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mechanism than the minister or the director of the youth council. I wanted to get to the teenagers
through a teenager.
How did you choose your characters for Rosa Lee?
I used the five categories from the Urban Institute’s definition of the “underclass.” If someone
didn’t meet all five requirements, I’d eliminate him. I did extensive interviews with twenty men and
twenty women. I selected four families to follow: two male-headed families, and two female-headed
families. One was Rosa Lee’s. I eventually had to drop the other three families because the reporting
was overwhelming.
What is the most important literary factor when you are choosing the people who will be in your
story? Narrative? Character? Plot?
I’m not sure I look for any one of those elements. Perhaps “character” comes closest to what I’m
seeking. In order to write the kind of “anthropological” immersion journalism I do, I have to find
characters who allow me to pose—and answer—the “Why” question. “Why is she in this terrible
situation?” “Why is it that six of her eight children are drug addicts and criminal recidivists?” “Why
did two of Rosa Lee’s eight children turn out so differently?” “ Why were they able to resist being
swept up into this lifestyle? And how did Rosa Lee get into this lifestyle?” “Why does a strong
family, coming out of the rural South, end up with a daughter like Rosa Lee and a family of drugaddicted
criminal recidivists?”
I’m looking for the kind of character who will explain to me why she does what she does, give me
lots of access, and have a commitment to the project. Most people aren’t willing to undergo my kind
of process of intensive, long-term interviewing.
What attracted you to Rosa Lee as a character?
She was fifty-one, and addicted to heroin, when she was arrested in October 1987 for selling drugs
to feed two of her grandchildren. She went through the most debilitating withdrawal she had ever
experienced. She thought she was going to die. After she began to feel better, she told her counselor,
“I almost died last fall. I need to tell my life story to somebody.”
When the counselor told me about her—a drug-addicted grandmother who sold drugs to feed her
grandchildren and who wanted to tell her life story to someone—I was immediately interested. She
fit into my definition of the “underclass” (her youngest sister was in the adjoining cell block, her
youngest daughter had just left the jail, four of her six sons cycled in and out of prison, her oldest son
was in a medium-security facility, and her youngest son was at a minimum-security facility), and she
seemed like someone through whom I could pose the “Why” question I wanted to explore.
We started meeting for daily interviews in jail. It became immediately clear that her memory was
excellent and that she was a good storyteller who loved detail. She was the perfect subject.
How do you determine how much time you need for a particular project?