Debut Author Panel: Winsome Bingham

 

Winsome Bingham is a soul food connoisseur and master cook (at dinner parties, reunions, and get-togethers). She is a teacher by trade, and author by choice, and a disabled military veteran by circumstance. She received both a bachelor's and master's degrees in education and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She has more than 15 years of  teaching experience. You can find her writing on a deck while waiting patiently with a camera to capture a submarine shooting out of the water or acquiring and editing manuscript that will one day find its place on bookshelves around the world. 

Winsome's debut picture book SOUL FOOD SUNDAY is about a little boy coming of age and his granny who teaches him to cook soul food.

What were you like as a kid, and was there some part of your childhood that made you feel called to do this work?

As a kid, being a writer wasn't on Winsome's radar. But when she was growing up her granny read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, and Winsome read every single one, too. She loved to read. But, it wasn't until she was working in high schools that she found herself creating stories for her students (out of need), and she started to put those students into the stories. At one point her VA therapist encouraged her to get back to what she liked, and luckily for all of us, writing was one of those things. 

Was there a time you wanted to give up, and what made you keep going? 

Someone wanted her to take God out of the book, but Winsome wasn't willing to do that. Having God in the book was about being totally true to the character. Winsome shares that there can be things that you can be willing to let go of, but if it's something you firmly believe in, stick with it. 

Winsome also added to some previous panelist's comments sharing that it's a good thing to remember that agents and editors get rejected too. She also reminds us that agents work for you. 

What was the craft lesson, that once it snapped into place, you sold your debut book?

Everyone's journey is so different. Winsome shares that she hates revising. Currently she's been revising a picture book for over a year. Sometimes you just can't get it right. She wants to get it right the first time around, and part that is because she has a traumatic brain injury, and she doesn't trust her brain.

Revising is part of the process, and for Winsome part of that is being able to talk it through (with her agent and editor). 

How did your debut begin for you, what did it teach you about yourself, and what do you hope it makes readers think about? 

For Winsome, Soul Food is about community. It's about love. She wanted to write a book about black joy. There are so many books about black and brown people that have an oppressive narrative.

How has publishing changed your life? 

"I don't know if it changed my life, because I'm still doing what I do." But Winsome took a job in publishing and now works as an editor at a publishing house, Reycraft Books. Now Winsome has some say in stories that get into readers' hands. 

Final thoughts:

Read, read, read. And write the story that you want to write.