Author Diane Wilson discusses new book Holy Roller tonight
September 30, 2008 at 4:23 pm by Debbie Michaud in A&E
Billed as “a childhood memoir,” the complete title of Wilson’s novel is Holy Roller: Growing up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus. Phew. That’s almost as tricky to say/type as it is for a 9-year-old to sit still in church while the preacher hollers fire and brimstone.
Or so I gather from Wilson’s story. She was raised a Rapture-fearin’ Pentecostal, while I grew up in the Cult of Mary (aka Catholicism). Wilson’s 9- to 10-year-old self chatterboxes through her childhood narrative, sometimes meandering into stream-of-conscious monologues, but always capturing the guilt-inducing push and pull between curiosity and indoctrination.
But being an author is more of a side project for Wilson, a fourth-generation Texas fisher(wo)man and co-founder of Code Pink who’s made headlines as an environmental activist keen on hunger strikes and nonviolent disobedience (she’s been arrested around 29 times). She also inspired the award-winning documentary Texas Gold, which screens periodically on the Sundance channel.
Wilson appears tonight, Tues., Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. at the Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta, 470 Candler Park Drive. 404-378-5570. www.acappellabooks.com. Georgia for Democracy, the Atlanta chapter of WAND and A Cappella Books are sponsoring the event.
(Photo courtesy Chelsea Green)
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