Birmingham English Department society (BEDSOC) member and culture writer Heidi Fogden reviews Gathering Blossoms Under Fire – The Journals of Alice Walker, finding the journal collection to be a wide-ranging and intimate insight into the mind of the American writer and activist
content warning: mention of female genital mutilation.
“I am an African Woman; naturally I insist on all the freedoms”
Edited by Valerie Boyd, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire is a collection of writer Alice Walker’s journals, dating from 1965-2000. This epic volume works through ideas of inspiration, generation, acts of paying homage, and includes notes on girlhood, womanhood, sisterhood, and the volatility of motherhood. Through themes of emergence, creativity and selfhood, readers are invited to step into ‘Alice’s world’, ‘world’ being her living spaces, her connections, her sexuality, her relationships with family and creatives, as well as insights into her own world view.
What really struck me about this work was it’s rawness
Best known for her 1982 novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker was born in Georgia in 1944. Through this set of journals, we see Alice in college, working on poetry, researching and writing about seminal writers like Zora Neale Hurston, and reacting in disbelief to being the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Simultaneously, Alice notes her feelings on her marriage, unstable relationships with friends and her daughter, and the ups and downs of love affairs. Alongside these more well-known experiences, Alice delves into her input to Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of The Color Purple and the behind-the-scenes of making the Warrior Marks (1993) documentary about female genital mutilation.
Threads of empowerment, sorrow and imagination are sewn throughout… in these bursting colours of feeling, we see Walker, in my opinion, at her most reflective
Whilst the content of her journals does include aspects of her incredible autobiography, what really struck me about this work was its rawness about how Walker felt, and how the journal format allows this idea of exposure to come about. Specifically, Walker freely notes her emotions and reactions to everyday occurrences so naturally, then links them to a higher idea of a relationship, creativity or something she has read about.
This is fascinating in its ‘unedited’ nature, as Walker exposes her true thoughts without the threat of being edited or perfectly ‘tidying up’ her words, which feels refreshing, and leaves space for us to form our own opinions on subjects, whether we agree with Walker’s or not. As a result, the work feels less autobiographical and more like a carefully crafted novel itself, with Walker forming her own character as the journals progress. Threads of empowerment, sorrow and imagination are sewn throughout, as we see Walker’s excitement at meeting people like Fidel Castro or Quincy Jones or mourning the death of family members and friends. In these bursting colours of feeling, we see Walker, in my opinion, at her most reflective.
The work feels less autobiographical and more like a carefully crafted novel itself
Formatted into little daily excerpts, the journals are very approachable to read and allow us to nip in and out of Alice’s thoughts. We can admire Walker’s vulnerability as she acknowledges how she feels in certain moments, and how those feelings may be embarrassing but are valid. This is important, as it shows that whilst Alice writing about her extravagant lifestyle (sometimes lunching with close friend Gloria Steinem or discussing the “Great Spirit” with lovers) is engaging, she creates the journals as a safe space for her own self-development. In this way, Walker shows how writing doesn’t always need some bigger meaning or purpose, and that the act of writing can be for ourselves. Being in control of her own narrative in this aspect feels empowering. Intimately, these excerpts end up informing her works, and we can see Walker’s ideas forming into novels and poems early on.
“But home. To rest & rain & reading.”
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire is a beautifully crafted exploration into selfhood, female empowerment, and knowing the writer behind the writing. In this way, the journals are for people who love reading, and love to read about reading.
Whilst I didn’t agree with all of Walker’s thoughts, it is a huge privilege as a reader to read such an intimate account of an incredible, inspiring life.
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