Media for Marjorie Hudson’s debut novel INDIGO FIELD, including podcast links, videos, reviews, interviews, and features.
Podcasts
Charlotte Readers and Writers Podcast – Interview with Hannah Larrew
Hannah is so fun to talk to! Indigo Field, a novel of loss, injustice, and revenge.
Authoring Onward – Interview with Connie Dowell
What happens after publication? Authors and Editors Connie Dowell and Joy Howell and I talk about how I became a Southern writer, a builder of writing community, and the advantages of publishing later in life.
Talking about Indigo Field, reading poetry to trees, giant clouds of pollen, recognized crabbiness, whether you can ever really know someone.
WCHL: On the Porch with Randy Voller
Randy and I had fun talking about small towns, the Midwest, parades, libraries, and my new novel, Indigo Field.
What makes a Southern novel? Flannery O’Connor says the writer must find “where time and place and eternity meet.” A Regal House podcast with publisher Jaynie Royal, Regal House editor Pam Van Dyk, and fellow Regal House/Sour Mash Series author Culley Holderfield, about our two new novels, Indigo Field and Hemlock Hollow.
Dorrier/Underwood Empowering Leadership
Talking with business consultant and host Doug McVadon about George Moses Horton, the first black man to publish a book in the American South – and how he was part of the inspiration for my novel Indigo Field.
Videos
Interview by Michele Tracy Berger
Just hanging out with bff, kickass writer and scholar Michele Tracy Berger, talking about why I wrote Indigo Field and how I write about what bothers me, including the fact that what white people and Black people know about history are two different things.
Peter Mock / McIntyres Books Loves Indigo Field
Peter Mock, buyer at McIntyres Books, spearheads a national promotion of Indigo Field to fellow booksellers
I think this trailer by Donna Campbell absolutely captures INDIGO FIELD – and the fields and birds singing are from the pastures where I live.
As an activist promoting recognition of George Moses Horton, the first Black man to publish a book in the South, I tell his life story and ask audience members to read excerpts out loud that bring the poet’s voice to life.
Reviews, Interviews, and Features
Time, place and eternity meet in Indigo Field, Review by Stephen E. Smith, PineStraw Magazine
“The literary world needs to know about Indigo Field, and readers need to snatch it off bookstore shelves or download it online.”
A North Carolina novel you won’t want to miss, Review by Linda Brinson
“Marjorie Hudson’s debut novel is so beautifully written, so powerful, so true and so haunting that it’s hard to come up with one adjective sufficient to describe it….”
Interview by Michele Tracy Berger
Just hanging out with bff, kickass writer and scholar Michele Tracy Berger, talking about why I wrote Indigo Field and how I write about what bothers me, including the fact that what white people and Black people know about history are two different things.
Interview by Lily Iona MacKenzie
What an interesting queue of ten questions – one of my favorites was about how I would review my own book. Part of my answer: I wish someone would ask me why I structured my characters in a certain order. It’s this: first, the character Rand slips us into the white world. This is because most readers are from the white world, and so am I. Then, the character Reba slips readers into the (unfamiliar-to-middle-class-white-readers) world of Black poverty and injustice against Black people. Then, Miss Reba takes over the book. It’s a book about racism and trickery – about the way we tell history. I’m tricking the reader into entering an unfamiliar world. The world of Black knowledge about the history nobody talks about.
Women Writers/Women’s Books: Indigo Field – Review by Val Nieman
“Sometimes, the ties that bind are invisible as the mycelial networks that underlie field and forest. Without such support and communication with others, a living world will die. So will a community. Hudson’s tale takes us through grief to joy, turns our mourning into dancing as opposites are drawn together, past and present, old and young, dead and living, Black and native American and white. …”
Southern Review of Books – Magic Mysticism, Hard Times in Indigo Field – Review by Jenny Maattala
“The world doesn’t contain one set of systems and beliefs that helps a person process their station in life or when death, loss, or trouble comes knocking at their door. Some turn to gods and holy texts. Others turn to hardcore facts and science. In between the worlds of science and religion is another realm where spirituality and cultural traditions guide the path. In her debut novel, Indigo Field, Marjorie Hudson effortlessly covers the scope of these elements, and so much more. . . .”
The Washington City Paper – Anatomy of a Southern Novel – Interview by Emma Francois
“In a very strange set of surprising coincidences, [my father] went to divinity school with Martin Luther King Jr. One day, when King was in town to speak, my dad wanted to take us to meet him. So all us children were dressed up in our Sunday best and we were trying to get to [King] through the crowd. He was scurried away by his bodyguards because at this time he was under death threats. So we never got close enough to meet, but then, three days later, he was assassinated. That had a huge effect on me. …”
I’ve Got Questions for Marjorie Hudson – Blog Interview by Clifford Garstang
“The Good Neighborhood, by Therese Fowler (Black and white neighbors feud) meets A Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (the spirit of a murdered child has conversations out loud with the main character) meets The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (nothing about Afghanistan, but a grown man needs to find a way to atone for his past).”
Chatham News Record – Hudson Debut Novel Earns Raves
“For me, it’s about how we ignore history and ignore crossing boundaries at our own peril,” Hudson said. “However, it’s also a story about personal growth and coming together as a community. The story has as many layers as life here does.”
NAACP/CRC News – Restoring George Moses Horton Freedom Path
I’ve been working with George Moses Horton Middle School and my local CRC committee of the NAACP to educate students and teachers about the George Moses Horton Freedom Path, now restored, a project created by students in 2000. Scan the qr code for educational materials about Horton, First Black Man to publish a book in the South, an enslaved man who was a genius of poetry. For many years after integration, the school forgot who it was named for. Now the poet and the alumni of the Black Horton High School on this site are celebrated every year. In 2021 the School Board agreed to adjust the name of the school to reflect the poet’s full name.
Eclectica Salon Read Local, by Marko Fong
Marko Fong, editor of Eclectica Journal, has an idea about how serious literary books like Indigo Field, lacking New York publicity machinery, could get more attention.
Essays
The Sweet Strangeness of Bynum, NC – by Marjorie Hudson – Garden & Gun
Ten reasons I love Bynum – Number 6.: River gravity.
My aerobics teacher and artist friend Karen shows me her house next to the river, apologizes for the random placement of furniture. “Chairs move across the floor toward the river when it floods.”
