Writing – Karen L. Cox

books, Historians, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

The Fruit of Preparation and Opportunity

January 14, 2023by Karen L. Cox2 Comments

What a week! When I wrote my book No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice (UNC Press, 2021) I could not have anticipated the opportunities that have come my way–from speaking engagements to being a talking head in documentaries to invitations to contribute essays in other books. Sometimes I think I’m lucky, but I also think of luck in the way that Oprah does. “I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity.”

A year or so ago, I was presented with opportunities–for which I’ve prepared most of my adult life–and they all bore fruit this past week.

325305809_1414362125968434_1700213639048886674_n The first was to contribute an essay to a book about myths in American history, edited by Princeton historians Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer. I wrote about Confederate monuments as an expression of the Lost Cause myth. This past week that book, Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past, became an instant best seller on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction books, coming in at #8.

The second was to be interviewed for a documentary on Stone Mountain that was being 324560266_503042738633123_9033108230684294788_n produced by the Atlanta History Center (AHC) and its VP of Digital Storytelling, Kristian Weatherspoon. This past week I got to attend the film’s premiere at the AHC. It was such a wonderful event and a real celebration of the work that public history institutions can do, plus I got to meet a personal heroine of mine, Sally Yates, the former United States Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General who stood up to former President Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban.” She was dismissed for doing so, but I regarded it as an act of moral courage. We need more of that in today’s world.

Then last, but not least, I just received my copy of the re-released book White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction by Allen W. Trelease. It was a book I campaigned to have placed back in print, because it remains relative to historical discussions about Reconstruction but also to our contemporary understanding of domestic terrorism. It was an honor for me to write the foreword since Dr. Trelease was a professor and mentor while I was a student in the master’s program in history at UNC Greensboro.

I’ve worked hard for what I’ve accomplished, but sometimes it feels like an embarrassment of riches. This week was one of those weeks.

books, Historians, Writing

Metaphor for writing a book

July 30, 2018November 5, 2020by Karen L. Cox2 Comments

Since embarking on my new book project on the Rhythm Club Fire, I’ve gotten questions about why I’d want to work on something so depressing, which is a blog for another day, but mainly they’ve been about what I’ll say. At this point, I cannot answer that question. None of us who has authored a book can, especially when we are so early in the process. So, I’ve come up with a metaphor that I think works, and one which people who’ve never written a book can understand.

“It’s like putting together a 500-piece puzzle,” I answer.

At the beginning is the idea, and all of those pieces of evidence.

In the early stages, you begin pulling together ideas that form the basic framework for the book.

So, the basic outlines of the story are . . .

Further into the project, some of the ideas begin to take shape.

largeportionspuzzle — This much is very clear.

Eventually, the day comes when you have figured it out and hooray!

My book is almost as good as a Renoir painting! Not quite, but . . .

As with any puzzle, it takes time and patience, but part of the joy is in the process–figuring out where the pieces fit. When it’s complete there’s a moment of euphoria, but it is fleeting.

Now what? Time to start a new puzzle.

books, Historians, Publishing, Writing

Dixie’s Daughters almost never happened

July 20, 2018May 26, 2020by Karen L. CoxLeave a Comment

Confederacy Daughters Unveil Monument — Members of the UDC gathered at the Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery, located in Jackson Circle. ca. 1913, Courtesy of Getty Images

I want to share a story about my 2003 book Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture (University Press of Florida), which will be issued as a revised edition with a scheduled publication date of January 2019. Woot!

When I drafted the new preface, I thought it would be interesting to provide a little background on the publishing history of Dixie’s Daughters. My justification for including it was that I wanted all of you out there who have struggled to get something published or may end up in that struggle, particularly graduate students and junior scholars who follow my work on Twitter and elsewhere, to know that you aren’t alone.

The struggle is real!!

My own road was such a bumpy one, I despaired that it might never happen. On the advice of my editor, however, what follows will not be in the revised edition. Nonetheless, I want to share it with you, in case it is of some comfort or inspiration.

So, for your amusement and edification, here it is:

“It may come as a surprise that Dixie’s Daughters was almost never published. Despite the fact that no less than twelve university presses expressed interest in publishing my dissertation, it was rough going. Three different university presses received the manuscript at various points in time. The editor at the first press I sent the manuscript to never sent it out to readers. Perhaps it served as a very robust coaster for whatever was in his coffee cup. A second more prestigious press did due diligence and I received readers’ reports. One of them supported publication, while the other demurred, citing scholarship that I should engage. The only problem was that said scholarship had yet to be published and remained a work-in-progress. A third regional press took it in for a proposed series that never materialized. After revisions, this press sat on the manuscript for an entire year, only to box it up and mail it to me with the note that it was no longer of interest. At my wit’s end, I reached out to Marjorie Spruill who suggested I work with Meredith Babb at the University Press of Florida. Meredith laid out the process for getting the book published, so I took the boxed up manuscript that had been returned to me and mailed it to her. Unchanged. Within two months I had the readers’ reports and a book contract and, it turned out, a new tenure-track job with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.”

And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

books, Historians, Publishing, Writing

What’s Happening!!

March 5, 2018by Karen L. CoxLeave a Comment

As a pre-teen in the ’70s, I was a fan of the show “What’s Happening” with Roger, Dee, their Momma, Rerun, and Dwayne. And let’s not forget Shirley. So, even though I’m writing about what’s happening with me as an author, I can’t help but think of that show.

I’ve got a few speaking/book engagements coming up, too.

University of Michigan, March 12th
Tennessee Williams Festival, March 25th
Univ. of Louisiana-Lafayette, April 10-11th
Seminary Co-op in Chicago, May 3rd
DePaul University, May 4th

Then, in May, Louisiana University Press will release the volume Reassessing the 1930s South, which I co-edited with Sarah Gardner, a professor of history at Mercer University. The volume is truly interdisciplinary as it brings together scholars of history, literature, and American Studies.

This summer, I’ll return to Natchez for local research on my newest project, which will examine the Rhythm Club Fire that took the lives of 209 African Americans on April 23, 1940. It was one of the deadliest fires in the history of the U.S., outranking the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York in 1911.

books, Historians, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

Seasons Bleatings!

December 12, 2017May 26, 2020by Karen L. CoxLeave a Comment

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

Dear Friends and Readers,

I have so much to be grateful for this year, especially with the publication, in October, of my book Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South by UNC Press.

My travels to promote the book took me to Chicago, IL, Spartanburg, SC, Greensboro and Charlotte, NC, Mobile, AL, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, LA, and several towns in Mississippi, including Greenwood, Oxford, Jackson, and, of course, Natchez! I did so with the support of family, friends, and my press–especially Brandon Proia (my editor) and Gina Mahalek (my publicist).

Hub City Books, Spartanburg, SC

SIBA, New Orleans, LA

Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, TN

NC Bookwatch

Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL

Louisiana Book Festival

Turnrow Books, Greenwood, MS

Square Books, Oxford, MS

With the Dick Dana lookalike in Natchez, MS

Charlotte Public Library

Along the way, I wrote some essays about the research that went into Goat Castle for Publishers Weekly, the Organization of American Historian’s blog Process, and an essay that linked my research to today’s incarceration of women of color for TIME magazine. I appeared on several podcasts, and did a number of Q&A interviews for book bloggers and even VICE magazine.

What I had not expected was Charlottesville.

In the midst of promoting my book, I got caught in the public whirlwind about Confederate monuments. That began in August after white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville under the pretense of defending the Robert E. Lee monument there. In response, I wrote op-eds for the New York Times (twice), The Washington Post, and CNN (twice), while also being interviewed by numerous media outlets including the BBC, i24 Israeli television, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Slate (France), the Los Angeles Times, and newspapers in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan. To be honest, I lost count of the interviews, because this issue became a global one overnight. I was also reminded of the fact that people don’t always appreciate what a historian writes. And yet, I also believe that historians must continue to write on issues for which they have expertise.

But, back to the goats.

Writing Goat Castle was the most rewarding endeavor of my career. I met wonderful people in Natchez, got to know descendants of one of the principals in the book, and was able to write a book that most people have found accessible. Everyone from my Aunt Wilma to my hairdresser seems to like it, and not just because they know me.

I’m frequently asked “what’s next?” I’m still trying to figure it out. When I do, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, Goat Castle has only been out a couple of months. And, it still has a future. Stay tuned.