Alice Walker - Katrina and Colour

The Color Purple examined violence and race relations in America's Deep South

In a Hardtalk Extra interview broadcast on Friday 14th October, Gavin Esler talks to Pulitzer prize winning author, Alice Walker, about race relations in the wake of hurricane Katrina, and her own life in the American South.

Alice Walker shot to prominence in the 1980s with her novel The Color Purple.

It became a highly acclaimed Hollywood movie with its uncompromising dissection of violence within black families in the United States.

It moved millions of people - but also angered some activists as being too negative.

The book is about to become a Broadway musical, at a time when Hurricane Katrina has reinvigorated the debate on race relations.

Alice Walker also talks about the struggle she endured living with her white husband in the American South of the 1960s.

HARDtalk Extra can be seen on Fridays on BBC World at 03:30 GMT, 08:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT, 18:30 GMT and 23:30 GMT.

It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 04:30 and 23:30