2005 Conference Pictures

Presenters:
Erin Howarth “How to Make Your Book Look Real”
Dorothy Kimble “A Mighty Long Way”

Keynote Speaker: Betty DeRamus Columnist for the Detroit News Former reporter & editorial writer of Detroit Free Press & Michigan Chronicle 1993 Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in commentary for columns about the Los Angeles riot Frequent contributing writer for Essence magazine Author of Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad

     A Metro columnist for the Detroit News and a former reporter and editorial writer for the Detroit Free Press and Michigan Chronicle, Betty DeRamus is a journalistic institution. Though she has visited monuments in Egypt, churches in Brazil and watched Nelson Mandela walk out of a South African prison, she still lives near the eastside Detroit neighborhood where she grew up.

     DeRamus has received numerous writing awards including first prize for education reporting from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in 1980; first prize for commentary from the Overseas Press Club of America in 1981; the Deems Taylor award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1983; and the Eugene Pulliam Fellowship for editorial writers in 1986. In 1993, she was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in commentary for columns about the Los Angeles riot. Her commentary on Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 911 launched “State of the Union,” a recent BBC radio program about American life and culture in the 2004 political season.

    But black history is her first love. DeRamus’ articles for Essence magazine have included, “Some of Us Are Brave,” February, 1998, and “Living Legends,” February, 1999. Her essays on black pioneers, black women, black entrepreneurs and black lawmen appeared in Volumes I and II of African Americans, Voices of Triumph, Time-Life Books, 1993 and 1994.

   “Remembering Mama,” a personal essay, appeared in Thinking Black, a 1996 Crown Books publication. “Travelin’ with the Man Upstairs,” which told the true story of Bessie Stringfield, the first black female motorcyclist to travel across the entire country alone, won first prize in the articles division of the 2002 Writers Digest competition.

    Most recently, she is the author of Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad, published in February 2005 by Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster. The book tells the true stories of couples who escaped together, rescued their mates or took other extraordinary steps to avoid separation during the slavery era. The stories are about triumph as well as tragedy and remind African Americans of what they accomplished in the worst of times by clinging to each other.