Interview with Nikky Finney, December 16, 1997

Interview Summary

Finney discusses her childhood, racial integration, and her experience as one of the first three black students integrated into her middle school. Finney recalls being encouraged by her mother to write, and never wanted to be anything other than a writer. Finney attended Talladega College in Alabama In the end, she was not permitted to write the thesis the way she wanted to write it, so she did not finish her degree, but left the college. Finney spent several years in California, and then decided not to stay in California, and took a job as an instructor at the University of Kentucky. Beattie and Finney talk about the part of teaching writing that they have difficulty teaching. She thinks we all have creativity, and that it branches into a specific kind of creativity. Kentucky has had a profound effect on her writing. She discusses her poetic vision. She had been invited to participate in a Kentucky writer's conference, where Frank X. Walker was inspired to coin the term Affrilachian.

Interview Keyword

Nikky Finney Integration Civil rights Black Arts Movement Harlem Renaissance Affrilachian Poets

Interview LC Subject

Authors, American--Kentucky Intellectual life Literature Race discrimination Segregation in education Civil rights Black Arts movement Giovanni, Nikki African American universities and colleges African American women writers Norman, Gurney, 1937- African Americans--Appalachian Region Walker, Frank X, 1961- Finney, Nikky, 1957-

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.