How It Happens follows the story of author Jean Alicia Elster's maternal grandmother, Dorothy May Jackson. Born in Tennessee in 1890, Dorothy May was the middle daughter of Addie Jackson, a married African-American housekeeper at one of the white boardinghouses in town, and Tom Mitchell, a commanding white attorney from a prominent family. Through three successive generations of African-American women, Elster intertwines the fictionalized adaptations of the defining periods and challenges-race relations, miscegenation, sexual assault, and class divisions-in her family's history. A continuation of the plots begun in Elster's two novels Who's Jim Hines? and The Colored Car, How It Happens continues the story for an older audience and begins with Addie's life before the turn of the century in the South as a married Black woman with three biracial daughters navigating the relationship between her husband and Tom Mitchell. Later the story shifts to Addie's daughter Dorothy May's experiences both as a child and later, as a teacher who, choosing between her career and marriage to a man she barely knows, moves to Detroit. The story moves along with Dorothy May's daughter Jean, who, with the support of her mother and the memory of her grandmother, confronts and comes to terms with her role in society and the options available to her as a college-educated Black woman in the post-World War II industrial North. While there is struggle and hardship for each of these women, they each build off one other and continue to demand space in the world in which they live. Written for young adult readers, How It Happens carries the heart through the obstacles that still face women of color today and persists in holding open the door of communication between generations.
Author
A 2017 Kresge Artist Fellow in Literary Arts and a former attorney, Jean Alicia Elster (BA, University of Michigan; JD, University of Detroit School of Law) is most recently the author of the young adult novel How It Happens (Wayne State University Press, September 2021). How It Happens was honored as a 2021 Foreword INDIES Silver Winner for Young Adult Fiction and as a 2022 Midwest Book Award Silver Winner in Young Adult Fiction. It was also awarded the 2022 Bronze Medal in Young Adult Fiction by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. It was selected as a 2023 Black History Month Community Read by the Sterling Heights (Michigan) Public Library. Elster is the author of the novel The Colored Car—for ages 8 and older—published by Wayne State University Press and released in September 2013. The Colored Car was selected as a 2014 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. It was awarded the 2014 Midwest Book Award in Children’s Fiction and was chosen as an Honor Book for the 2014 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. Elster is also the author of the novel Who’s Jim Hines?—for ages 8 and older—published by Wayne State University Press and released in August 2008. Among other honors, Who’s Jim Hines? was selected as one of the Library of Michigan’s 2009 Michigan Notable Books. In addition, Elster is the author of the children’s book series “Joe Joe in the City,” published by Judson Press. The first volume in that series, Just Call Me Joe Joe, was released in October 2001. The remaining volumes are: I Have A Dream, Too! (May, 2002), I’ll Fly My Own Plane (September, 2002), and I’ll Do the Right Thing (January, 2003). She was awarded the 2002 Governors’ Emerging Artist Award by ArtServe Michigan in recognition of the series. I’ll Do the Right Thing was awarded the 2004 Atlanta Daily World “Atlanta Choice Award” for children’s books. Elster was honored with a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellowship in Literary Arts, a program of The Kresge Foundation. In addition, Elster’s essays have appeared in national publications including Ms., World Vision, Black Child, and Christian Science Sentinel magazines. Her short story “Alphabet Day” was published in the First Annual Metro Times-Detroit Fiction Issue. She has been awarded three residencies at the internationally acclaimed Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, Illinois). She was the featured author for the Black Her Stories podcast, season one, episode five. Elster was selected to be a member of the 2020-2022 Live Coal Gallery/Knight Foundation collaborative. She is frequently invited to speak at schools, libraries, and conferences throughout the state of Michigan and across the United States. Engagements include the following representative events: In 2023, Elster was the keynote speaker when How It Happens was selected as the Black History Month Community Read at the Sterling Heights (Michigan) Public Library. She was a panelist for “Black Trauma, Black Joy – Telling Hard Stories to Young Readers” at the Association of Writers and Writing Professionals (AWP) Conference, Seattle, Washington. She was a presenter for “Oral Histories and the Creation of Historical Fiction for Young Readers” at the Michigan Reading Association 67th Annual Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Elster In 2022, Elster was a guest presenter for two programs at the Detroit Historical Museum. She was the keynote speaker for the Warren Consolidated Schools Writing Celebration (Michigan). She was also a guest speaker for the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Public Library’s Youth Author Series. In 2021, Elster was a guest author at the Get Inked Teen Writing Conference at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. She was a guest presenter for the Room Project’s Women in Prose from Wayne State University Press event and was a panelist for the Wayne State University Press Publishing Symposium. She was a featured author for the Jackson County (Michigan) Intermediate School District’s Jackson Reads! literacy program.
