About the Author
H. Victoria Hargro Atkerson is an imaginative storyteller who enjoys the creative process so much that she spends eight to ten hours a day perfecting her skills. She lives between the words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages of her many stories. Born in Atlanta, Georgia in a large close-knit family, she listened to her elders weave words into colorful, imaginative stories. It is a tradition that continues today as she sits around the family table telling and listening to stories of her recent and past family histories. Her latest novel, BUTTERMILK BOTTOM, incorporates a series of family stories, neighborhood folklore, and plain old gossip... All elements of a great story. As a child, going to elementary school in Atlanta's 4th Ward, Victoria passed the notorious neighborhood of "Buttermilk Bottom" going to and from CW Hill Elementary School with her friends and siblings. Many of her schoolmates lived there. The notorious reputation of Buttermilk Bottom prompted her parents to restrict her siblings and her from entering the crime-ridden community, a reputation that unveiled every weekend in shooting and stabbing incidents. On occasions, gunshots could be heard from Friday afternoons to late on Sundays. Before becoming a writer, Victoria attended school in Atlanta, Ga, attending David T. Howard High School and Morris Brown College. While studying at Morris Brown, she joined the peace movement and the struggle for civil rights, marching with Martin L. King Jr. and hundreds of students from Atlanta University down Hunter Street where she happily caught glimpses of her siblings in the crowd of determined, singing marchers. Enthusiastic about the fight for equality and justice, she marched, participated in sit-ins, worked on voter registration drives, a mission that young people of the era took seriously with a strong sense of commitment and devotion. She left school during her junior year to join the Peace Corps in Brazil, where she worked in the Community Development Program, The School to School Program, Family Planning, and recreational programs in Espirito Santo and in Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil, she her of her culture grew and flourished. Her favorite city is Salvador du Bahia, where she discovered the rich history of Africans who were enslaved and forced to work for the wealth and well being of whites. In Bahia's colorful, historically drenched landscape, she became fascinated with the history of her people and their struggle for freedom and equality.
