Blog Archives
Education and Evangelism
From Hill Town to Strieby explores the life of Reverend Islay Walden, a man born into slavery who overcame blindness and hardship to return home as a minister and educator, and the legacy the Hill and Lassiter families left on the community. Why was this an important book for you to write?
As descendants of the original families that helped found the church and who continue as trustees today, we worried as we watched the last of the generation before us pass away that our history would be lost if we did not make a concerted effort to preserve, share, and uplift it. As the writer in the group, they looked to me to help that happen. In addition, just as other African American community descendants are concerned about erasure, not just benign neglect, we wanted to do all we could to be certain that the history of the church, school, community and its founder, Rev. Islay Walden, would always be an acknowledged and celebrated part of Randolph County, North Carolina history, and be part of the broader American History of African Americans and the rural South. I didn’t want anyone in Randolph County to ever say again as someone once had, “Strieby? Never Heard of It.”
With regards to Islay Walden himself, I had come to realize, as I researched his life, that in his lifetime, he was not an obscure poet, as some had portrayed him. In addition, I realized that none of the biographical essays about him had really understood that his passion was not poetry, regardless of his success. His passion was education and evangelism. No one had reflected on that in writing about him, so I wanted to pay homage to him as a 19th century African American poet, but even more important for me to elucidate was his legacy in education and ministry.
How much research did you undertake for this book, and how much time did it take to put it all together?
At the time that I made the decision to finally write the book, I had been researching the community for over twenty years and had already written a book about the history of one family, the Miles Lassiter family. At the same time as discussions about writing the book, family members were also asking about historical preservation. As part of that, I prepared an extensive, documented history of the church, historic school, and cemetery in application for the county’s Cultural Heritage Site designation, which we received. That application became the first draft. It took two more years of research and writing before the book was completed in 2016.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
The level of educational excellence that the school stood for had been praised and celebrated at every turn by the entire community. This was a community with nearly 100% literacy in the early 1900s, when that achievement was rare for any community in the rural South. This community had placed a high premium on education, and members had gone to great lengths to seek additional opportunities, even leaving the community to do so, yet always returning to share love and encouragement with the next generation. In fact, this community had produced at least one young teacher by 1900, and several more soon followed.
What is one thing that you hope readers take away from From Hill Town to Strieby?
I hope readers see that rural communities of color have been seeking the same things that their urban siblings have been seeking — opportunity. They seek educational opportunities, which they hope, like everyone else, will provide them with other opportunities, including economic security, whether they leave the countryside or not.
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From Hill Town to Strieby: Education and the American Missionary Association in the Uwharrie “Back Country” of Randolph County, North Carolina
Author Margo Lee Williams’s From Hill Town to Strieby tells a sweeping story of a Black community in post, Civil War North Carolina that found strength through faith, education, and family. The book traces the evolution of Hill Town and the nearby Lassiter Mill settlement, communities founded by free and formerly enslaved African Americans under the shadow of the Uwharrie Mountains. At its heart is the life of Reverend Islay Walden, a man born into slavery who fought blindness and hardship to return home as a minister and educator. Through meticulous research and family genealogy, Williams captures the interwoven lives of the Hill and Lassiter families, showing how their legacy shaped the creation of Strieby Church and School, a hub of spiritual and educational hope for generations. The narrative moves through centuries, from emancipation to civil rights, offering both history and homage.
Reading this book felt like sitting on a front porch, listening to someone who not only knows the history but lived its echo. Williams writes with a reverence that’s contagious. Her attention to names, deeds, and census records could have been dry in another writer’s hands, but she turns them into a living map of resilience. I found myself pausing often, thinking about what it meant for a man like Walden to walk north on faith, then return to teach others to read and dream. The writing has a rhythm that feels intimate, almost oral, as if the voices of the ancestors rise through every paragraph. Sometimes the detail gets dense, the endless generations and property records can slow the flow, but even those moments carry a sense of duty, a need to set the record straight for families long overlooked by mainstream history.
I liked how Williams weaves emotion into documentation. She doesn’t just present facts; she reclaims stories. Her reflections on Strieby’s survival, even after the school closed, made me think about how heritage lives on in memory and ritual. I admired how she connected the local with the national, the way a small rural church in Randolph County linked to larger forces like the American Missionary Association and Howard University. The writing feels humble but powerful. It’s the kind of storytelling that makes you look at a dirt road or a worn gravestone and see history breathing there.
From Hill Town to Strieby feels like both a love letter and a ledger. I think it’s about what education and faith can build when the world offers nothing but obstacles. I’d recommend this book to readers who care about African American history, genealogy, or Southern heritage, and to anyone who values stories of perseverance.
Pages: 452 | ISBN : 0939479095
Time to Tell Her Story
Beyond the Sky, written in two parts, follows a young woman through her college years and her involvement in the civil rights, and traces her ancestry from immigration from Ireland to the mountains of Hidden Valley. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
When Tillie first showed up in Hidden Valley in my debut novel, New Tomorrows, I knew she would be the one whose mysterious background would take her away from the valley to be involved in the activism of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. My intent as a writer is to create engaging stories that readers can not only enjoy but also be drawn in to explore real, contemporary issues with characters they can relate to. I identified the racial tension our country has faced and dealt with, in one form or another, throughout our history, as one of several important issues I wanted to help my readers explore. I myself enjoy stories that have a touch of romance, but not in the traditional way romance is presented in many books in that genre. I see romance as just one aspect of human connections, and I wanted my stories to be about connections, especially in families and communities.
When I first imagined Tillie, we were witnessing legislative and societal changes influenced by my generation begin to erode or disappear. As a writer, I feel a responsibility to speak about the past to shine light on the present. It was time to tell her story.
I was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement myself in the 1960s. I decided to bring Tillie to the same University I attended, letting her arrive as a freshman the year I was a senior. Her story is not at all biographical, but I was able to write about a time period and events that I personally experienced. While the events are real, both those that are part of our well-known (and some not so well-known) history or the local events in Pittsburg, the characters all spring from my imagination.
What is it that interests you most about historical fiction?
Let me first share my perspective on fiction vs. non-fiction. I like to define fiction as learning through imagination, whereas non-fiction is learning through facts. Reading fiction gives us an opportunity to spend time in a life quite different from our own. I believe folks can often learn more history through fact driven, engaging fiction than they might from a history book. When that happens to us, we often come away with a new understanding or a wider perspective of what life is like living in another person’s skin, both figuratively and realistically. My hope with all my books is that readers might gain increased awareness, understanding, and empathy for the marginalized in our society who struggle daily for justice, inclusion, and dignity.
I have always been a bit of a history buff; my college degree is in Creative Writing, but my minor was history. If I am going to write about human connections, part of who we are is defined by where we can from – the ancestors of yesterday who built the foundation for who we are today. That was especially true for Tillie. Her story was not complete without the stories of the strong woman who came before her and the choices they made, along with the men who loved them.
How did you go about finding your characters’ voices while planning your writing?
First, let me say a word about my writing process. Some folks divide writers into two groups – the plotters, or the seat-of-the-pants writers. I’m a combination of both, but my plotting is very sketchy with only major plot turns in my mind. It’s no more a brief list, rather than a plot outline. My writing is very character driven and sometimes even those major plot turns change as I become more immersed in the life of a character. As I wrote and got to know my characters on a deep personal level, they often sent me off on an unexpected side trip. One such side trip was quite literal when Percy told me to take him back to Quebec because he had to talk to his grandmother and get the pearl ring she had promised him. I didn’t even realize the ring had a pearl instead of a diamond until Percy first heard Taynay’s song about the moon.
One of the greatest joys of writing Tillie’s story was getting to know the six generations of mountain women who came before her. I imagined these women, along with their families, making choices that were often difficult. Choices that went beyond the traditional thinking of their time period. Each one was different, so they spoke and acted in their own unique way.
My original intent was to reference their journals with quotes as Tillie was reading and learning more about her generations of grandmothers. As their situations and choices came to light, and as their words began to paint a picture of the challenges of her time period, I realized I could not merely include snippets of their lives. These women deserved to have their whole stories told, thus I created the entire second half of the book to include their entire first-person narratives.
Where will the next book in the Hidden Valley series take readers? When will it be available?
The next book is already in progress, but I have as usual, been doing a bit of research into its topic and only have a few opening chapters written. The title is One More New Chance: A Vet Tech Romantic Suspense. The male protagonist is Brink, but I won’t reveal the name of the female protagonist because it would be a spoiler. I will drop a brief hint that she is a character readers have met in a prior book, however briefly. Brink is struggling with two issues – his dedication to tracking down the criminal rings that are staging the dog fights in various remote hollers in the valley and his own personal identity conflict due to bullying he has experienced as a result of his bi-racial background. It will be out in 2026, but I do not have a firm date right now. In truth, it has briefly been placed on the back burner while I’ve been doing some minor revisions and reformatting of my first book in the series, New Tomorrows. That slightly revised book will be live soon, to coordinate with October being National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
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The passion of activism flourished on college campuses in the tumultuous sixties, and Tillie embraced it as a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. Descended from Irish immigrants known in their Appalachian community as Granny Women – the healers – her compassionate nature drew her into the Civil Rights Movement. She could never have predicted how dramatically her life would change. When family journals reveal shocking news about her history and lineage, she’s forced to re-define her path to the future.
Which road will she choose?
After navigating new horizons, she may have to look for answers that lie Beyond the Sky.
Join readers on a thought-provoking journey through the divisions of the Civil War into the ardor of an era when our country’s youth led the way to a better national consciousness.
Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown
In Paradise Undone, Annie Dawid takes readers on a haunting journey back to the 1950s, where Marceline, the daughter of a pastor, encounters a man who seems to embody all the characteristics she values. Charismatic, godly, and fiercely intelligent, Jim Jones attracts people like a flame in the darkness. However, the world would soon know his name for reasons far darker than Marceline could have ever imagined. The creation of Jonestown and the horrific massacre that ensued became global news, but no documentary could fully capture the human tragedy of what happened there. This novel does, and it does so with unflinching honesty.
Paradise Undone serves almost as a companion piece to the recent TV miniseries Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown. While the series provides archival footage and survivor interviews, Dawid’s novel delves deeper into the events that transpired in the Guyanese jungle and the years that led up to it. The Jonestown tragedy can be explored on many levels, each more disturbing than the last. It wasn’t just the loss of life that was so horrifying, but also the manipulation and perversion of the very idea of paradise on Earth that Jones preached. This novel focuses intensely on that perversion. Dawid’s vivid descriptions evoke a visceral reaction as we witness the transformation of Jones from a seemingly benevolent leader to a figure of pure malevolence, like the devil himself given human form. From the outset, Dawid expertly reveals the cracks in Jones’ Eden. As the story unfolds, readers become as captive as the residents of Jonestown, drawn into a web of tension that escalates to a fever pitch. Even for those familiar with the outcome, the inevitability of the violent crescendo does nothing to lessen its devastating impact. This is a harrowing tale, and Dawid leads us through it with the precision and skill of a seasoned storyteller, ensuring that every moment is as gripping as it is heartbreaking.
Paradise Undone is a powerful and deeply unsettling exploration of one of the most tragic events in modern history. Annie Dawid’s masterful storytelling brings the human aspect of the Jonestown massacre into sharp focus, revealing the psychological manipulation and the dark descent of a man who led so many to their doom. This novel not only provides a chilling reminder of the dangers of blind devotion but also serves as a poignant testament to the lives lost.
Pages: 304 | ASIN : B0CKHSZX7X
Dreams Long Unrealized
The One Who’s Gonna See You Through follows a Black gay man who grows up in the Washington DC area with a nontraditional upbringing. Gregory’s story is so well written that it is like reading a memoir, not a work of fiction. Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?
Certainly, some aspects of my life inform characters and settings in the novel. For example, my father did stand trial for murder when I was a youngster and my parental situation in childhood was similar to GJ’s. However, many other aspects of the novel have been fictionalized.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
A Coming-of-Age story that explores early awareness of one’s sexuality.
An African-American father figure of a gay son who was not homophobic.
Dreams long unrealized can still be achieved if they are kept alive in one’s soul.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
My next novel is still in the ideas phase of conception so best to leave it there till it is realized as a manuscript.
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GJ’s young life progresses, and he is thrust forth into circumstances both familiar and violently surreal, from typical bullying to standing as the principal witness in a murder trial to defend his father. Colorful characters like wild Uncle NapPo, the seemingly unflappable Miss Carrie, and his father’s employer, the curious Mr. Blu, inform him of life’s complexity.
The wide-eyed boy grows into his teens and twenties and is altogether victimized, loved, and enlightened, leading him to experience the full range of gay life. GJ learns the culture and codes of Washington’s insular Black gay bar scene as the teen partner of a man in his thirties. As GJ starts to relish his gay existence, becoming more confident with his gay identity and his family’s unconventionality, he continues to question himself, fighting self-doubt and consternation about fitting into Black respectability norms or the mainstream world. GJ’s adult existence and early professional life extend into the integrated world of Dupont Circle gay bars and Georgetown professional offices, where he finds the love of his life and soulmate.
The One Who’s Gonna See You Through is a work that bridges the commercial/literary divide. The gay interracial theme here is seldom explored, and the absent mother/loving father configuration brings a different lens to this work. The approach to the story in The One Who’s Gonna See You Through sets the more familiar trope of the angry, Black, homophobic father aside and abandons the more well-trodden storyline of steadfast single Black motherhood. By story’s end, GJ recognizes that his father’s early and invaluable acceptance of difference laid the foundations for the happiness and realization he has experienced as a gay man throughout life. He resolves within himself that he must finally accept his legitimacy as both a Black man and an upper-middle-class one.
The One Who’s Gonna See You Through
The One Who’s Gonna See You Through by John Steven Welch opens with a poignant scene: Gregory reflects on his father’s incarceration for murder, setting the stage for an exploration of his challenging yet formative years. Growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood with an absent mother and a single father, Gregory faces the complexities of his community with resilience. Despite his peers’ taunting and the local gossip, he cultivates a demeanor of kindness and a passion for volunteering, finding solace in his few but meaningful friendships.
Among the significant influences in his life is Miss Carrie, an elderly woman who becomes a surrogate mother figure, enriching Gregory’s life with her wisdom and support. The narrative deepens as Gregory, who is gay, confronts discrimination within his community, adding layers to his personal and social struggles. Welch masterfully blends elements of fiction with the introspective depth of a memoir, offering readers a vivid window into communal life and personal perseverance. The neighborhood’s vibrancy comes alive through anecdotes about Gregory’s neighbors, whose interactions are reminiscent of shared secrets and collective support. The novel not only navigates the hurdles of Gregory’s youth and adult life but also intersperses humor and valuable life lessons throughout, making it not just a compelling read but also an inspiring one. This book resonates deeply, mirroring real-life struggles and triumphs, and is a noteworthy addition to contemporary fiction.
The One Who’s Gonna See You Through offers a deeply personal yet universally resonant journey through the highs and lows of Gregory’s life, showcasing the enduring power of resilience and the importance of community. John Steven Welch’s narrative prowess shines as he weaves a story that is as much about overcoming adversity as it is about the impact of those we meet along the way. This novel invites readers into the heart of its characters’ lives, making it a memorable read for anyone interested in stories of personal growth and communal bonds.
Pages: 229 | ASIN : B0CHNBP76L
LITERARY TITAN 