Book Discussion: Paulette Boudreaux’s “Mulberry” | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

A young girl growing up in small-town segregated Mississippi in the 1960s, Maddy Culpepper’s life is calm and ordinary. In spite of being raised in a working poor family, she has lived an insular life in a family held together by the strength and wits of her mother. But life begins to crumble when her mother abandons the home to tend to her youngest child, an infant who is hospitalized. Maddy and her three young brothers are left in the care of their father, a combat veteran possessed by a tragic family secret. As he slides into an alcohol-soaked world of guilt and shame, Maddy must take on responsibilities no child should face, and she becomes a force to contend with in her own right.

Mulberry was the winner of the inaugural Lee Smith Novel Prize from Carolina Wren Press in 2014.

Paulette Boudreaux grew up in Mississippi, where she honed her storytelling skills by eavesdropping & daydreaming. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and went on to write for the Boston Globe, the United Way, and MIT, among others. She attended the MFA program at Mills College, and now works full-time as a writing instructor in the Bay Area.

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