How Dare We! Write

by Sherry Quan Lee (Editor)

Sherry Quan Lee, editor, challenged 24 multicultural writers to respond to the question, “How Dare We? Write.” Their personal narratives reveal how and why they write, uncovering the difficulties that often arise due to culture, race, class, gender and/or sexuality, and the intersections among them; narratives that main stream teachers and publishers may not recognize or understand, but must, in order to provide multicultural writers with constructive feedback and a path toward publication.

Each narrative includes a creative writing exercise which may be used as a personal or group writing prompt, or framework for college, high school, or community writing workshops.

Cherise A. Pollard, PhD, Professor of English at West Chester University extols: “HOW DARE WE! WRITE offers a much needed corrective to creative writing pedagogy. The collection asks us to consider the following questions: what does it mean for an indigenous, or black, or Latinx, or Asian, or Middle Eastern, or LGBTQIA+ (or a combination of these identities) American to become a writer? ...What does it mean to work through resistance from supposed mentors, to face rejection from publishers and classmates, to stand against traditions that silence you, to stand in your truth about your identity so that you can claim, fearlessly, your history, your trauma, your joy...”

Contributors include: Gabriella Anais Deal-Marquez, Marcie Rendon, Marlina Gonzalez, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Lori Young-Williams, Jessica Lopez Lyman, Luis M Lopez, Sagirah Shahid, Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, Tou SaiKo Lee, Anya Achtenberg, Ginny Allery, Wesley Brown, Kandace Creel Falcón, Olive Lefferson, Christine Stark, Isela Gomez R., Bell Brown, Brenda, "William S. Yellow Robe, Jr, Ching-In Chen, Sweta Vikram, Hei Kyong Kim, Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, and Taiyon Coleman.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Crafts

210 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2017

About the author

SHERRY QUAN LEE, author of How to Write a Suicide Note (2008) approaches writing as a community resource and as culturally based art of an ordinary everyday practical aesthetic.

Love Imagined: a mixed race memoir (2014), Modern History Press is a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award.


Quan Lee teaches Creative Writing at Metropolitan State University, Saint Paul, Minnesota,

You can learn more about Sherry Quan Lee and view more of her work at www.SherryQuanLee.com.

Reviews

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 4 out of 5]

How Dare We! Write is a non-fiction book which caught me by surprise. The work is a collection of writing exercises written by teachers, community leaders, career writers that are bilingual, and multicultural. The editor expresses the notion of which, the writing world does not accept authors that are of color, and how one should overcome that. Sherry, in particular, is a Chinese Black Female who grew up passing for White in Minnesota. She hopes that by providing this educational tool, she can somehow facilitate healing and raise awareness towards the relevance of race, class, gender, age, and sexual identity; culture and language in the writing world.

As I continued reading this book, I felt lost and a little overwhelmed with the fact that I had no idea that this was even an issue. I have been reading and writing for years and it never even dawned on me that there was a race issue when it came to publishing. I always believed that books were either judged by their cover design or its sales, but never on the name of the author or its background. Surely, when it came to writing, it did not matter how you look, but how you write. Am I missing something here? I began to wonder, are these people who just struggled getting published? Or were they truly discriminated?

Either way, the work in hand was commendable and worth the purchase to read. The formatting, editing, and laid out work were written with perfection. It discusses literary myths, grammar issues, personal narratives, being rejected and more. Each section is written with the added emotional aspect of how the author, alone, was impacted and felt on their journey, becoming a writer. I felt that this added a personal touch to the book and it was nice to know more about them.

I recommend this book to people who wish to be informed and look for supplementary text in a creative writing workshop.

[Bonnie McKeegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much appreciated each essayist's very personal (and well written) sharing of experiences in childhood and adulthood related to finding their writing voice. Each was a painful journey, with racism and no place for a voice of color to be accepted at the core of the struggle. A theme of hope runs through the book. Each essayist reveals how they made their way through the challenges, still struggle but have been successful in varying degrees. Defining success by their own experiences and accomplishments rather than by the critical judgement of the predominant "white" voice of academia. They provide, in my opinion, encouragement and guidance for others struggling with same or similar issues.

I am an unpublished "new writer" of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, without an MFA or other related writing degree. I am also a white woman with an advanced degree in social work. This book has given me an "insider's view" of the painful experiences of a diverse group of writers of color struggling to find their voices and place. Having no experience in a college writing program, I had no prior knowledge of the culture or atmosphere. Learning that they are "highly politicized spaces" and very white dominated is discouraging and disturbing. This book deserves a spot in every MFA, English, or related writing program across the U.S. and beyond.

I highly recommend How Dare We! Write for writers of color, professors, editors, publishers, and writers not "of color." I am so glad this book found it's way to my nightstand stack!

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a white, non-writer (simply a lover of the written word) woman, this was in turns eye-opening, heartbreaking, and infuriating. I’m not infuriated at these writers, mind you! I’m infuriated with the prejudice and discrimination… but that only surprises me because I’m an ignorant white woman, right?

Anyway, there were several things that stood out to me that several of our essay writers mentioned, and I’ll direct this at them and any other aspiring multicultural writers out there:
PLEASE keep writing! Your writing is important! Everyone has a story to tell…especially if your story will help others (yours will!) or inform others (it already has!). Please keep going! Don’t stop! Keep informing! Keep remembering! Keep dreaming! If someone edits your work in a way that you don’t approve—stick to your guns; stay true to yourself and your story; find another editor, if need be. Just don’t give up! This broken world needs your voice in it!

Thank you to all the contributors to this book! I needed this! I’ll be on the lookout for these authors’ works now, as well as some of their inspirations’—some of whom I knew beforehand, some I had not yet.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed “How Dare We! Write”. The book is informative and gives encouragement for writers of every color. It is a collection of essays from multicultural writers. The essays are encouraging and push for writers of color to tell their truth and continue writing. Included with each essay is a writing exercise. (I loved these unique and thought provoking exercises. I have always wanted to write my life story so I appreciate the push to begin).
After reading this book I am more educated of the adversity writers of color experience. I appreciate this knowledge and will be making a point to ask bookshops to carry more books by writers of every nationality and race. I also am making a point to read more books by writers of color.
I received this book in a gracious giveaway on Goodreads by Victor.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regardless of your cultural identity or if you consider yourself a writer, this collection is a fabulous read. The diversity of the stories provide insight into the multicultural writing experience and includes writing exercises for reflection. The book can also be read as a collection of short stories.

[Glenda Bixler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writer Alert!

http://gabixlerreviews-bookreadershea...

[Damena Mccoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book worked well as a discussion point for a creative writing class that I taught.

[Kate Vogl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insights into the particular challenges of multicultural writers. And great writing exercises for writers to put to work in their writing and for teaching artists to put to work in their classrooms.

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great. I loved the different perspectives and diversity of the authors. I didn't relate to some of the stories, but I think that's the beauty of the book; there is something for everyone. It would be a useful resource for creative writing courses; at the end of each story, the author gives freewriting prompts.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's the introduction to a review I wrote. The full review is here: https://thelinebreak.wordpress.com/20...

Like most of America, the higher up you go in Academia the whiter it gets. With that comes the white privilege of criticism and writing, whether intentional or not. The vast majority of writing anthologies and handbooks are written by white authors, which reemphasizes certain styles, modes, and approaches. Editor Sherry Quan Lee’s How Dare We! Write: A Multicultural Creative Discourse (Modern History Press, forthcoming May 2017) is a new creative writing anthology by writers of color. Through what are essentially literacy narrative essays, the writers share how they struggled to write in an environment where they “are to listen, be silent, and be awed by the ‘right way’ to tell a story as defined by those in the ruling class going back to Aristotle” (Stark 51). These writers are doing what writers in the past have done: teaching us how to read literature. They educate us, though this education is not on an artistic aesthetic, like Imagism or Vorticism, but for cultural aesthetics. As a white, heteronormative, cis-male who tries to check his privilege, I was often surprised at certain privileges I had that I was not even aware of, such as how “italicizing non-English language contributes to otherizing our tongues” (Gómez R. 87), and more of which I’ll point out below. This book is eye-opening, critical, and personal.