Letters to a Writer of Color

Reviews

“I found myself circling passages on every page, discussing the themes with anyone who would listen to me. . . .  It is a book about how we see ourselves and how we can, through reading and storytelling, draw ourselves and each other in a new, more complete image.”—The Boston Globe

“If you’ve ever felt that your creative choices were being dismissed or ignored in a fiction workshop, if you’ve been pressured to make your writing more ‘accessible,’ if you’ve strained under the demand to write about certain things only and to silence others—this book is for you.”—Laila Lalami, author of Conditional Citizens

“. . . a beautiful and galvanizing anthology, featuring some of the most dazzling writers working today.”—Autostraddle

“Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro cultivate a community for melanated readers and the writers who create for them. . . . The unifying thread is a pulsing need to construct a world where we are rendered whole and vivid on the page.”—Essence

“A whip-smart collection of essays . . . I read parts of it with the joy of recognition and other parts with the astonishment of revelation.”—Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

“A brave and triumphant act of resistance and decolonization, a necessary resource for writers and educators alike, and a must-have book for readers who care about diversity and inclusion in literature. Reading this book, I felt seen and empowered.”—Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, bestselling author of The Mountains Sing and Dust Child

“Funny, moving, thought-provoking, default-challenging, engaging, and full of so much heart and so many voices, this book feels to me like nothing less than a revolution.”—Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring

“Witty, candid, bold, gutsy, eye-opening and sometimes eye-popping, revelatory and wise! If you want to know what writers talk about among themselves, you’ve found it.”—Aminatta Forna, author of The Memory of Love

“Here, matters of craft are interwoven with those of personhood and politics, offering a global range of perspectives rarely found in books on writing.”—Tania James, author of Aerogrammes and The Tusk That Did the Damage

“A revelatory reading experience. A book that guides, teaches, and gives off its own shimmering light, that demands to be read and re-read.”—Katherine J. Chen, author of Joan

“It is essential reading in a world full of sound bites and furious noise.”—Tash Aw, author of Strangers on a Pier

“A stunningly personal and practical compilation of literary and life advice . . .”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This captivating love letter to writers of color deserves to be in every library the world over.”—Booklist (starred review)
 
“A vivid look at what it means to be a writer of color today.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) Expand reviews