ANNOUNCEMENT: If you are a black writer who reads this newsletter and would like to write anything about women’s literature (does not have to be about black writers; does not have to be about *this moment*), email me. I pay better rates than most magazines at this point and would love to promote your work.
Thank you for this! I read Lauren Michele Jackson’s piece and felt the exact same way. It‘s was really frustrating for me, as a Black woman, so see these lists circulate everywhere. To me, it made the assumption that if you’re Black and you write, it’s automatically considered a text to help “enlighten” white people, once again placing them at the center of the conversation. With some of the lists, I also thought that it was careless to lump a bunch of Black writers together with no distinction between non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Like Toni Morrison was just writing stories. Not texts to help white people become anti-racist. And when you look at novels by black people like that, you’re diluting the content so so much. Anyways, thank you once again for sharing this!
Thank you for this! I read Lauren Michele Jackson’s piece and felt the exact same way. It‘s was really frustrating for me, as a Black woman, so see these lists circulate everywhere. To me, it made the assumption that if you’re Black and you write, it’s automatically considered a text to help “enlighten” white people, once again placing them at the center of the conversation. With some of the lists, I also thought that it was careless to lump a bunch of Black writers together with no distinction between non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Like Toni Morrison was just writing stories. Not texts to help white people become anti-racist. And when you look at novels by black people like that, you’re diluting the content so so much. Anyways, thank you once again for sharing this!