![]() Running parallel to their relationship is a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers, all set against the backdrop of a violent, prejudiced town. He credits Brown and the creative writing program for helping him commit to an epic undertaking that one reviewer described as “unwriting Gone with the Wind,” destroying phony representations of romanticism and race.īlending historical fiction and a cast of rich, complex characters, Harris tells the story of two freedmen and a Georgia farmer who forge an alliance that alters their lives forever. That flame became The Sweetness of Water, a novel of critical acclaim accentuated by the fact it is Harris’s first, written before he turned 30. ![]() ![]() Upon reading Harris’s early working pages, Brown knew he was holding something special. “I saw fantastic writing that was the beginning of a long project, and all I did was encourage him,” he says. “I could see flame there.” ![]() ![]() Following Brown’s advice, Harris-then an undergraduate English major-concentrated instead on the sweeping tale that was almost writing itself in his head: a Civil War-era story of slave brothers at the moment of the Emancipation Proclamation, an expansive account that pulled Harris into exploring the deep waters of race and racism, power, love, and homosexuality. ![]()
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