THR Interview Series: Tony Grooms
When I first came to KSU in 2004, I never really thought of it as a writing school, though I often thought about obtaining my master’s degree. It wasn’t until 2020 that I decided to take the plunge. It was then that I met so many students on my level. There is a sense of community. The relationships are strong, and the vast opportunities that are available is astounding. All of the professors in the program are well-versed, extremely experienced, and have helped get many students jobs, writing careers, published, .
When I first heard of Tony Grooms, I was in an undergrad English class at KSU several years ago. One of the books on the reading list was Bombingham. Being from Birmingham, Alabama, I knew a lot about the Civil Rights Movement and the events that took place, so I was already excited to read it. Then our professor told us the book was written by the MAPW program director. I had never met him but had always heard great things. The book was as incredible as I anticipated, and more.
As a fiction and nonfiction editor for The Headlight Review, I recently sat down with Kennesaw State University’s MAPW Program Director Tony Grooms to discuss his retirement and to gain insight on how he helped to make the MAPW program so successful.
THR: You have an impressive teaching background, having taught in Ghana, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and here at Kennesaw State. What brought you to KSU?
TG: Well, coming out of college in 1984, there were no jobs in creative writing. I had interviewed with Macon College and UGA. Bob Hill contacted me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to help with starting the MAPW Program. At the time there were 12,000 students; It was closer than Athens, and given that Kennesaw wasn’t set in their ways, I felt I could develop it into something great.
Kennesaw gave me opportunities to teach in Ghana, Sweden, and United Arab Emirates. In Ghana, you are deprived in a lot of ways of the luxuries Americans have. It definitely shook me out of my middle-class frame of mind. It allowed me to slow down. Time moves much slower in Ghana. They have a very non-American pace.
I was the second person from KSU who won a Fulbright Scholarship in 2006, and taught in Stockholm, Sweden. While there, I did research for my novel, Burn the House, which is about American soldiers who left the Vietnam War and stayed in Sweden.
THR: You played a huge role in putting this program on the map. How did those teaching experiences give you insight regarding how you wanted the MAPW program to be?
TG: It gave me ideas on making it a broad-based interdisciplinary program. I wanted students from all various types of writing to be able to gain knowledge and to hone their skills. I wanted the faculty to have experience in writing, to be individuals who are published, and also to be involved in the research and uses of creative writing in different aspects. This program is the oldest in the humanities and is the second largest. Other than Western Michigan, KSU is the only university that offers this type of program. We wanted students to have options and be able to choose between all three types of writing.
THR: What do you think has been your biggest impact at KSU?
TG: Seeing students succeed—graduate and undergraduate. Our mission was to help those students realize goals and be useful in creating an image or personality and community among the students. Also, celebrating student and faculty achievements.
THR: Is there anything you wish you could’ve done in your time here?
TG: You know, I have always been a ‘goes with the flow’ kind of person. I have no regrets. However, I wish I could have been able to implement a travel budget for students. Traveling gives you so much knowledge and insight, and it’s huge for writers. I wanted to have more literary events and have a student press.
THR: Will you still be involved with KSU after you leave?
TG: As an advisor to the upcoming director mostly, but nothing else.
THR: What are your plans for retirement?
TG (laughs): I plan to have a drink of bourbon. But I will have time to finish my projects that have been waiting on me. And my wife and I plan to travel.
THR: Are there any new novels you plan on publishing? Writing?
TG: Well, I plan to publish Burn the House as well as an MG novel, Josie of Birmingham, that is set during the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement.
THR: I can’t wait to read that one! I already know it’s going to be great.
TG: Thank you.
THR: What is your favorite book of all time?
TG: Oh gosh. That’s always a hard question to answer. I guess for classics, Huck Finn, Moby Dick, 2001 Space Odyssey, 49 Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man. Fantasy . . . I’d say Phillip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle. And for poetry, Walt Whitman. Really, I like anything with good story telling and that plays around a lot with language.
THR: Anything you would like to say to the KSU staff and students?
TG: Good luck to all of you. I am proud of your accomplishments. Keep the faith. Writing isn’t easy but stick with it. And always enjoy some part of writing.
THR: Thank you, Professor, for taking the time to speak with me, and for all you have done for KSU, its students and faculty.
On April 20, 2022, at 7 p.m., The Headlight Review, in association with the Georgia Writer’s Association, will be presenting a Literary Reading (Poetry) with Tina Mozelle Braziel (winner of the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry for her book, Known By Salt) and her husband, James Braziel, fiction novelist. We will also be honoring Professor Grooms at this event. For more information, please visit https://owllife.kennesaw.edu/event/7981216.
To learn more about Tony’s books, Trouble No More, Bombingham, and The Vain Conversation, please visit his website: https://www.anthonygrooms.com/. His novels are available wherever books are sold.
