Episode 36 Just a girl from Texas, with a writer’s pen and a Harvard law degree
Entertainment lawyer turned writer/novelist Ginger McKnight-Chavers shares her inspiration for her debut award-winning novel In the Heart of Texas, influenced in part by the lessons she learned from her mother, a prominent African-American woman of Dallas.
From Harvard Law School, with friend/classmate Michelle Obama, to suburban mom, Ginger expounds upon her article “Beyonce Is My Type of Feminist” where she describes the reality of most women’s complex lives “juggling a menagerie of roles, responsibilities, relationship, and desires” and why the unpaid workload of volunteerism matters, even without a paycheck.
Episode originally aired live on WVOX-AM on April 14, 2022
Ginger’s Bio:
Ginger McKnight-Chavers is an author and attorney whose debut novel, In the Heart of Texas, won the 2016 USA Best Book Award in the category of African American Fiction. A native Texan, McKnight-Chavers is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Harvard Law School. She is an experienced arts/entertainment and nonprofit attorney, having served as Director of Legal Services for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in New York, NY, and Vice President, Legal Affairs, at Black Entertainment Television. She practiced corporate law at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York, NY, and Warner-Lambert Company in Morris Plains, NJ. She was awarded a Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellowship at Sarah Lawrence College in 2008 and is currently an instructor in SLC’s Writing Institute. An excerpt from her novel-in-progress, Oak Cliff, appears in Solstice as a 2019 finalist in their annual literary contest, and McKnight-Chavers was a contributor to Oil and Water: And Other Things That Don’t Mix. Her work also appears in Essence, The New York Times, New York Family, ShareBlue, The Huffington Post, and other publications. McKnight-Chavers chairs the Board of Directors of Summer on the Hill and serves on the Executive Committee of the Black Arts Council at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is a member of The Authors Guild, PEN America, the Writers’ League of Texas, Women Fiction Writers of America, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., The Links, Incorporated, and The Girl Friends.
Adams-Wade, N (2017, January 17), Dallas-Raised Author Ginger McKnight-Chavers Coming Home on Heels of Successful First Novel. dallasnews.com
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Ginger’s Publications
In the Heart of Texas, Ginger McKnight-Chavers (2016)
McKnight-Chavers (2016, October 19), Beyonce Is My Type of Feminist. essence.com
Additional Reading
Gonzales, M (2022, February 17), Nearly 2 Million Fewer Women in Labor Force. shrm.org
Hogenboom, M (2021, May 18), The Hidden Load: How ‘thinking of everything’ Holds Mums Back. bbc.com
Life’s Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom, Lisa Belkin (2002)