Central Library Hosts Award-Winning Author Cheryl Head To Discuss "Time's Undoing," Thursday, August 3

Award-winning author Cheryl Head is coming to the Central Library this Thursday, August 3, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to discuss her latest book, Time's Undoing. Head pulls from her family's history to tell the story of a young Black journalist searching for answers to the unsolved murder of her great-grandfather. 

In a Q&A with the Birmingham Public Library (BPL), Head speaks about her family's story that inspired Time's Undoing and her writing process.

Meet Cheryl A. Head.

BPL: Please introduce yourself to our readers. 

Head: I'm a crime-fiction author with 8 published books. My first book, Long Way Home, is [a] historical fiction with a mystery. It was a Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist in the African-American Literature and Historical Fiction categories. I have a six-book series called the Charlie Mack Motown Mystery series featuring a Black, queer, female private investigator who takes on and solves cases in Detroit in the mid-2000s. The series is an Anthony Award finalist and a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist. My current book is called Time's Undoing. 

BPL: Tell us about your book, Time's Undoing.

Head: This is a personal story. Fiction, but based on a tragic historical incident in my own family. Time's Undoing is a dual narrative/dual timeline novel set in both 1929 and 2019 and follows the investigation of a young, African-American newspaper reporter intent on solving the mystery of her great-grandfather's homicide—at the hands of police officers—in Jim Crow-era Birmingham, Alabama.

BPL: What was the research process life for Time's Undoing?

Head: Mostly online research in newspaper archives, historical directories, maps, [and] various databases. I also did some phone interviews with civil rights/social justice advocates. I was able to form a rich account from my then 92-year-old mother through oral history conversations. 

BPL: What were some of the difficulties you navigated as you wrote this book?

Head: Much the same as my young protagonist did, I had to search through newspaper archives for hundreds of hours to research the background for the 1929 timeline. Black newspapers and Ancestry.com were particularly helpful to me during the research phase of the book. I got help from lots of people in Birmingham, and outside, in the writing of this book. But the writing was much more emotional for me than my series because of the personal elements of the story. A couple of chapters were very difficult to write, and I was able to uncover documents that left me in tears.

BPL: As you've shared, this book is partially inspired by your family history. How did writing this book impact your perspective on your personal connection to the story?

Head: Writing this story brought me closer to the truth of this story that has been passed down in my family over nine decades. As I was writing the book, I felt I had the support of my own grandfather—through time and death—in bringing the story of his life, work, and demise to light. 

BPL: If it has, how has the Charlie Mack Motown series influenced or built up to Time's Undoing?

Head: So far, all my writing focuses on race, justice, diversity, and tolerance. These are themes I will revisit again and again. My books also have strong female protagonists with integrity and agency. Charlie Mack is certainly that kind of character, and those qualities fit with Meghan McKenzie, who is the contemporary protagonist in Time's Undoing.

BPL: What got you into writing?

Head: Most of my career has involved various forms of creative writing. I was a television and radio reporter in Detroit, a media producer, and a public broadcasting executive. I started writing my first book to add context to the stories I'd read and seen in T.V. and movies about World War Ⅱ. Very few of these stories focused on the service of the majority of Black soldiers during WWⅡ. Still, young, black men and women volunteered or were drafted into the military in numbers estimated to be about one million people. I tell the story of two of those people—a coming-of-age story—about a young man and woman both searching for their place in the world.

BPL: What has helped you the most as a writer?

Head: My curiosity about how the world works and what makes people tick. In writing crime fiction, I'm particularly interested in America's justice system and how it affects its minority populations.

Cheryl Head will be at the Central Library this Thursday, August 3, 6:00–8:00 p.m., to talk about Time's Undoing and answer more questions about her book and experiences as an author. Join us this Thursday to be a part of a live Q&A with her!

Check out Time's Undoing and the first book in her Charlie Mack Motown Mystery series from any member of the Jefferson County Library Cooperative, including all BPL members. 

Follow the BPL on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more updates on programs like this one. 

By Cheyenne Trujillo | Library Assistant Ⅲ, Public Relations Department