The Last Interview

This was a small book. I thought it was literally the last interview with her before she died. The book does contain a chapter on that. But it also has a lot of other interviews with her. Toni wrote The Bluest Eye. It is the only book I have read from her. She wrote it when she was 39 years old.

Toni was a college professor for a number of colleges including her alma mater Howard. She spent almost 20 years being a book editor herself. She published 8 books. The interviews in the middle of her career felt very academic.

Toni grew up in Ohio. Her family fled there from the south, where there was trouble. Toni divorced after having a few kids. Originally she would wake up before dawn and write before her kids woke up. She said her first book was a printing run of 1500 books. She thought it initially only sold 100 copies. It got picked up by a college as required reading, causing it to be a success.