Cotton Field Of Dreams: A Memoir

by Kearney, Janis F.; Clinton, Bill

• ISBN13: 9780976205838
• ISBN10: 0976205831
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-01
• Publisher: Small Pr Distribution

Summary

Cultural Writing. Memoir. African-American Studies. COTTON FIELD OF DREAMS is Janis F. Kearney's poignant memoir of the journey that led her from the cotton fields of Lincoln County, Arkansas, to the West Wing of the White House, where she served as diarist to former President William Jefferson Clinton. "Our hearts are warmed by stories [such] as this one: under-educated African-American sharecroppers pushing their children to achieve academically, then seeing them reach amazing pinnacles of success. From their parents, the Kearney children absorbed a powerful conviction: They were neither better nor less than any other human beings. This conviction gave them the self confidence to move far beyond their difficult beginnings"--William Jefferson Clinton. "Well-written, COTTON FIELD OF DREAMS is a welcome addition to libraries, seamlessly weaving lyrical prose and poignant human drama to entice the reluctant and satisfy the mature to read"--Roland Barksdale-Hall.

Author Biography

Janis F. Kearney, writer, lecturer and literacy advocate, is one of 19 children born to Arkansas Delta Sharecroppers. She served as Personal Diarist to President William Jefferson Clinton for five years and as Director of the communications office of the U.S. Small Business Administration for two years. Before working for the Clinton-Gore Campaign in 1992, she published the award-winning Arkansas State Press Newspaper - founded by Arkansas civil rights legends, Daisy and L.C. Bates. In 2001, she began a two-year W.E.B. Du Bois Fellowship at Harvard University's Center for African and African American Studies. In 2004, she began a two-year Humanities Fellowship at Chicago's DePaul University Center for the Humanities. Kearney founded Writing our World Press in 2004, and published her first book, Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir, in January, 2005. Her second book, Conversations: William Jefferson Clintonàfrom Hope to Harlem was released September, 2006. Conversations, is an oral biography centered around conversations with black Americans throughout the country about President Clinton's legacy. Her speaking tour has taken her across the country, and to the UK, where she lectures and discusses her memoir, and her life journey. She has appeared on national and local television, radio and print media outlets û including NPR, BBC, C-Span Book-TV, the Tavis Smiley Show, and local and regional ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates. Cotton Field of Dreams was listed on Jet, Essence, Ebony and Crisis Magazines' Best Seller and Books of Note lists.