THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608210027
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 93 lines
PRINCESS PERRY graduated from Old Dominion University in 1993 with a degree in financial management.
She thought it would get her plenty of job offers, decent pay. But it wasn't what she really wanted to do.
Perry returned to ODU to work for a master's degree in creative writing last year. Now she's doing what she loves: Conjuring characters and stories, voices and conflicts.
She's good at it, too. At 25 she's already won success and a little money.
Her story ``Making Peace'' - about two freed slaves who agonize over whether to have a baby - recently won second place in a national contest for young black fiction writers.
The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Awards, named for two leading African-American writers of the 20th century, are sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University. Perry won $500.
Even more thrilling was the praise from novelist Marita Golden, who teaches at VCU and runs the contest.
``For Marita Golden to tell me she loved my story was the biggest honor,'' Perry said. ``I didn't need money or anything else.''
Golden said in an interview: ``I thought it was a very brave story for a young woman to do. It was very well-written. What impressed me - and I'm sure what impressed the judges - was the ambition. It was a fairly deep subject matter. . . .She's a very promising young writer, and we're going to hear from her in the future.''
Golden started the awards seven years ago, while teaching at George Mason University. ``You have more African-American writing being published than in any other time previously in the country,'' she said. ``Even though it's a very impressive fact, unless programs and institutions are created to keep that process going, it's not automatic that it's going to exist.''
Historically, Golden said, black students have tended to shy away from pursuing writing.
Perry's story is rich with physical description and stirring dialogue.
Addie: ``You got to let it go, Isaac. Don't you know if there gone be a me and you, you gone have to let it go?''
Isaac: ``You already got more of your younguns than I'm ever gone have of mine. Ain't nobody gone ever again force me to make no babies. Not even you, Adaelah. Whatever reasons you got, mine is five-times stronger.''
Perry, the daughter of a homemaker and carpenter, grew up in Hampton and Windsor, N.C. She's only the second person in the family to attend college.
She said she was drawn to writing about the Reconstruction South: ``It fascinated me how, after being in bondage for so long, they found the courage and resources to build lives. They had no money, no education. . . . The answer, I guess, is the same way they made it through slavery.''
For Addie, Perry said, a baby signifies ``an affirmation of life; this child is their own.'' No one can take it away from them. But for Isaac, who had 15 children wrested from him, the idea of another baby is a ``reminder of everything he had lost to slavery and the manhood taken away from him.''
Perry researched the period by reading slave narratives and books such as ``One Hundred Years of Lynchings in the South.'' She also had some help from her grandmother, who used to tell stories of her own grandmother's days as a slave in North Carolina.
Growing up in Windsor, Perry also sharpened her ear for black Southern dialect, hearing sayings like ``Every shuteye ain't sleep.'' Meaning: Someone who doesn't look like he's paying attention could be listening to every word.
Perry didn't write much as a kid - just some stories about Michael Jackson that she'd rather forget. She started more serious fiction writing as a sophomore in college. She was hooked.
``It's almost like playing God,'' said Perry, who speaks in a calm, soothing voice. ``You can create perfect people or terrible people and put them in the world you want them to be in. For a little while you control it, but then the characters take over.''
``Making Peace'' originally focused on Addie's efforts to teach Isaac to read and write. But as Perry began writing, the question of having a baby rose to dominate the story.
Perry has no schedule for writing - that's one of her goals for the next few months. ``Like almost every writer, I am a champion at procrastination,'' she said. ``But once I'm started, I can't remember why I put it off for so long. The world on the paper becomes so real - at least as comfortable or more comfortable than the actual world that I live in.''
Perry, who lives on campus at ODU, is on a full scholarship. The master's in fine arts program has helped her gain confidence in her chosen profession. ``I needed to be around other writers so I wouldn't feel isolated,'' she said.
She feels she's also grown as a writer. Before ``I had good voices; that's about it.'' Now she's more adept at character development, plot, setting.
Perry's ultimate goal is to get a book of stories in print. After graduating in December 1997, maybe she'll teach, maybe write for TV.
She has no worries about securing a job or making money.
``Ever since I made the decision to do what I wanted to do, things have fallen into place. It's not really a struggle. . . .I think it'll work out.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
At 25, Princess Perry is working toward her master's degree in
creative writing, and has already won national recognition for one
of her short stories. by CNB