Three remarkable novelists, from very different backgrounds, peel back the curtain on how they write, why they write, and what they write.  Arthur Golden is the author of Memoirs of a Geisha, the only book he's written, and a longtime bestseller. He describes why he rewrote the book three times before he got it right, and explains how he successfully gave voice to a character so unlike himself.  Carol Shields is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Stone Diaries, and many other novels and plays. She talks about why she chose to write almost exclusively about the domestic lives of ordinary women, illuminating their struggles and triumphs.  And Shelby Foote is the noted author of novels about the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, including Shiloh.  He became best-known for his three volume history of the Civil War, and his appearance throughout Ken Burns' documentary on the same subject, but he always considered himself a novelist first and foremost. He talks here about his tumultuous life in the Mississippi Delta, and how adversity shaped him as a writer. 

(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2020