About this episode

The episode features a conversation with Professor Autumn Womack about her experiences with the Toni Morrison archives and the significance of archival research.

As part of our series on the writing of Toni Morrison we’re lucky enough to record a conversation with one of the world’s leading Toni Morrison scholars, Professor Autumn Womack. Autumn has spent more time with the Morrison Papers at Princeton University than pretty much anyone else – except (maybe) Morrison herself. Autumn describes the experience of coming to Morrison’s writing for the first time in high school, returning to it years later to her as a graduate student and finally getting to teach Morrison's novels at Princeton, where Morrison spent the last years of her writing life. We hear about the fire that nearly destroyed all Morrison's records, and the librarians who saved her papers. Autumn explains why archives are anything but boring – and how some discoveries she and her students made can change the way we read Morrison’s great novels. More about Autumn and her work https://english.princeton.edu/people/autumn-womack An essay Autumn mentions: “Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation” (1984) Become a subscriber by signing up at Apple: http://apple.co/slob Or join our Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/c/secretlifeofbookspodcast Hosted on Acast. See…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sophie Gee, Jonty Claypole

Guest: Professor Autumn Womack

Topics covered

• Toni Morrison
• archives
• literary scholarship
• education
• fire incident
• Princeton University

Keywords

• Toni Morrison
• archives
• Princeton University
• literary scholarship
• Professor Autumn Womack
• fire incident
• Morrison Papers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Princeton University

Books & works: Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation

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