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Featured Writer
Edna-Alice White
Edna-Alice White writes under the pen name E. A. Jackson White to honor both her mother and father. Until last year, Edna-Alice thought finding a way to make a living might forever overshadow her writing talents. Now she’s semi-retired, dividing her time between her church, helping seniors, working a part-time job and following her inner voice.
Currently working on a piece of children’s fiction, Edna-Alice has “lots of nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and two great-greats” to keep her inspired.
Her writing appears in our Fall 2010 anthology Look Out On Your City/Mira tu ciudad and will be featured in Portland Art Museum’s special “Object Stories” project and exhibition.
Hear Edna-Alice read her piece, Art and I:
The text and an interview with her appear below.
Art and I
by E. A. Jackson White
If I were an artist, I would capture pictures of all I found beautiful.
The world seems so preoccupied with much of what is ugly…crime, war and man’s inhumanity to man.
If feels, sometimes, as if the seedy and the seemy cast such a veil of darkness that the light of love, hope and peace barely shine through.
If I were an artist, I would paint lovely scenes in vivid colors that could not be erased…because it’s been said that bright colors attract blessings from the universe.
© E. A. Jackson White & Write Around Portland
Interview with Featured Writer Edna-Alice White
Interview and audio link presentation by Write Around Portland volunteer Kevin Fann.
You’ve taken Write Around Portland writing workshops before. How was this one at the Portland Art Museum different?
I knew we would be writing about things in the art museum, but I didn’t know we were going to be working on an exhibit.
It is going to be an exhibit of individuals’ different pieces about objects in their lives. It can be a person, it can be a thing, it can be anything. It can be something in the art museum, but not necessarily.
They’ve never done this before, so Portland will be the first one. They recorded all of us reading, and it will be on exhibit soon.
Did you learn anything new about yourself?
The workshops actually showed me that I had a gift that I was not using. It’s the kind of thing that’s always in the back of your head, but then something tells you, “Oh, well, maybe not.”
And then to see your own writing in a book that’s published is really exciting. It’s helped me be brave enough to say, “Okay, I am going to write!”
The museum workshop really forced me to look at where do I go now? Where does writing fit into my life? One of the main things is to keep writing.
In three workshops I’ve been in, I haven’t met one person who couldn’t write something. There are a couple of ladies from the museum group, and we still get together on Thursdays and write for a couple of hours.
How did writing help form that community?
The thing, period, with Write Around Portland is how each workshop session lifts you to another level.
At first, you don’t think you can write at all. And then all of a sudden you realize that you actually got something down on paper. When you put things down on paper, it makes it real — when you read those words.
I came in as a low-income senior, but there were people in the group who were in all kinds of situations. Sometimes we would all be in tears because someone wrote something that was so touching. It just touches your heart.
Can you talk about one of those moments you’ve experienced?
The first piece I wrote was about my grandmother and her cooking, and I could really feel and taste and smell that food from back then. I could see her. I’ve read the piece to other people, and they can see it, too.
In not being judgmental about the other people in the group, I found that I’m less judgmental about myself. It doesn’t have anything to do with writing. It put me in touch with myself. It made me start digging around where I really needed to go.
There are some things in your past that you don’t necessarily want to connect with. But there are some things that you really do. If you want to donate to a worthy cause, donate to Write Around Portland because writing is so healing. It is so healing.
What are you working on now?
I’m writing a story right now about a cat from New Orleans who got caught up in the flood, so I’m working on that.
If I write, I don’t eat. [Laughs.] I’m down 82 pounds and I’m still working on it. I’ve got 35 to go. See, I’ve got my pedometer on. [She checks the pedometer dial.]
Oh my goodness, I’ve almost done my 10,000 steps today!
"In not being judgmental about the other people in the group, I found that I’m less judgmental about myself."
--Edna-Alice White
Featured Writer
Edna-Alice White