Full Description
Presenting a new way of thinking about the practice of writing fiction for Black writers and any writer who includes non-white characters in their work, The Black Writer's Toolbox is a practical guide to crafting authentic Black characters and fictional worlds.
For Black writers, there are connotations within description, language, setting, characterisation and voice when they approach the page that are often overlooked in creative writing instruction. This book seeks to address this gap, offering writers the tools to decolonise their own minds, banish stereotypes and caricatures from their writing and address important contemporary cultural questions.
Helping writers articulate their fully formed characters as well as guiding readers to understand the nuances of writing while Black, the book considers the effect of stereotypes on Black writers and readers, explores the historical implications of language, voice and power, and explains why all writing is not the same. With consideration of sentence structure, senses, scene, point of view, plot, emotion, writing 'self' and 'other' and more, each chapter employs examples of literature from Black authors that explore narrative perspective within the cultural, racial and historic contexts of the work, and features writing prompts and exercises around the topics discussed. Calling upon the writings of Yaa Gyasi, Courttia Newland, Bernadine Evaristo, Nalo Hopkinson, Marlon James and Jamaica Kincaid and many more, The Black Writer's Toolbox is an important corrective to existing literature on the writing process.
Contents
Preface
Foreword
Acknowledgements
How to use this book
Chapter 1: Structuring Black Sentences
Velvet Man by Leone Ross
Chapter 2: Using Black Senses
Underground by Courttia Newland
Chapter 3: Creating Black Settings
Waiting by Muli Amaye
Chapter 4: Fully Functional Black Characterisation
The Water Beneath My Feet by June Aming
Chapter 5: Black Voice
Getting Home: A Black Urban Myth (The Proofreader's Sigh) by Peter Kalu
Chapter 6: Black Language
Terre Brulée by Celeste Mohammed
Chapter 7: Having a Black Point of View
Boss Lady by Nadja Nabbie
Chapter 8: Black Story, Plot & Structure
Mr Koala by Malcolm Cocks
Chapter 9: Writing Self, Writing Other, Writing Black
Strike by Muli Amaye
Chapter 10: Writing Black Emotion
The First Shampoo Hair Show by Nii Ayikwe Parkes
Bibliography
Short Story Contributors
Index
