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Mildred Edison hails from Natchitoches, Louisiana, up the Cane River from where Clementine Hunter lived, and now writes from her home in Medford, Oregon.
She has been writing since childhood: poetry in
elementary
school; assembly programs for high school and speeches for contests; creative prose and fiction in college. In her teaching and administration positions, she used her creative approach for innovative teaching and organization, later incorporating technical writing and industrial TV, as well as speaking at workshops, conferences, and seminars. As a freelancer, she wrote proposals and studies, then became interested in travel writing.
Finally she has limited her writing to her current project: a biography of Clementine Hunter, acclaimed
African-American primitive artist who lived to be 101 years old (1886-1988). Mil Edison is using her years of research in a creative non-fiction approach to tell the story of this farm worker who could not read or
write, yet became an internationally known primitive artist, the prices of her paintings rising from 25¢ (sold along with her watermelons) to $350 before her death. (Some of her paintings now sell for up to $30,000
and more!)
The working title of her biography is Paintings . . . 25¢ to Look: the Story of Clementine Hunter, Cane River's African-American Primitive Artist. (See The Book for publication information.)
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