 HBCU judges radio welcome back. I'm your host Jared Carter and today we are excited to have an esteemed author professor at Morehouse In the past and currently at Norfolk State University Curtis Bunn the author of more than nine Successful novels on essence bestsellers list here to talk with this today about his career and his genesis at the great Norfolk State University So Professor Bunn and Brother Bunn. I should say it is indeed an honor to have you on today Brother Carter my pleasure. Thanks for having me. So first give us some insight because you have this unique track in your your teaching and Learning so you're at Norfolk State But you live in Georgia. So Clearly, you're the hardest working man in the HBCU community By mileage and by Tom Joyner's definition, but tell us how that worked out that you returned to your alma mater to teach But you still keep residents in Georgia Well, I'm very proud of Norfolk State in general and specifically the outgoing president Dr. Melvin step in Vice President of Advancement Dr. Deborah Fartain who met with me in Atlanta February of last year 2018 Over brunch and during that conversation talked about the idea of bringing back Spartans to Norfolk State who've done a substantial work and in particular professions to teach It was I was excited I've gone back to Norfolk State over the years having graduated in 1983 and worked at the school newspaper during my four years I've gone back over the years many many times to speak to the student newspaper to speak to news lighting classes to speak to students in general as the Marsh grand marshal the poor homecoming parade as a distinguished alumna So I'm very much connected to Norfolk State and bleed green and gold But the opportunity to teach was always something that I really wanted to do But I live in Atlanta and really love living in Atlanta. So that was a that was a prohibitive factor. Well, they were innovative in saying, why don't we fly you up? once a month and you teach the other three months three weeks of the month online and I was like wow this works for me. My wife was a Norfolk State graduate as well was excited about the opportunity and we implemented this this hybrid sort of class of creative writing where I go up to Norfolk State once a week once a month rather for a week Teach the students teach them online doing the rest of the month and we've had great success. I've seen So much tremendous improvement in the students and this idea that we're creating the next generation of office is very exciting to me So to do it at more houses outstanding because it's an HTC you and I loved us I taught sports reporting there like my background is as a sports journalist also But to do it at Norfolk State a school in which I was raised coming in at 17 years old somewhat unsure of myself and leaving at 21 four years later ready to take on the world and become a journalist It means that much more to me Talk about that time in Norfolk. They obviously have a tremendous mass-con program talk about what The tools and the experiences that you gained at Norfolk That helped you to become and enter into the sports writing realm and how you eventually transitioned to novel writing and creative writing Yeah, it really started before I even went to go up the state. I grew up in southeast Washington DC and My English teacher in junior high school. Mr. Overson told me about journalism and I started pursuing it Then even though in my heart, I was going to be in the NBA like most young men's At 13 years old, right? But I went to blue high school that I studied journalism It was the editor of paper in my junior year and went to the pen career development center It's my scene in my senior year in the mornings and blue in the afternoon So I went to Norfolk State with the idea that I was going to study journalism And work for the student newspaper and that was really the heart of everything for me working for the Spartan at the newspaper From really my first week there to my last week over the four years working with guys like Dirk Dingo who's now One of the editors the editor at Black Enterprise and Leon Carter who is at ESPN Who's sort of been a mentor to me all my all of my career Certainly earlier in my career and we had professors who cared and so they prepared us through the newspaper It was a practical way to to write to get clips to learn from your mistakes to grow And by the time I graduated from Norfolk State I had three job offers and in my career was large but it was a very nurturing environment as HBCUs are it was a learning environment that Allowed you to learn from your mistakes And I grant I gained a great passion for the Spartan Echo newspaper Maintain that pet that passion for the Spartan Echo even as it right now is going it's Undergoing a revamping so to speak and I hope to be heavily involved in that at some point It was even when I was coming along in the 90s in the early 2000s HBCU school newspapers were a big deal and not just for the stuff like 20 questions where you know We throw something out there. It's crazy, but they were they were we were definitely Covering substantive issues on campus and in the community as you look at the landscape And you work with your students at Norfolk State today because the Spartan Echo is still a really good still a really good paper Do you see that That that spirit of journalism and quality news writing and quality coverage of the campus is still there Or do we find that it's a little bit different because this is a different generation of writers a different standard or a different culture of news and news reporting because of online access and blogging and social media How do you kind of speak to your students about? the tradition of journalism particularly black journalism and Absolutely the way that we melded with new media and digital media It's an excellent question I'm Somewhere in an awkward position because I really want to take over the Spartan Echo as the its advisor The advisor from my understanding who was there has recently left the newspaper hadn't come out regularly at all I mentioned earlier. I've spoken to the Spartan Echo students over the years and I have to be honest quite disappointed in what it The lack of production we came out every week with a specialist section During the CIW basketball tournament and SGA elections every year for four years They're coming out two or three times a semester With much more technology So it starts with leadership and I think you have to have someone in the advisor role who actually cares about it Who is this is a unique opportunity because I worked there. I have a passion for it and in And I've worked in journalism since 1983 So all those elements matter When I was there, I helped get the basketball coach fired. I wasn't that wasn't my intention Most of us who have done who did a good job at our paper try to get somebody fired. I think that's it. That's a right You know, we we weren't chillies. We we've supported the school obviously But we've tried to function as a viable news source And so the players rebelled against the coach. They told me about it I wrote about it in the local newspapers and television ends up picking it up and the school did an investigation The coach was fired. We challenged the SGA president We challenged the president dr. Harrison B. Wilson who was probably the greatest president at Norfolk State He respected the paper. He didn't like everything he wrote because Sometimes they think we supposed to be a PR vehicle. That's not that should not be the case Right with with the internet mention, you know moving to today's world of journalism There's no reason for the the Spartan echo to not be a viable source on the internet There should be stories every day about student life and the issues that concern students Every day and they're real life issues I talked to the students beyond what I'm teaching them and they have they have real life struggles and concerns about what's going on on So what's going on in the world and then not right now using that outlet of the student newspaper as a voice And so I definitely would like to be a part of bringing that back and making it a viable resource for students to go to For happy news for sad news but for news that really matters to them and that's the most important thing I get this is and not to belabor this but I get the sense that it's just different I don't know if it I'm sure it was like this for you guys as it was for us when we were in school We would go to class and then go to the newspaper office Like we hung out at the paper like we we stayed up late and Snuck in the building and he had from security so we could lay out the paper and put it to bed like so most of us who kind of came of age like right just before Digital media started emerging. We know it is like to actually put a physical paper out and Why that requires so much work and why you want to do it every week or you know every other week Maybe do you think that that that's different because you can almost post news instantly now Or is it that because students may have a different lifestyle where they don't they don't necessarily have to or want to hang out at the at the newspaper office When they're not in class or not sleep, you know, so sure Sure, it's different on a number of levels for one. I remember asking my students at Morehouse Where they're from in the first day and they all tell me where they were from and the kid would say he's from St. Louis or Minnesota and I'm like so have you ever purchased the mini the Minneapolis Starlet? Newspaper, no, and I go around room. They had never even purchased the paper before So the idea of an actual physical paper just doesn't Job with them such as so what do you get your news? And they said Twitter No, it was very disheartening for a newspaper man who grew up with newspapers and I worked in New York for 11 years every five papers a day and so It is a different dynamic for sure In the internet with all of this virtuals, of course many and probably the greatest invention of all time But it has his downfalls and and that's why it did the deterioration of newspapers in Journalism as we knew it where you were careful about what you wrote You had to get second and third sources to confirm stories as opposed to trying to just be the first person to get it And that's why people trust in journalism has deteriorated. So where you can read something in the paper and Generally, you hear all the time. Well, you know what that may not be true And then you know what it may not be the next day or the next hour There's an update that they talked to someone else and it's a totally different story so the game is changed significantly and I Think it's important that if we have young students in colleges, particularly at our HPC use Then we need to hone them to do it to master this craft the right way And so that they can tell the stories that we need to be told in the proper way Sadly there are less African-Americans in newsrooms now than they were when I started in 1983 There was always this big push and it talks about the percentages of African-Americans in newsroom and source departments in this department and that And now it's the minutes left in the time when it's supposed to be more progressive So we have to produce young journalists who understand the value of what the profession is where it really would be the code of conduct and how to do it the right way and that's where Where folks like us come in where we have the opportunity to test these students and show them how it should be done And hopefully they will get a passion for it that we have That can really make change in how we perceive and how we protect it in news of news outlets All that you know, we can sit here and talk shop all day brother. I'm sure But the the biggest thrust of your career for which you're so well known is your work as an author nine titles essence bestseller talk about that transition into creative writing How did it it spark and how did you and let me ask you this question. How did you become? Self-made in that way in that field and what it what is what is a piece of advice that you would give a student Who may be listening now if you want to be an author and write novels and write You know fiction or even nonfiction what what is the way to get started get a deal self-published? What are some of the the strategies behind it? Sure There's a lot to that answer for one I grew up as a reader didn't even realize I was one. It was just natural my mother and father got us Books when we got our electric football men and Rockham talking robots as well, and I read the books And so I grew up reading now you'll be classified as an average reader But then I was just reading because they were there and I enjoyed them I read waiting to itself on the beach in Maui in Think 1992 and I loved it and I but I said you like to do this. I can write a book Just for my mouth point of view I never considered novel writing before Somehow as a sports writer in New York a few athletes talked to me about writing their memoirs, but never thought about a novel Well seven years later. I started writing a book called baggots check about three guys who love who have a great friendship with each other But with women they have trouble because they carry baggots for one relationship to the next and I started Writing that book without an outline without any notion of where I was going and fell in love with writing novels I'm a journalist first I always call myself a journalist first because I fell in love with journalism at 13 But I love writing novels because it's much more liberating. I don't have to worry about facts I could create the facts So I wrote baggots check was published by a black publishing company in New York or a and B books and The book did great fantastic was number one on SS bestseller list and I had a new passion And so I started writing and ended up getting deals with Simon and Schuster for about seven books I've written ten. I'm working on it any level and so the transition for me was I Was still working as a journalist here in Atlanta at the Atlanta Journal of Constitution when I started writing books and I was able to transition from the AJC taking the buyout in 2009 Because I had started this writing career and teaching and also I do a literary Conference annual conference called the National Book Club conference each year We have our 17th conference in August. And so I had these other things going on but The transition helped me what my career as a journalist helped me because I had a command of the language and Combining that with an imagination that I didn't know was so bad I became this author that that I've enjoyed writing and reading and others have enjoyed reading Self-publishing is an easy path nowadays. There's very there's several vehicles to do that even including via Amazon I would advise anyone who chooses that route to do it With the idea that you're gonna put your best for forward and I know that sounds like a very simple concept Do your best, but that's what's required because readers are serious leaders and they're going to see through Weeks story lives and they're going to notice editing air editing mistakes or typographical Punctuation errors so you have to get an editor who is reliable who is Experience and who is going to give you the hard truth that editor can't be your friend because as much as friends They love you so much. They can't give you an honest critique if they don't like it It's hard to say to your friend. You need to go back to the drawing board You're almost always going to get a positive response So you have to get an impartial judge who understands language understands storytelling Who can give you some feedback that's going to be helpful when you pursuing this? this line of work So you've been acclaimed in journalism you've been acclaimed in novel writing You said you're working on an 11th book There's so much that you've conquered in this in this field of arts and so for you What is it like when you see our HBC use and just education in general? Taking a very very close and an intricate look at how can we become more stem oriented technically oriented? Which is good to keep pace with technology But where do you see the role of the arts the role of communication the role of the written word and In going out of the future particularly for black communities Sure. I think it's critical for sure stem and technology The present and the future but at the same time you have to be able to read and write Well comprehension it was it's a basic concept from way back when we're growing up But I think even more so today because we're in such different times such challenging times and these Millennials And I really enjoyed being around them listening to them and talking to them to get their perspective on things and They're different thinkers than we are This is a time in which has to be the time that has to be documented and it has to be documented by them and documented by them in a way in which Makes sense in which they can do it in an orderly fashion in a fashion that's entertaining But also informative and that's where journalism comes in That's where that my creator writing class comes in and other courses in all the states English department and other HBCUs around the country The arts would never go away music Books even if they'll you know, I know that there are a lot of people who like the electronic reading I like I love holding a book in my hand whether through no matter which way people go to want to read and stories are going to need to be told and It's incumbent upon us with our experience to Arm our young people who are in these HBCUs with the tools to tell those stories in a viable way And so I'm excited about I'm you know, I'm proud of Norfolk State But for stepping out of the box to give me this opportunity to teach at Norfolk State while I live in Atlanta It sounds crazy, but this hybrid is working so well and students are getting so much out of it Because we need this from them. We need this from them. We need them to be prepared in a way that Prepare by people who have done it not just people who are teaching out of textbooks obviously that There's a place for that in some realms, but when it comes to writing and many many aspects of the arts It has to be people who've done it and who are doing it who can guide them in a way in a way and give them practical knowledge and practical experiences to draw from Brother fantastic insight. Tell us where we can find more about you More about your your curriculum and the things that you developed in the HBCU space and the way of teaching and more importantly Where we can buy some of these books Well, I appreciate that the books are everywhere Amazon.com bonds noble.com for sure My website is Curtis Bunn C-u-r-t-i-s-b-u-n-n.com and my creative writing website is nsu Creative writing calm and so part of my class is that I the students are writing a short story throughout the semester And I have their stories published on a website and it gives them a publishing credit, but it also lets them Friends and family read their work to see how they progress through through the class So it's an important element of what I'm doing there in my class in local state