‘Have a plan of dreams’ — Author Rita Williams-Garcia bringing message of hope to National Black Writers Conference

By David Gil de Rubio | dgilderubio@mec.cuny.edu

When Rita Williams-Garcia comes to the National Black Writers Conference 2025 Biennial Symposium at Medgar Evers College, it’ll be to share her lifelong passion for the written word. 

It’s a passion that started with her older sister placing picture books in her playpen and extended to Williams-Garcia taking that love of stories and writing her own narratives when the Queens native was still in single digits. That devotion not only led to her developing habits that would serve her later in life, but also landing her first piece in Highlights Magazine, for which she was paid the princely sum of $100 when she was only 14.

“I always thought I was a writer and I should do what writers do,” she explained. “I was writing this semi-autobiographical novel that was awful at the time. I started it when I was 12 and finished it on my 13th birthday. I would write 500 words every night and count them because I learned that they paid you by the word. I wanted to make sure that I made a decent paycheck. It didn’t occur to me that I was developing my writing muscle and learning to free myself to write.”

She added, “I sent out all my manuscripts and would also do the poor person’s copyright by mailing a copy of my manuscript to myself and keeping a file of my unopened manuscripts. When my Highlights piece got accepted, we got the check and my mother said it was going into my college fund and she won me over with that. In reality, that money went towards feeding us all. After receiving tons of rejection letters, it was such vindication and such an affirmation of who I was. It never occurred to me to say I was a seventh-grade student. I always thought of myself as a writer.”

With such a creative head of steam, Williams-Garcia went from attending Jamaica High School before getting bussed to Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside. Going from a predominantly Black student body to one that was primarily White and affluent proved to be a bit disorienting; the budding writer weighed when her guidance counselor pushed her towards Ivy League school. Williams-Garcia instead followed the lead of a friend and matriculated at Hofstra University from 1975 to 1980.

“I was a very naïve kid, but I knew the culture shock at an Ivy League school would be too much for me and it was not going to be the right thing,” she said. “I had a friend who was also graduating and she said she was applying to Hofstra through an HEOP [Ed. Note: Higher Education Opportunity Program] program. She said I should apply and told me all the benefits — you get your room and board for free, your tuition, a book stipend and a meal plan. I applied, got the full ride and that’s how I ended up at Hofstra.”

It was here that Williams-Garcia elevated her writing by taking master classes with a pair of respected authors — Richard Price and Sonya Pilcher. Studying under these accomplished scribes provided real-world insights into becoming a writer that Williams-Garcia might not have otherwise experienced.

“It was pure heaven,” she said with a laugh. “It was everything a young writer needs. I’ve taken writing courses in college by college professors who also are published. But these were New York Times bestselling authors who also had their novels adapted for screenplays and movies. They weren’t academics and that’s what I needed. I didn’t need to know about writing theory. I needed to have my eyes opened and to become a better listener to my work, a better reader and all those kinds of things.”

Williams-Garcia pointed out, “It’s really good to know about different narrative points of view and all of those things. But there are certain things that a writer that’s trying to get better should know or aim towards. Sometimes having someone who has been there, done that and is doing it to death can tell you crucial things in very real terms. It’s about all those deep, down-to-the-core messages that snap you out of whatever writing funk you’re reading your work and you don’t know why it’s not working. Well, you’ve got Richard Price and Sonya Pilcher in your ear, telling you things and giving you a checklist that’s no-holds-barred. It helps keep you truer to the writer that you’re trying to become.”

It was during time at Hofstra where the seeds were planted for what would become Williams-Garcia’s debut novel, 1988’s Blue Tights. The inspiration came about when the author’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, was participating in a literacy initiative centered on outreach for high school teens reading far below their grade level.

“Even though I was older than they were, they were far worldlier in experience than I was,” Williams-Garcia recalled. “I wanted to share [Toni Morrison’s] The Bluest Eye with them, but I knew that was not going to work so I started writing what would be the draft of my first novel. I started looking at them and thinking about things I wanted us to have discussions about. That’s what I incorporated into the story. And I started with a lot of dialogue so they could feel the characters, read out loud and understand where the characters were coming from without a lot of the writer writing and just letting the characters speak.”

Fast forward to today and 12 books later as an acclaimed children’s and young adult novelist and Williams-Garcia is no less enthused about the creative process. Her passions are further fueled by the delight she derives from interacting with young fans at schools around the area. Most recently, that was at Bronx high school called AECI II, a charter school for computing, engineering and innovation.

“I participated in their first annual African-American Read-In Day,” she said. “Students got up and read poetry and books. One educator read a memoir piece and I read from One Crazy Summer and my YA adult-crossover book, A Sitting in St. James. It was just so much fun being around them and the energy because that is the thing that reminds me of what I am here for. They were really just so open and loved the idea of having books. I think that’s the thing I enjoy the most, especially afterwards during the signing because they talk about their hopes, dreams and what they want to do.”

It all dovetails into the message the Queens resident wants to share with attendees at the upcoming Black Writers Conference.

“I’m always about living in a plan,” she said. “Have a plan, have several plans. But have a plan of dreams. Whatever it is you want to do, you have to have a toe in it somewhere, stay consistent with it and let it grow. And then if it’s time to move on to something else, then do that too.”