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Sloan says "as long as I can remember, I knew I wanted to be a writer. Perhaps part of this sensibility came from growing up in Mississippi, where I saw things happening in the 1960s that I could not understand without stepping back from the culture to observe. I think my interest in history is partly due to my Southern origins: what were the roots of the upheavals I witnessed? Where did so much hatred and misunderstanding come from? I've always loved to re-create worlds -- whether in fiction or in writing history -- and to imagine myself part of these worlds."
For young people interested in
history or writing, she recommends reading biography and
fiction. "I fell in love with Mark Twain as a young person,
for the history that shines through in his novels, as well
as the strength and power of his writing. Later, I turned to
the writing of Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright;
their works convinced me that the best fiction also takes on
some of the questions raised by historians. I believe that
both history and fiction are about story, essentially, about
how and why we are who we are today."
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For information on the Harriman Retraced Expedition e-mail: harriman2001@science.smith.edu |