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The son of a historically black university president, Ravi Howard exudes an intellectual and calm dignity. Howard won the 2001 Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award for his short story, Like Trees Walking, which he later expanded into a novel. The book gives readers a fictionalized account of the aftermath of an actual lynching in 1981 in Mobile, Alabama, which is Ravi’s hometown and also where he lives now.  During our interview at the busy Ben May Public Library on Government Street, Ravi talked about the importance of education, about the difficulty of being poor, and about the state’s possible ways forward.