Lois Leveen

Blog

July 2, 2019

The Vanishing Black Woman Spy Reappears

Y'know how I wrote a novel imagining the emotional experience of the real-life woman who went from slavery to Civil War spy? Turns out, the truth really is stranger than fiction. And it takes longer to eke out, too.

A few months ago, I discovered the only known surviving correspondence between Mary "Not Really Bowser" and Bet Van Lew, the white woman who was her owner, then her participant in the pro-Union spy ring in the Confederate capital. Mary wrote it five years after the war ended. (If you think Ta-Nehisi Coates made a strong case for reparations, just wait until you find out what Mary had to say about trying to survive as an African American in post-bellum America). The letter provided me months of sleuthing to prove its authenticity, leading to lots of other new finds, and to some unbelievable revelations about her life.


The Los Angeles Review of Books
published my article about the sleuthing process and what the new letter reveals about this amazing woman. Check it out here: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-vanishing-black-woman-spy-reappears/

And then TIME published my rant about why for the past century plus, even when we think we're "celebrating" her, we keep getting this history wrong. And what that says about race in American but also about lots of other things from climate change to election manipulation. Check it out here: https://time.com/5609045/misremembering-mary-bowser/

(If you like those articles, please forward them and post them on social media and send a semaphore signal recommending them. There is so much misinformation about her circulated that I need your help getting the word out.)

And I am still researching. Because now that I know where to look for her, I'm learning she did yet more amazing things to protest racism and sexism and just general baloney as it was then and remains now.

So it seems I am writing a new book that is not fiction and is about the same person as my novel. Am I the first author to do that? Maybe. But you know, there really are somethings you just can't make up.
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April 16, 2018

NPR Update:  Mary Bowser, Still Making News

When I first started researching THE SECRETS OF MARY BOWSER, almost no one had heard of Mary. Now, as the nation debates what to do with Confederate monuments and how to honor African American and women's history, Mary's story has become a key way to understand our collective past. And what it means for our present.

Listen to this interview I did for NPR last week.

I'll be headed back to Richmond this summer, to speak in the very building where Mary posed as a slave to spy for the Union. What a way to honor her legacy!
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July 18, 2017

What Writers Need Most

It's been a long while since I've updated this blog. Why? Lots of reasons, probably too many and too detailed to discuss here.

But there's one reason I'm updating it now. You.

If you're looking at this site, it's because you are a reader who cares about my work. And whatever else is happening in the world, or in one's life, good or lousy, the thing a writer needs most is the reminder that our work matters. So when The Fayetteville Ladies Book Lovers read and discussed The Secrets of Mary Bowser and took these beautiful pictures and wrote me about how much the book meant to them, it was a gift to me as a writer, and one I wanted to share.

Fayeteville Ladies Book Lovers 1

(And their selfie including a special Richmond visitor who attested to the geographical accuracy!)

FLBL selfie

Writing is mostly solitary work, and when I'm not writing or "having to be on the computer" for other reasons, I'd rather be in the garden or on my bicycle or making music or connecting with other humans in myriad other ways. Thanks "FLBL" for reminding me that my writing connects me with other humans I may never meet but whose lives I am lucky enough to be part of, because they are readers who care about good writing. Every writer needs that!
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May 5, 2016

How the Internet Can Turn Our Interest in Black History and Women’s History into Something Weirdly R

Tamar Lewin has a great piece in The New York Times about images allegedly of Harriet Tubman.

This caused me to rant about how what's happening with Tubman reflects a larger trend around black history and women's history.
Medium

Read all about it at Medium. And maybe share it with the universe.
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April 25, 2016

Goodnight, Sweet Prince

This is up on Medium:
PrinceSHakes

You can check it out over there.
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