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-He's a poet, a fiction writer, columnist, professor, and loves jazz.

He's a native of Jackson, Tennessee.

Coming up next on Tennessee Writes, we're sitting down with author James E. Cherry.

We'll find out if he always wanted to be a writer, how he did it, and what he's working on now.

We'll dive into his book, Edge of the Wind.

Get the coffee brewing, because Tennessee Writes starts right now.

-Books about Tennessee.

-Books that come from Tennessee authors.

-Books and stories with a Tennessee twist.

-West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee Writes.

-Hello, and welcome to Tennessee Writes.

My name is Peter Noll, and this is the show about books with the Tennessee connection.

If you've ever thought about writing a book, you're going to meet men and women who have done just that.

They've gone from thinking about it to actually doing it.

From Tennessee natives to people that decided to move to Tennessee, but all the books have a Tennessee twist.

Today, Tennessee Writes welcomes author James E. Cherry.

He's a proud native of Jackson, Tennessee.

He's written poetry, books, and timely columns seen across the country.

He speaks around the nation, but always comes home to Jackson.

Please welcome author James E. Cherry.

-Here, good to see you.

-Welcome.

-Thank you, thank you.

-Have a seat.

-Thank you so much.

-Can't wait to find out more about yourself.

How does one become a poet?

-Well, I think there's something that all writers and language, this relationship.

I think reading is probably the first step to becoming a poet and a writer.

You fall in love with the language, and then the language seeps into you, and you have a desire to self-express your thoughts and your feelings.

That's probably the first step.

-Did you always want to be a writer as a little boy growing up in Jackson?

What did you think you were going to be?

-Most kids, I wanted to play basketball like Dr. J, glide through the air and all that good stuff, but that soon fell by the wayside.

My initial introduction to writing was to be a sports writer, journalism.

In college, I was introduced to literature, and that sparked another interest and just took me in a whole other direction.

-Here in Jackson, where did you go to high school?

-Jackson Central-Merry.

-Then college was at?

-College is here at Union University as well.

-Now, you teach, you lecture.

If you Google your name, you're doing-- there's columns in papers across the country that you've written.

You're speaking at major book events.

-Yes.

I like to tell people, I have anyw..

I write.

I'm a health care professional.

Writing is my true passion.

I've been a professor as well.

I do it all.

I'm into jazz.

I'm very active in the community here, whether it's poetry.

I'm involved in a poetry organization called the Griot Collective, where we foster and mentor poets.

Jazz, as you mentioned, I'm very passionate about jazz.

-What are you doing in the jazz space?

Do you play?

-No, but I'm a jazz enthusiast.

I noticed that there was not an avenue for jazz here.

Now, when I say jazz, I'm talking traditional Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday type of jazz.

There was nothing here like that.

I decided to do something about it, and I got together with some like-minded folk, and we started the Jazz Foundation of West Tennessee.

We're trying to have four concerts a year here.

We're going to do some workshops with students.

Hopefully, the big plan is to have a jazz festival this time next year, in October 2025.

-That would be fun.

That would be fun.

Of all those things that you do, what's your favorite?

-It has to be the writing.

It's something magical and very spiritual about starting with a blank page, whether it's a poem or a story.

In effect, you create a whole new world.

It's something that you really can't explain.

You may have an idea, and suddenly, that idea just develops, and you have real characters.

It's just quite an unbelievable process.

-James, what would you tell parents out there that are watching right now or maybe a young student in Jackson, how they can become a writer?

What a parent can do to help foster, to spark something in their child, or for a student to think, "I can do this too"?

-I think most parents read to their children, and that's a very good thing.

Having your kids read for themselves, that's how you learn how to write.

Reading exposes you to different ideas.

It increases your vocabulary.

It helps to spark your imagination.

Reading is basically how I learned to write.

I read everything that I could possibly get my hands on, and so I think reading is the first step.

It's simple.

It's like lifting weights.

The more weights you lift, the bigger and the stronger you get.

Reading is the same concept.

-I think so much since social media has become so prevalent that people are spending so much time on social media, which is almost like their echo chamber.

When you're reading, you're exposed to other people's ideas, other places, thoughts, ways of thinking that can maybe spark something in yourself.

If you're just reading people that all think like you, the growth sort of stops.

-Not only that, Peter.

You may have a great idea for a story or a poem, but you may not know how to put it on paper.

Reading exposes you to different avenues of expression for your own ideas.

-What keeps you in Jackson, Tennessee?

Because you have traveled around the world, you spend time on the road a lot, speaking at colleges and different book events.

You always come home to Jackson.

You've never moved away.

What keeps you here?

-I have some business interests here as well.

My family, my grandfather was instrumental in establishing Mission Convalesce.. which is a nursing home here in Jackson.

My wife and I, we have a home care business as well, TLC Home Care.

There are some business interests.

Also, Jackson, I find, being between Memphis and Nashville, it's a growing city, and I think it's a fine city for me.

We're an hour or two hours from Nashville.

Jackson, I believe, is a city on the move.

There's room for growth.

There's an influx of people now coming in with different ideas and different perspectives on things.

For me, Jackson is a good city.

-When you're out and about and tell people where you're from, do you say, I'm from Tennessee, or do you say Jackson, Tennessee?

-I say Jackson, Tennessee.

When you think about it, Sonny Boy Williamson, number one, who was a blues harmonica player, he's from Jackson.

This is the boyhood home of Gil Scott-Heron.

Carl Perkins, Rockabilly Legends.

There's been numerous athletes that have come out of Jackson.

There's some good things going on here.

-Tell us how you feel about the current state of writing.

The publishing industry has gone through so much change, like all media has.

People are self-publishing now.

People are, it's all about podcasting, things like that.

Where does old-fashioned books fit into the picture?

-I think there will always be a need for old-fashioned books, as you say.

The issue is that, now, there's basically four or five major publishers all in New York City.

There are still avenues where you can get your work published.

This book, Edge of the Wind, was published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press.

University Press is our option.

Then there's also independent publishers like Gray Wolf out of Minnesota.

The key thing for me is not so much, the big name of the publisher, the key thing to me is the distribution.

Can your publisher get the books where they need to be, right?

That's what basically what I always look at.

I think as long as people are writing, and self-publishing is an option, but I've always viewed self-publishing as maybe a final option more or less.

I think as long as people are writing, editors and publishers, they will find the writers.

-James, let's delve into your book, the Edge of the Wind.

It came out in 2016.

-Correct.

-Then they just had the second printing recently in 2022?

-Correct, yes.

-Why did they do a second printing?

-At the time, there was a lot of issues and talk about social justice going on.

There was the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and some other issues going on.

The publisher thought it would be timely because the book deals with some matters of race.

Of course, there's other issues as well, such as father-son relationships and poetry and literature.

I was elated that the publisher thought enough to have a second edition.

This edition here, there's a full work by another fine Tennessee writer, Charles Dodd White.

Also, there's a study guide at the end of the second edition.

-That's what I thought when I saw the study guide, is I could have seen this back when I was in college as required reading.

They had a common list of books that all students had to read in their freshman year in required classes to expose you to different, Native American writers, African-American, different voices as we studied that.

Is it being used in colleges?

-I believe some colleges and universities are using the book.

Yes, you're right.

-I don't like to tell people what a story is.. because I'm always afraid I'm going to be a spoiler, so I let the author do that.

Give us a little snippet to those that haven't read it, what the book is about.

-The book is based on a true incident that happened in Dyersburg at Dyersburg State Community College in, I believe, 2003.

In that incident, a young man took a math class hostage.

In my scenario, the young man, he's off his medication and he wants to write poetry.

He's written all these poems and he's been standing with his sister and he's been writing these poems.

He's been reading all this book, reading all these books.

He decides to visit this junior college in his neighborhood to get the poems critique.

He goes to the literature class, the first time they put him out.

He decides to go back.

When he goes back the second time, he refuses to be put out.

Matter of fact, he takes a gun with him and he takes the literature class hostage.

That's the premise of the book.

-How did that news item, real world news item from Dyersburg Community College spark, "Hey, that the story behind the story would make a fascinating fiction book"?

-That news story stayed with me long after it was over.

I kept thinking about it.

I kept thinking about the way our society treats those with who are having issues with their mental health.

That played a factor into it.

Then just the all the racial turmoil that we were going through at the time.

The story actually germinated with me for several years before I actually started writing.

We mentioned that at the top of the interview, that writing is a magical process.

What I find is sometimes the best writing takes place when you're not writing at all.

You're just thinking about the characters.

You're thinking about the plot and the storyline.

That's pretty much how the book came about.

-I don't want to give away an ending, but do we know-- and I don't know if your ending is similar.

Whatever happened to the student in Dyersburg?

-The TBI, they stormed the classroom and that student, he was killed.

-I kept thinking, "Boy, this doesn't just deal with racial issues, but how we deal with mental health issues," which is growing every month.

There's new stories in some cities, some areas, some communities are dealing with it much differently.

They have mental health officers that are going with police to deal with these issues rather than just killing people.

Do you feel that mental health is being dealt with how it should?

Do you think we're on a better understanding of it?

-I think the stigma is less today.

I think there is a concerted effort now when officers do arrive on the scene, hopefully they have some background on who they're dealing with and they fully understand what they're walking into.

I think things have gotten better, but there's still room for improvement.

-The other thing that really struck me about is like, this kid just wanted to learn.

Yes, he was off his medication.

Are we doing enough in this country and in Jackson and Tennessee to make sure that everyone, regardless of race, regardless of their socioeconomic status, can get an education?

-That's a profound question.

-I really feel that question and how we answer that and how we deal with that as a society is going to impact a lot of stuff.

-I think in a lot of ways, our educational system may be more segregated today than it was during the civil rights era.

If you look at some school districts, you still have schools that are more than less predominantly Black.

You still have more.

You still have some that are predominantly white.

I think racism still plays an issue in our educational system.

That's a hindrance that we need to deal with.

-Are you asked to speak about racial issues as you talk about your books at colleges?

-Yes, I am.

-What are some of those themes of your speeches?

-I guess the main thing would be is that we're still as a community and as a nation, we seem to be going over the same ground that we've already covered before.

Here, it is 2025, the issue of voting rights still comes up.

Issues of police brutality are still at the forefront of our conversation.

It appears that we take one step forward in some instances and then we turn around and take that step back.

There's been studies, there have been commissions and all these other things.

I think one on one, you're a white man, I'm a Black man.

I think we can sit down and find some common ground, but the institutions that we deal with and live under, I think those need some serious reevaluation.

-In the affirmative action college admissions, you're seeing sort of the play out now.

That goes back to racism in our educational systems.

That's been in the headlines.

-That's why affirmative action was created to t..

Some days, I think we're actually regressing instead of progress.

-We've come to the time on Tennessee Writes for the segment we like to call Lightning Round.

It's where we ask our visiting authors to answer as many questions as they can in two minutes about books, reading, writing, and other authors.

If you don't can't think of an answer, just say pass.

-Okay.

-Key is tr..

The clock will start after I ask the first question.

Favorite book of all time.

-Native Son, Richard Wright.

-What book are you reading right now?

-The Black Utopians by Aaron Robertson.

-The last book you finished reading.

-The Vain Conversation.

-What book have you read the most times?

-Probably Their Eyes Were Watching God.

-How many times?

-Three.

-What author, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with?

-I think John Steinbeck.

-Paper books or e-books?

-Paper.

-Who would you want to play you if your book or life is made into.. -Denzel.

[chuckles] -Favorite place to read books?

-At home.

-Least favorite place to read books?

-Restaurant.

-On average, how many books do you read in one year's time?

-Probably 10 to 12.

-What book has most influenced your life?

-The Bible.

-What book is on your list to read next?

-Yet to be determined.

-How many books are on your nightstand right now?

-More than 20.

-What book took you the longest time to finish reading?

-War and Peace.

-How long?

-Eight months.

[chuckles] -Do you own more paperback books or hardcover books?

-Paper.

-What's your favorite movie based on a book?

-The Godfather.

-What's the last audio book you listened to?

-Don't do audio book.

-Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction books?

-Fiction.

-Whose autobiography is your all-time favorite?

-Malcolm X.

-Name a fellow author you would like to go on a book tour with.

-Percival Evans.

-Who did you give a copy of your first published book to?

The first copy.

-A guy named Arthur Flowers, one of my mentors.

-That's two minutes.

-Yes, 23, new high score.

-Oh my gosh, you're the high score.

Thank you.

You did excellent on our Lightning Roun.. and ask if you would read an excerpt from your book.

-Sure, I would love to.

-James E. Cherry from the Edge of the Wind.

-All right, I will read the opening chapter or a few pages from the opening chapter.

Alexander van der Pool awoke like a man crawling out of a deep, dark hole.

He yawned, stretched, rough crests of sl.. from his eyes and flipped off the radio.

The cracker was more static than jazz.

The weather had changed since he'd been holed up in his sister's spare bedroom in Stouffville, the middle of nowhere.

Late September descended upon West Tennessee, blanketed it in shorter days and cooler temps.

He knew that meant the frenzy of high school football, bright lights at the county fair, and fields woven with intricate designs of cotton.

Alex knew this part of the country well and hated it.

He was born and raised in Stouffville, and couldn't believe after all these years, he was now back where he started.

He blinked twice and everything sharpened into focus.

Four pairs of pants clung to the back of a chair, three short-sleeved shirts draped a dresser.

Several torn out pages from a legal pad haphazardly covered the bed.

Books, poetry, novels, textbooks were all strewn across the bedroom.. as there's nothing more than an afterthought.

Some were dog-eared, others lay open on their bellies and many were stac.. but all were the byproduct of his sister's four years at State College.

In the last two months, Alex had read everything in t.. had reread Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Hemingway, and Steinbeck, but fell asleep with Richard Wright's Native Son across his chest.

He groped like a blind man for the book beside him, and when he did, it thudded against the floor.

Alex bolted upright and sat on the side of his bed.

He jerked his head around as if someone had called his name but couldn't determine from which direction it came.

He held Native Son like a rosary while his eyes settled on a photograph of himself, his sister, and his mother on a dresser.

The image was as fresh as it was 17 years ago.

He closed his eyes and savored the memory as if it were a slice of deep, rich chocolate cake.

He was 9 years old, his sister Margaret 14, and their mom between them with her arms draped around his shoulders.

It was a Saturday afternoon in April and he was happy again.

The three of them smiled as if Marshall Park was heaven and they had halos over their heads, happy.

He and his sister ran for the swing set, used their legs to break the bonds of gravity and race toward the sun.

Her legs were longer and stronger, and sometimes she sailed so high and wide, he thought she would orbit the planet at any moment.

The basketball court was another matter.

What he lacked in height and length, he compensated with speed and quickness.

Alex fake left and drove right to get around Margaret and lay the ball off the backboard and through the net every time.

Afterward, his mother returned from their car and stretched the blanket across the green grass down by the lake.

The three of them bowed their heads and blessed a picnic basket of fried chicken, potato salad, fruit, and slices of chocolate cake.

They washed it down with cold bottles of orange soda and smacked their lips.

His mother became recumbent against the earth and used the open book to shield her eyes from the sun.

Margaret waved at a classmate, Elise, who met her halfway to discuss Ms. Southerland's English class, and every bond who sat in the third row.

Alex meandered by the lake, the late afternoon light, warm and ethereal upon the water.

He walked down the pier where kids his age used it as a diving board to splash in and out of the water, their laughter yelling around as it bounced across the park.

The wind rolled off the day like a bedtime lullaby and no amount of noise could drown out his sweet harmonies.

He sat on the bank of the lake, lingering in the peace he found there.

When he walked back towards his mom, four ducks flapped their wings and waddled after him.

Noticing he had nothing to offer them, the ducks stopped and watched as Alex stumbled up a hill.

When he reached his mother and sister, Elise joined them, holding his mother's camera.

He still remembered the inflections in Elise's voice when she said, "Say cheese."

-Sadly, we've run out of time for this episode of Tennessee Writes.

James, we would like to thank you for coming on and sharing about your book and everything you're working on.

I hope to have you back.

Before you go, we have something to ask.

Would you sign your book?

-I'll be on it to.

-Thank you.

-To Peter and Tennessee Writes, all the best with the series and thank you for loving literature.

-For comments about today's show or to suggest a Tennessee author for a future program, email us at tennesseewrites@westtnpbs.org.

Tennessee Writes, on air and streaming now.

-This program you've been watching was made possible through the generous financial support of West Tennessee PBS viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.