The Mary Kay of creative writing

Within one year, Darnell Arnoult has published two books, become a grandmother and hit the big five-zero. The significance — before this past year, Arnoult has only published little poems here and there, but she’s been writing for the past 30 years. She has worked and reworked her poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

Arnoult has published a poetry book, What Travels With Us, and is publishing a novel, Sufficient Grace, in June 2006. The book is based on a woman’s transformation as she moves on from her old life to a new one.

Arnoult’s works are based heavily in the South and bring in parts of her own life to each page. She grew up in Martinsville, a rural town in Virginia, with her grandmother, Maude Burch. Arnoult said many of her characters come from growing up in Martinsville and the people who she met there. Her book of poems, What Travels With Us, is a book of characterizations made into a collection of poems. The title poem represents a painting local Raleigh artist Richard Garrison painted of Arnoult’s grandmother’s house.

“What Travels With Us is a combination of me and a fictional me,” Arnoult said. “What travels with me is all these people and all these voices that shape who I am.”

She has earned the label of a “southern” writer by growing up in the South and basing her books in the South, but she said she wouldn’t claim what type of writer she is.

“You can call me whatever you want, but I just want to be called a good writer.” Arnoult said, laughing.

Although Arnoult doesn’t claim to be a southern writer, it’s evident in her speech and her stories. She recalled a time when she was going to New York and her kids warned her not to sound like a “hick” or “country bumpkin.” She said the first thing to come out of her mouth after paying for the taxi did exactly what the kids told her not to do.

“I was in an elevator, and I said ‘gaw-lee they have a TV in the elevator!'” Arnoult said, laughing at herself. “It just popped out! A French man wearing black leather was sharing the elevator with me [and] turned to me and said in a thick accent, ‘I know tis strange, we don’t have television in de elevator in Paris either.'”

Whether she is a southern writer or not, Arnoult said she has been influenced by many southern contemporary writers such as Lee Smith and Larry Brown. Arnoult took a class with Lee Smith at UNC, and Smith has been her mentor ever since.

“Lee Smith is an amazing woman; she’s an amazing writer,” Arnoult said.

Writing is not the only thing Arnoult does — just recently her house burnt down, and she and her husband decided that they would build a new house on the land themselves.

“My husband does most of the work; he says I just peck,” Arnoult said, motioning with her hand how she “pecks.”

Arnoult also teaches creative writing and other writing classes in locations ranging from banks to court houses.

“I’m the Mary Kay of creative writing,” Arnoult said.

Although Arnoult’s book won’t be released until June 2006, anyone can get a quick glimpse of Sufficient Grace at the reading this afternoon in Caldwell Lounge.