] [6] The Help climbed best seller charts a few months after it was released. [7] [8]
Stockett grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. [9] After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City. She lived there for 16 years and worked in magazine publishing and marketing. She is divorced and has a daughter. [8] [10]
Reflective of her first novel, Stockett was very close to an African American domestic worker. [11]
A lawsuit was filed in a Mississippi court by Ablene Cooper, a housekeeper who used to work for Stockett's brother. It claimed that Stockett used her likeness in the book. [12] A Hinds County, Mississippi judge threw the case out of court, citing the statute of limitations. [13] Stockett denies her claim of stealing her likeness and says she only met her briefly. [13]
John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 28 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on the first printing.
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A mammy is a U.S. historical stereotype depicting black women who work in a white family and nurse the family's children. The fictionalized mammy character is often visualized as a fat, dark-skinned woman with a motherly personality. The origin of the mammy figure stereotype is rooted in the history of slavery in the United States, as black slave women were often tasked with domestic and childcare work in white American slaveholding households. The mammy caricature was used to create a narrative of black women being happy within slavery or within a role of servitude. The mammy stereotype associates black women with domestic roles and it has been argued that it, combined with segregation and discrimination, limited job opportunities for black women during the Jim Crow era, approximately 1877 to 1966.
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2009.
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The Help is a historical fiction novel by American author Kathryn Stockett and published by Penguin Books in 2009. The story is about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s.
The Help is a 2011 period drama film written and directed by Tate Taylor and based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast, including Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney and Sissy Spacek. The film and novel recount the story of a young white woman and aspiring journalist Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan. The story focuses on her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. In an attempt to become a legitimate journalist and writer, Skeeter decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids, exposing the racism they face as they work for white families. Black domestic workers in 1960s America were referred to as "the help", hence the title of the journalistic exposé, the novel and the film. "The Help" brings to light the challenges and discrimination that African American people faced.
Tate Taylor is an American filmmaker and actor. Taylor is best known for directing The Help (2011), Get on Up (2014), and The Girl on the Train (2016).
Jesmyn Ward is an American novelist and a Professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel Salvage the Bones and won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction for her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. She also received a 2012 Alex Award for the story about familial love and community in facing Hurricane Katrina. She is the only woman and only African American to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice. All three of Ward's novels are set in the fictitious Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage.
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