Nine Books About Your Life:

Interview by Nicholas Alexander Hayes

In our Nine Books About Your Life series, authors are invited to talk about nine types of books that have had an impact on their lives. Their responses give us a glimpse into their relationships with their books and other people’s books. In this installment, we speak with Morgan Christie, author of the forthcoming These Bodies (Tolsun Books).

First Book – Stephen Cosgrove’s Morgan and Yew – While it definitely wasn’t the first book I read, it is the first one I distinctly remember.

My fascination with fantasy, fairytale, fable/folklore, and mythical creatures started when my ability to read independently did, even before then really. My mother was great about seeking out new and old stories that leaned in a cultural or communal bank, as well as creatures of myth. I know that all reading is a form of escapism, but these sorts of stories added an extra layer I was extremely drawn to. Even at that age, I (and many others) found myself exposed to the harshness of a world I often felt I didn’t belong in, whether through skin, accessibility, sex, etc. We all need something to dream about, but the need for escape just felt deeper on my end, more so than a lot of my fellow kindergarteners. These fables and fantasies really helped with that.

My mother found and gifted me the book for no particular reason, but of course, sharing a name with one of the protagonists didn’t hurt, nor did the ability to compare her young black daughter to a unicorn. The story is one of friendship, mostly, but leans in a way of appreciation and love. It’s also a story of envy and its danger. The plot surrounds two friends, a magical unicorn named Morgan and soft-spoken sheep named Yew. Yew thinks Morgan’s horn is the most beautiful thing in the world, and desperately wants a horn as well. To make a short story shorter, Morgan agrees to give Yew the horn, but will cease to exist without it. Yew, caring solely about having the horn agrees, but quickly realizes that it was not the horn that made Morgan beautiful, it was the love and friendship they shared. In the end, Yew returns the horn and Morgan is brought back, and both learn, but especially Yew, to appreciate what they have, who they are, and what friendship is supposed to be.

It was just a lovely little story that shaped much of my understanding of relationships and the importance of the people in our lives. It was the first time a book had done what my mother always did; highlight a tangible lesson, a grounded and changed experience, that would resonate forever.

Morgan and Yew
Stephen Cosgrove
Price Stern Sloan Merch
ISBN: 978-0843105896

Most Cherished Book – Tony Dungy’s Quiet Strength – I started to understand that there was a book for everyone, that there would always be something anyone would want to pick up.

I might have been eighteen years old, sitting in the sunroom cross legged on an old embroidered chair that my parents got with the house, the sun was beating the back of my neck. I was reading something for school when I glanced up and saw my father sitting in the kitchen, reading as well. It occurred to me then, I’d never seen him sitting down, reading a book. Looking over papers for work or glancing at my assignments, but never at his own leisure. I began to watch him read the way I would watch him play basketball, the shifts of his fingers, curve of his wrist as he turned the page, even his breathing, the way it revealed his pace and rhythm while shifting between lines. Once he put it down, I went to the book and began examining it like some new phenomena. The way it felt in my hand, the crackling sound the spine made upon opening, the cleanly dusted freshness that stained the pages – it was brand new.

The book was entitled Quiet Strength, a term I would actually use to describe my father as well, it was a memoir by Tony Dungy, an NFL coach I had only recently come to know through a Super Bowl title. I asked my father why he bought the book, I don’t remember what he told me verbatim, but his reason surrounding wanting to get to know the mind of the man. I do remember him saying ‘he’s the first black coach to take a Super Bowl, that’s history right there.’ So were a lot of other moments my father and I discussed, as were various articles and clippings I’d seen him read throughout my life, but this was the first book, and that meant something.

I asked him if I could keep it when he finished, and now it serves more so as a reminder of what I learned then. There is and always can be something for everyone to read, maybe not as much that connects certain groups, or points of interest that strike a nerve with particular readers, but there is something out there. Accessibility to literacy skills and diversifying the industry have to remain at the forefront, but making sure that representation is in abundance so that everyone has something they want to pick up, something they feel compelled to learn more about through text and thought, through books.

Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life
Tony Dungy
Tyndale House Publishers
ISBN: 978-1414318028

Most Perplexing Book – J.R.R. Tolkien – It’s not so much the book, but rather the style it’s written in.

There are a few books that fit in this category for me, not because I don’t understand or believe it requires any variance in intelligence, but the way its plot is delivered. The popularity of Tolkien’s franchise doesn’t surprise me because it is world building 101, a fantasy lover’s dream in many ways. I’ve just always had the most difficult time immersing myself in the text, not because of the story, but Tolkien’s style.

I always appreciate decorated and well-developed prose, but when those tropes are paired with a mud thicken density, I have a hard time getting through the prose. Pace and fluidity are such vital aspects to books for me, and while it doesn’t have to be action packed (I mean, I enjoy a slowly moving controlled piece of fiction just as much as the next reader) I still need to feel like I’m moving towards something. While the Tolkien series, of course, moved towards something – the pace and density of the text just made it extremely difficult to get through. I remembered thinking to myself back when the Lord of the Rings franchise was at its peak popularity, how could this many people get through the series to even realize what the story was, how could prose this dense get so popular? 

Life-changing Book – Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God – “There is nothing like being seen by the eyes of those who, without explanation, understand why you do what you do when you do it.” – Nikky Finney, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South.

While I do not put either book as having the biggest impact on my life, both had the biggest impact on my understanding of literature, writing, and in turn my writerly life. I read both manuscripts the same year, Morrison first and Hurston shortly after, I might have been sixteen. In Beloved, the concept of haunting resonated in a stark way. There was a burnt reality in the existence of this family being haunted simply for existing. The ghost of a history so out of their control, and yet, so pertinent and unshaking in their current lives. Likewise, Janie and her mission for liberation, independence, sexual freedom, and self – extremely resonating.

In reading these novels, I, for the first time, unequivocally saw myself in the pages of the books I explored. I understood that literature could be for me, as well. That there were writers that understood a longing and searching of self, particular in this skin and body, that there were writers who also felt and saw the ghosts of existence, ones we did nothing to warrant, but must learn to dwell alongside. These women, these authors, these stories, were the backbone of my understanding of literature and my place in it, that that place existed, and like small black stones rippling through some sort of bled pond, our words would remain seen, drizzled throughout the cascade of others.

Beloved
Toni Morrison
Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 978-1400033416

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Amistad
ISBN: 978- 0061120060

Most Underrated Book – This is a difficult question, there are just too many. I’m also not sure ‘underrated’ is the term I’d use, more so unrecognized. I find that books that fall in any realm outside of a certain framework, written a certain way, by a certain type of writer, does not get the recognition it deserves. I do believe we are starting to see a bit of a change in that now, but we are nowhere near where we should be. So I’d put this response to underrepresented writers; authors of color and LGBTQIA+ authors, women writers and writers from various socio-economic statuses, writers living with mental illness or disability – the list is long and goes on, but those of us who are not represented or recognized equally on the literary scope/platform.

A Surprising Book – Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – I was a teenager when it came out, but didn’t pick it up until about half a decade later.

I originally read War Dances, a fabulous collection of short stories by Alexie, I believe he won the Pen/Faulkner for it. I was down a rabbit hole of short fiction collections and his style really resonated with me. His literary meter, I not only felt like I was chewing on each story, but every not so forsaken word. I just couldn’t get enough of his language, so I went in search of more. The next most popular piece I’d found (which was actually the more well-known book) was his semi-autobiographical young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

It wasn’t that I was surprised so much, I already knew the type of prose he crafted, I was more so moved by my reaction to a young adult novel. There was such hilarity and sorrow to the book, the whole thing read like an open nerve being awkwardly prodded with a warm stick. I also had/have nothing against YA, I just hadn’t picked up any in such a long time, I forgot what it, as all sorts of literature, could bring.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 978-0316013697

Your Most Recent Book – My most recent book is These Bodies, a short-story collection examining the internal and external relationships of protagonists of color, all also identifying as either members of the LGBTQIA+ community, women, varying socio-economic statuses, or individuals living with mental illness or addiction. The motivation stemmed in wanting to see more representation in the literary fiction genre, one I greatly enjoy reading. I wanted to craft a space for stories with people we don’t typically get to read about in the genre. Stories encompassing the day to day and how that looks from different walks of life and experiences. I also incorporated tropes from the fantastical, because I see and know a sort of magic that bounces around our stories, it seemed appropriate. I hope people takeaway the importance of seeking out stories that vary in perception, from people that aren’t given the same room even though they live in the same house. I’d really like to thank you, Nicholas, as well as Keith [Powell] and the people at Your Impossible Voice for aiding in this mission as well.

These Bodies
Morgan Christie
Tolsun Books
ISBN: 978-1948800365

Your Next Book – I’m working on a novel (possible novella) about a young woman coping with a halted estrangement from her mother after the sudden death of her father. I wanted to fall back into longer form fiction and found this particular story building up in me. It ended up being this great avenue to explore themes of race, gender, sexual-orientation, socio-status, and other themes I enjoy and find necessary in seeing at the forefront of the industry. It’s definitely a story that’s been told, but not this way. I’m also incorporating humor into my prose, something I love doing, though many might find that hard to believe.

Though technically, my next book is a poetry chap entitled when they come due out next February (Black Sunflowers, 2021). It’s a cross genre sci-fi/political poetry collection reflecting the future colonization of earth by an unnamed species with the colonization of nations by our own species. Please check it out as well.

when they come
Morgan Christie
Black Sunflowers
https://www.blacksunflowerspoetry.com/our-chapooks

Plug an Author – There’s a short story by MK Roney that came out in November, Whisper. The piece won the Remastered Words 2020 contest, and is just such tidy prose. The amount of control she attains in every curve of the story, simple inflections, and her extraordinary use of pace brings so much tightness to the prose and bubbled up tension to the plot. It’s really great.

As far as books, I can plug a few poetry collections I am about to read and am very excited for, Let Me Tell You What I Saw by Adnan Al-Sayegh, translated by Jenny Lewis, Ruba Abughaida and others; and Swing at Your Own Risk by Metta Sáma. I was fortunate enough to attend a virtual reading for Al-Sayegh’s upcoming collection, and was moved by the candor and fluidity of language – and the concept of retelling through myth and history the way he has accomplished it is riveting. His collection is due out next month. Sáma’s collection came out last year and I’ve been thirsty to get my fingers on it. The bits I’ve read, as well as her past work, subtly scream with direct urgency for a lens into the realities of perceptions of sexuality, race, gender, and other aspects so many are noosed by the structure of a nation incapable of swallowing the self, for all. I am very excited to share in her words very soon.

Whisper
MK Roney
Remastered Words
http://www.remasteredwords.com/interview-with-mk-roney/

Let Me Tell You What I Saw
Adnan Al-Sayegh
Seren Books
ISBN: 978-1781726020

Swing at Your Own Risk
Metta Sáma
Kelsey Street PR
ISBN: 978-0932716903