An Interview with William Finger

William Finger grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from Duke University in 1969, he went to India in the Peace Corps. In midlife, he completed a Masters in Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His first memoir, The Crane Dance: Taking Flight in Midlife (2016), was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. He has been a freelance writer, an editor of a public policy quarterly, a consultant at the N.C. Legislature, and for the last twenty-four years before retiring in 2013, a writer and communications manager at an international public health organization. Since 1977, he and his wife have lived in the Raleigh, NC, area, where they raised their two children.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

I love the title but it took a while. The early ideas reflected my indecision about how to emphasize the story: was it about how to find one’s passion in old age or about the magical role that tennis had played in my life. “Finding your Passion in Old Age”—nope, too limited, and doesn’t really tell me what’s inside. Same with other false starts. I decided finally to embrace what I learned in writing the book. First it’s a memoir, not a self-help book. More importantly—hence, the main title—I loved how the double entendre of “Courting” captured the true magic of the story. Throughout my life, at very different stages and moments, when I am on the tennis court, I find myself in a world apart from time, worries, daily life. In the writing, I came to understand that I courted tennis as one courts happiness—on a windy road, finding a place that confirms life no matter what might ail the psyche or the world.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

We went through a number of versions of the cover. My daughter with her graphic skills and my wife with her artist instincts and training actually came up with the cover. I felt a thrill seeing their love wrapped into the image of me and the artistic breath of life through the color and tennis motifs—net, green court, white sideline, and the upper case “O” in COURTING as a tennis ball.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

At a reading among mostly friends with my first memoir, a wise and feisty woman asked, “So, what are you going to write about next?” Without thinking, I said, “Maybe I’ll write about tennis. It’s the only thing that’s been with me all my wife, except family and reading.” Eight years later, I held my new book in my hands.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

When I arrived in India in the Peace Corps at age 22 in 1969, no cell phone, internet or thoughts of staying connected to home, I was a bit freaked out. There was a red clay tennis court at the modest guest house in Delhi where the twenty or so of us stayed for a few days before heading out into central India. I discovered that another guy in the group had played tennis on his high school team. We found two rackets and some balls somewhere and hit on the court. I knew everything would be ok then. I was ready to head off to my site, grounded again wth just forty-five minutes or so of solid forehands and backhands. I had a similar experience on a work trip twenty-five years later where I was the media guy for a groundbreaking international group of public health leaders, convening at the famous Bellagio Center in Italy. The researchers had developed the science to codify where breastfeeding—called the Lactational Amerrohea Method—ranked among contraceptive options in the developing world. I had read the results of the research published in international journals but was nervous in my role—which of the competing voices would take the lead in the press release, the World Health Organization, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), or maybe the brilliant Princeton guy. I discovered that one of the USAID participants loved tennis. We hit hard strokes, even played a few games, on a gorgeous court surrounded by magnificence and beauty. And I was home again. My job thst week flowed along like a well-aimed serve and volley.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

I appreciated the editor I had. He helped me sharpen and recast one of my organizational approaches. He made it better.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

A reader would pause during each phase of the memoir—the old age return to a lifelong passion, childhood beginnings, college anchoring, and young adult shifts—to see their own lives flashing across their internal screen. A good memoir takes the reader back into their own life.

What new writing projects are you currently working on? Or, other projects that are not writing?

I have moved into a continuing care retirement community that we love, still near our home of forty-five years (Raleigh). I’m pondering new projects as I read unread books I brought with me (I left many behind). The Mississippi books are demanding my attention. Mississippi memoires have strong moments in each of my two memoirs but don’t go beyond the obvious Mississippi story or race and pain and hypocrisy and confusion. Maybe I’ll try to write how my two families, my maternal and paternal side were shaped in their Mississippi heritage. In the meantime, I’m sorting out whether to stay a member in my Raleigh tennis club (where my book begins) as I develop new friendships at the Cary club five minutes from where we live now. And, my time as a grandfather stands out every week, full of joy and challenges and memories of being a parent, as my wife and I helping our daughter, a single mom, with her three children.

How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?

I’ve had a very positive experience, especially with the book editor. The art department was receptive to my ideas and cooperated using my cover ideas. The promotion people were clear and helpful. If I get to another book with the Mississippi thread I mentioned as a possible new project, I would certainly consider Atmosphere again.

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