Charmaine Wilkerson is the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, which was named a Read With Jenna Book Club Pick and adapted as a Hulu streaming series by Oprah Winfrey and Kapital Entertainment. She is an American writer who has lived in Jamaica and Italy. A graduate of Barnard College and Stanford University, she is a former journalist whose award-winning short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Her latest novel is Good Dirt, and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What was your inspiration for Good Dirt?
Good Dirt is the story of a young Connecticut woman who runs off to a quiet village in France to escape painful memories from a family tragedy and a more recent, very public, romantic breakup. Only her past catches up with her. The character, Ebby Freeman, simply materialized on the page as I was thinking about what it would take for a person to move forward in life after tremendous loss, especially when their personal pain had become public knowledge through media coverage. The question was inspired by my professional past. I used to work in television news and often found myself walking into someone’s home at the worst time in their life. Following Ebby allowed me to explore the fact that so many people do manage to carry their pain in a way that allows them to love and laugh, take care of their families and communities, and do useful work despite all.
Are Ebby, Baz, Soh, Ed, Willis, Moses, or any of the other characters in the novel inspired by or based on specific individuals?
The characters were imagined, but their situations reflect broad scenarios from real life that we don’t usually see in fiction. I conducted research to construct the backstory to Ebby’s present day dilemma. I knew she came from a wealthy, longtime African American family from New England. The characters Willis and Moses benefitted greatly from research into nineteenth-century American life. In my imagination, I knew that Ebby would have seafarers in her past, and I knew that the antique jar that shows up early in the story would have a history of personal significance to the Freeman family. I read nonfiction books and articles about real-life Black seafarers traveling along the North American coast in the 1800s, some of whom were enslaved but hired out to work on the ships. I also learned something about the mass production of stoneware by enslaved persons in the American South. Both of these realities informed the circumstances under which the characters Willis and Moses lived.
How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version?
I would say the story went through the opposite process, expanding like bread dough. I added pages from my files that I’d originally left out. I also wrote new lines after looking through reference materials for additional details. Then, when I presented the draft of my novel to my publishers, they asked questions about the history of Ebby’s family, and I responded by adding even more material from my files. They, too, were intrigued by aspects of American history that didn’t typically appear in the pages of fictional books. As a result, the historical component of the novel deepened.
How familiar were you with 19th century pottery created by enslaved workers prior to writing Good Dirt? Did you have to do a bit of research to tell the story you wanted to tell? If so, how long did it take you to do the research and write Good Dirt?
I knew relatively little. As I was looking into what might make an antique vase or jar special enough for a family like the Freemans to hold onto it for six generations, I began to research objects that an enslaved person might be able to carry with them. I wrote the first few chapters of Good Dirt while preparing my debut novel Black Cake for publication. But I put very little work into it as the new process of preparing a book for publication and my other work consumed much of my time. Later, I would need to return to the books and articles I’d read, pour over the pencil notes I’d made in the margins, and reopen audiovisual files to reinsert myself into that world. By then, stoneware objects produced by enslaved potters, and in some cases engraved with phrases, were gaining new attention in the media, in part through a major traveling exhibit. I was delighted to see that the fictional characters Moses and Willis could have lived and worked among the real-life potters. The exhibit and new articles helped me to refine my telling of the fictional tale.
What was the most interesting or surprising thing that you learned during your research? The historical elements in Good Dirt refer to both the American North and South?
It was interesting to read about Black seafarers who were enslaved and who left American ports on board sailing ships and still returned. A person today might wonder how all of them didn’t simply run off as soon as they’d landed in a distant city, but there were controls in place. Some people had loved ones back on shore. Seamen may have been controlled by fear of violence, retribution against their families, or the loss of any privileges they may have gained. Others may have been encouraged by the option to earn a bit of personal income after paying those who held them in bondage. Some were saving to buy their freedom or the freedom of others.
Your biography says that you are a former journalist. Can you tell us a bit about your work as a journalist? Does your background in journalism inform or influence your writing of fiction?
Earlier, I mentioned how my work in TV news led me to imagine Ebby. Another, more general, way in which my work as a journalist has influenced the writing of fiction is the fact that journalism is another form of storytelling. You meet people who are different from you. You travel through your community. You listen to people’s stories. You observe. Also, having worked with camera images and sound means that often, I would not describe something. I would write around what the viewer could see and hear. I still do that in print form. I don’t always describe a person or place directly. I find ways to write around it in the hope that the choice of wording can help readers to visualize things for themselves. It’s a stylistic decision.
Your first novel, Black Cake, was adapted into a series on Hulu. Can you tell us a bit about that? What was the level of your involvement? What was it like for you to see your novel adapted?
The screen series was something like my novel, but it was also its own entity. It was an extension of the story. An interpretation. Another art form. It was interesting to see how the screenwriters and actors inserted entire scenes that had been implied in my writing but had not been spelled out. I had made conscious choices to leave certain details off the page, but I was pleased to see how effectively the series team brought them to life.
If/when Good Dirt is adapted, who would your dream cast be?
If anyone decides to make a film from this novel, maybe then I’ll tell you!
In your Author’s Note, you talk about the importance of inherited stories and objects and how they can affect a family’s and individual’s sense of identity. You also provided references to both fiction and non-fiction stories you had heard/seen/read about these types of family legacy. Does your family have any stories or artifacts that have been handed down from generation to generation?
We have some stories, but mostly tend to have no objects that go back in time by more than a couple of generations. It may be for this very reason that I love to explore the idea of legacy, the tangible and intangible, and how these elements shape our identities. Like the protagonist in Black Cake, my mother inherited a recipe for black cake, which my mother called rum pudding or plum pudding. She wrote down the recipe so that it would be passed on to the next generation. Sometimes, the stories or memories attached to otherwise mundane or everyday items carry the greatest value.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
The Life of Herod the Great, an unfinished work by Zora Neale Hurston. A nonfiction book, Night Magic by Leigh Ann Henion, about the natural world and life that thrives in the dark. An advance copy of a novel due to be published in July 2025, called Love Forms, a family drama by Trinidadian author Claire Adam.
Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors?
Every year, I add new favorites. Five of the authors whose work I have long loved and who have influenced my way of thinking about my own storytelling include Toni Morrison, Amy Tan, and Anne Tyler. I love the storytelling structures used by Alice Walker, Elizabeth Strout and George Saunders.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
The Secret Garden remains one of my favorite childhood stories. Also, a collection of stories written in Jamaican patois about the misadventures of Anancy the spider and his animal pals (by a popular storyteller and actress).
Is there a book that changed your life?
Surely, the first book I ever read on my own from cover to cover.
Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?
So many books, but one which comes to mind right now is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
What is the last piece of art (music, movies, TV, more traditional art forms) that you've experienced or that has impacted you?
Recently, I saw and loved the new movie version of The Piano Lesson, adapted from the stage play by August Wilson. I have known that play for years and seen it at the theater, but each generation—and each medium—has the opportunity to bring something new to the interpretation of a work of art.
What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?
If not reading, I would just step outside and go. Watch the world. Look at people’s faces. Absorb their energy. Maybe sit down for a cup of something and a chat with someone who keeps my faith in humanity high.
What is the question that you’re always hoping you’ll be asked but never have been?
What do you think of the way in which books are grouped into genres?
What is your answer?
Categorizing novels and other stories into genres can be helpful to readers who tend to prefer one kind of story over the other, and it certainly helps libraries and booksellers to choose and promote books for readers. But I think that a novel, which typically runs 300-400 pages, should be able to cross genres, just as our lives run across a wide range of experiences. I love the way in which some authors today are blurring the lines between one genre and another and I like to think of myself as doing this. Two recent reads I’ve enjoyed that feel like cross-genre books are Shawntelle Madisons’s The Fallin Fruit and Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on another multi-location family drama. There will be food in it, but unlike my debut novel Black Cake, not necessarily cake.
Book Review: Good Dirt