FC 97 An Extraordinary Family with Liz Petry

Fieldstone Common - Northeast History & Genealogy Radio with Marian Pierre-Louis

This week on Fieldstone Common our featured guest is author Liz Petry. This week’s discussion is a little different because we are not speaking about a particular book. Instead we are talking with Liz about her inspirational and extraordinary family which include two of the first licensed African American Pharmacists in the state of Connecticut and her mother, Ann Petry who was the first best selling female African American author.

Bio – Liz Petry

With more than 10 years of experience in journalism and a degree in law, Liz Petry has found great rewards in researching and writing two books about aspects of the African American experience. Her first book “Can Anything Beat White?: A Black Family’s Letters,” explored the lives of her maternal grandmother’s family as they traveled to Hawaii, the Philippines and parts of the Deep South between the 1890s and 1910. Her second book, “At Home Inside: A Daughter’s Tribute to Ann Petry,” is a memoir about her amazing and multifaceted mother, the renowned author, Ann Petry. Liz is currently working on a new non-fiction book that engages topics beyond her family and beyond the twentieth century.

Publication Info

Title: Connecticut Explored Magazine

Publication Date: Fall 2014

Article: “Just Like Georgia Except for the Climate,” by Elisabeth Petry

The Interview

In this interview Liz Petry and I discuss her family’s transformation from Southern escaped slaves to educated middle class residents of Connecticut. Her grandfather, Peter Lane, was the first male African American pharmacist in the State of Connecticut and her great aunt, Anna Louise James, was the first female African American pharmacist. Her mother was the first African American Best Selling Author in the United States. We dig deep into her heritage and discuss the successes and challenges that her family has faced through the generations.

Links mentioned during the interview:

• Liz Petry Blog
  
• Ann Petry Fan Page on Facebook
• Ann Petry Bio on WikiPedia
• FC 84 – African American Connecticut Explored with Katherine Harris
• African American Connecticut Explored (the book)

Books by Ann Petry

• The Street (novel), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946
• The Narrows (novel), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1953
• Miss Muriel and Other Stories (story collection), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971
• Tituba of Salem Village (historical novel for children), 1955, New York: Crowell, 1964

Please see the WikiPedia listing above for other books by Ann Petry.

Books By Liz Petry

• Can Anything Beat White?: A Black Family’s Letters, University Press of Mississippi, 2012
• At Home Inside: A Daughter’s Tribute to Ann Petry, University Press of Mississippi, 2008

Prize Winner

A one-year subscription to Connecticut Explored Magazine is given out to the Fieldstone Common audience courtesy of Connecticut Explored.

The winner is:

• To be announced next week

Congratulations to our winner and thanks to Connecticut Explored Magazine for their generosity in donating the subscription!

Make sure you qualify to win the giveaway next week by signing up for the Bonus List! Once you sign up your are in the running each week!

The Direct Link to this post is
http://www.fieldstonecommon.com/liz-petry

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