Writer to speak on campus

Daniel DeVaughn, Staff Writer
Published On: 09/ 8/2008

Name one writer from North Carolina! I know what you’re thinking, Thomas Wolfe. If you can think of no other wordsmith hailing from the higher Carolina — don’t worry, John Jeremiah Sullivan will be in town this week to give a reading at the Hulsey Recital Hall. Sullivan is the first in a string of writers coming this fall to read original work, answer questions and share some general writing wisdom as part of the UAB Writer’s Series. The vein in which Sullivan operates is nonfiction, as in his book “Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son.” The book was a finalist for the PEN Foundation’s nonfiction prize, and was named a 2004 Book of the Year by “The Economist” magazine. He also works as a traveling correspondent for “GQ” magazine, and as a contributing editor at “Harper’s Magazine.”

Sullivan was born and raised only a couple of states away in Louisville, Ky., where his father was a sportswriter and his mother was an English teacher. He was, as he says, “literate” before he knew how to read. From an early age, Sullivan got started writing, often showing his work to his dad who was a constant, though subtle, motivator.

“My dad influenced me every day by being a professional writer,” Sullivan said. “He was somebody who knew how to go to war with the arbitrary deadline.”

Sullivan later attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., where he wrote for the school paper and took writing courses. One piece in particular about Sullivan’s brother getting electrocuted while playing guitar, then being brought back to life ended up in the hands of Jack Hitt at “Harper’s Magazine.” This scored Sullivan an internship at “Oxford American” magazine in Oxford, Miss. According to Sullivan, “The Square in Oxford was pretty intense. You had Square Books, there were writers everywhere...Faulkner’s ghost was kind of hovering over everything.”

After a few years at “The Oxford American,” Sullivan moved to New York, but not before penning works worthy of the “Best of the Oxford American Writing” anthologies. His work at “Oxford” also left a lasting, nonliterary impression on Sullivan.

“They got me obsessed with old Southern music,” he said.

And it seems that it’s an obsession he hasn’t quite conquered. Much of Sullivan’s magazine writing focuses on contemporary and traditional music of the Deep South. Some of this writing even earned him spots in the “Best American Magazine Writing” and “Best Music Writing” collections.

When asked about growing up in the South and, more specifically, in the Bible Belt Sullivan said, “The infusion from the cradle on with the King James Bible sets us [Southern writers] apart. That left a deep mark on me. It’s inscrutable to me.”

He described his encounters with Ivy Leaguers up north, how they lacked his “awe” of words and the seemingly magical act of writing.

Nowadays, Sullivan divides his time between eating at Olive Garden with his wife and daughter and teaching writing workshops in Wilmington, N.C. He is currently working on a book which originated some 10 years ago while Sullivan was still an undergrad at Sewanee. While there, a writing professor told Sullivan a story about a forgotten utopian radical who came to the South in the 19th century.

“It’s nonfiction but very dramatic,” said Sullivan, also adding that it is in some ways the “first Western.”

He hopes to finish the book in the next year or so. Sullivan will be at the Hulsey Recital Hall on Wednesday at 4 p.m.