a rich history of great poets phil levine from detroit, great fiction beginning with steinback but nonfiction is more difficult. you have to dig into the brokenness of this place. it doesn't make you a popular person to tell the stories here. i live here, writing these stories not everyone embraces, telling the history, warts and all, the wisest person, the wisest people i ever interviewed -- she was 100 years old at the time. she had come in texas, the contrail west. they stop along the way, 7 or 8 of them -- the kid in each place. he landed in -- picked the cotton. interviewing her, on the outskirts of that city, that town, to the slave days of her grandmother. and that one interview standing 150 years of history, remarkable to get on the piano and playing, above the piano, the photographs of her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. her voice, one of the powerful voices, and her story is told in california. it is a joy to do this. his old beat up sony tape recorder, i don't even use a digital one. just capturing these stories and tell the history of the place. to be a nonfict

it also has a rich history of great books, phil levine who came here for from detroit and we have great fiction begin with steinbeck and saroyan that's been written here. what nonfiction has been more difficult because you have to dig in to these brokenness of this place. and it doesn't make you a real popular person to tell the stories here. i live here and yet you are writing these stories that not everyone embraces because you are telling the history, working all of the place and the wisest person among the wisest people i've ever interviewed was a person named greta tony. i found her in courtroom while i was in california, she was 100 years old. >> and she had, from texas, all the contrail left. she didn't, all-in-one migration, they stopped along the way. >> she referred to her children, she had seven or eight stopover kids or a kid in each place. and they landed in corcoran and they picked the cotton. and as i was interviewing her, interviewing her in that little house, on the outskirts of that city, town, she was taking me all the way back to the slave days of her grandmother. bu