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April 2007: Elizabeth Dewberry

Elizabeth Dewberry: Novelist, Playwright, and Emory Alumna

On Thursday, April 26, 2007 novelists and playwrights Elizabeth Dewberry and Jim Grimsley come together for a reading and booksigning of their latest works in the Jones Room, 311 Woodruff Library. This free public event is preceded by a reception at 6 p.m. with the reading and booksigning to follow at 6:30 p.m. This reading marks the revival of the Friends of Creative Writing group and the beginning of a new reading series that pairs one of the Emory faculty writers with another writer of significance who has a connection to the Emory community.

Grimsley, a noted author and the director of Emory’s Creative Writing Program, is paired with Dewberry, a novelist who received her Ph.D. in English at Emory where she studied twentieth-century American fiction. Dewberry will be presenting her latest novel, His Lovely Wife, a fictional work which tells the story of Ellen Baxter’s encounters with a mysterious photographer in Paris that make her question all she has compromised by being a lovely wife. This complex, surprising novel explores a culture that celebrates women for their beauty while exacting a terrible toll. Acclaimed author Amy Tan said of the book: “Elizabeth Dewberry gives eloquent voice to a world of women whose stories often go untold: those who feel defined by the more powerful men in their lives and recognize this with growing despair.” Dewberry, originally from Birmingham, Alabama, lives in Capps, Florida, with her husband, writer Robert Olen Butler, and her three bichon frises.

Grimsley will read from his newest work of literary fiction, Forgiveness, just released by the University of Texas press, which tells the tale of Charley Stranger, an executive who loses his job and decides to kill his wife when she asks for a divorce. Of his co-presenter, Grimsley said that “she’s growing to be an extraordinary novelist; her most recent book takes her writing into a new emotional territory. We can be very proud that Emory played a part in her development.”

Recently returned from a trip to Argentina, Elizabeth Dewberry was kind enough to answer some questions for this newsletter.

Q: What impact have your studies at Emory had on your career?

A: Emory made everything else possible, and not just in the way that a Ph.D. makes a university teaching career possible, though it did give me that option. But it's no co-incidence that I wrote my first novel while I was a graduate student at Emory: it was such a nurturing, stimulating time and place for me. I learned to see the world differently while I was there and, with the help of my mentors, found the courage to express my vision of it through fiction.

Q: What would you consider your most significant professional achievement?

A: I try to stay focused on the work at hand, try to grow artistically with each novel I write. So I hope and believe that the novel I'm working on right now will be my best yet. That's not something I would normally announce in public--I'm not finished, and it could still fall apart—but then again, if I felt like something I've already written was better than this and yet I continued to work on something that I knew to be less than I'm capable of, that would be pathetic.

Q: How do you feel about returning to Emory for this reading? Have you been back since you graduated?

A: I'm very excited. I read once in the bookstore and once at the library, I think, both many years ago, so this is my first official return to the English Department. It will be great to see Jim [Grimsley], who's an old and dear friend, and to see who else is still there from my era. I'm also excited to see what the department looks like now and meet the people. When I was there, Emory didn't even have an undergraduate creative writing program, so I imagine things have changed a lot. Unofficially, I've been back to campus several times, just for a stroll. It's so beautiful and it was such a sanctuary for me when I was a student there that it's always good to come back for a restorative visit.

Q: Just for Fun: If you could have lunch with any author, living or dead, who would it be and why?

A: That's a toughie. But I think I'm going to have to pick Hemingway. I wrote my dissertation about him, and although I'm not quite as much of a fan as I was, he's still one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, and I learned a lot about writing from him. And whatever else the dinner was, it wouldn't be boring!

Compiled by Jessica Moore
Communications Coordinator
Arts at Emory

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