Controversy
continued from page 1
While Barnes & Noble has list
ed Him in its “Discover New Au
thors” program, two local book
stores are indefinitely postponing
readings until the controversy
clears. Mother Kali’s had sched
uled a reading for May 12 but can
celed it.
“We don’t know who is right or
wrong, we just hesitate to have
the reading until a court or some
thing has decided,” said Gail El
ber, a book-reading organizer for
Mother Kali’s.
Tom Gerald, book events coor
dinator for the University Book
store, said he will hold off having
a reading until the controversy
clears up.
“We wanted to stay out of it un
til all legal problems involved
were solved,” Gerald said.
Friday’s reading took on an
emotional tone as questions were
increasingly prodding, dealing
with how some audience mem
bers perceived a suspiciously dra
matic improvement in Him’s writ
ing voice in the past four years.
“I was informed that there
would be a protest organized by
Kimber Williams,” said Him, a
Eugene resident who graduated
from the University with a degree
in biochemistry.
“I just answered honestly,” she
said of the expected questions of
the book.
Him said she does not have
anything to worry about and is
confident that anyone who reads
the 1996 copyrighted manuscript
and the published version will
see enough similarity to know
Williams’ contributions did not
significantly shape the expression
of her life story.
Williams, who received her
r
masters in journalism from the
University in 1995, said Friday’s
reading was the first time she and
Him had been in the same room
since 1998 when Him presented
Williams with a contract.
The contract brought to the sur
face a dispute over Williams’ role.
It called Williams a copy editor
and entitled her to 15 percent of
the royalties from the sale of the
book. Before Him presented
Williams with the contract,
Williams was under the impres
sion that her name would appear
next to Him’s, as a co-author.
“If she would have come to me
and told me she wanted a copy
editor, I would have told her I am
not an editor,” Williams said.
Him said she does not see it
that way, calling Williams a “free
lance editor” who rejected the
contract. The contract was pre
sented after they had been work
ing together about three times a
week for 10 months, Williams
said.
Those from the local writing
community who came with ques
tions about Him’s process,
Williams said, had often asked
how they could help with the
matter, and she suggested specif
ic questions about the book’s
preparation.
“It’s not unusual at book read
ings to talk to authors about the
process of writing,” Williams
said.
Him’s former writing instruc
tors and people who had con
tributed to her manuscript voiced
support for her. Barbara
Branscomb, a freelance editor,
said she worked with three drafts
of Him’s manuscript.
“I did a lot of editing on that
book, and I struggled with Chan
rithy over every single word that I
was recommending she change,”
Turn to Book, page 9
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