Augustus: Narrative of a Slave Woman

When Professor Robin Greene tells a freshman composition class about her scholarly interest in women's narratives, Samantha Henderson, an African American student, invites Greene to meet her grandmother and to listen to a series of reel-to-reel tapes that both Samantha and her grandmother insist should be part of the official WPA archive of ex-slave narratives. Intrigued, Greene accepts the challenge of authenticating the recordings, but after a full year of unproductive exchanges with historians and archivists, a frustrated Greene decides to transcribe the tapes and to publish the resulting narrative so that readers may judge for themselves if the tapes are-or are not-authentic. In her transcription, Greene presents the first-person account of Sarah Louise Augustus, who comes of age during the Civil War and whose story involves a head-on collision with the moral ambiguities of slavery. Readers follow Sarah Louise as she becomes Augustus-the name she assumes when she takes control of her destiny. Her story begins in the antebellum period and unfolds as Augustus recollects a brutal war and its social carnage. Readers also discover the connections that bind Greene, Sarah Louise, Samantha, and Samantha's grandmother-for these women, surprisingly, share much in common. As a work of historical fiction, Greene's account focuses light on black feminism, on race-specific reactions to historical inquiry, on sexuality and rape, and on the quest for identity. And Greene, who in "real life" teaches English and Writing at Methodist University, becomes Professor Greene, the fictional narrator whose story frames the narrative and whose own scholarly need for authenticity and precision nearly costs her more than she is willing to lose.

Robin Greene is professor of English and Writing, director of the Writing Center, and editor of Longleaf Press at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Greene has published two collections of poetry, Memories of Light and Lateral Drift, and a collection of women’s birthing narratives, Real Birth. She regularly publishes her poetry and nonfiction in journals. Greene is married and has two grown sons, Daniel and Benjamin.

In 1991, Greene’s chapbook, Memories of Light, won the North Carolina Writers’ Network competition and was published by Harperprints. Her nonfiction book, Real Birth, Women Share their Stories, was published by Generation Books in 2000, and her full-length poetry collection, Lateral Drift, was published by WOH Press in 2002. Her novel Augustus: Narrative of a Slave Woman is forthcoming in 2010 from Plain View Press.

A past recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship in Writing, Greene regularly publishes her poetry and nonfiction in journals, and her creative nonfiction has aired on NPR.

Originally from New York City, Greene holds an MA from Binghamton University and a MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) at Norwich University. She has lived in Fayetteville since 1989.