A Measure of Belonging: Writers of Color on the New American South

by Cinelle Barnes (Editor, Contributor), Jaswinder Bolina (Contributor), Regina N. Bradley (Contributor)

A fierce collection of essays that tackle the question, "Who is welcome?" while also uplifting and celebrating the incredible diversity in the contemporary South, by twenty-one of the finest young writers of color living and working there.

Essays in A Measure of Belonging: Writers of Color on the New American South, examine issues of sex, gender, academia, family, immigration, health, social justice, sports, music, and more. Kiese Laymon navigates the racial politics of publishing while recording his audiobook in Mississippi. Regina Bradley moves to Indiana and grapples with a landscape devoid of her Southern cultural touchstones, like Popeyes and OutKast. Aruni Kashyap apartment hunts in Athens and encounters a minefield of invasive questions. Frederick McKindra delves into the particularly Southern history of Beyonce’s black majorettes.

From the DMV to the college basketball court to doctors’ offices, there are no shortage of places of tension in the American South. Urgent, necessary, funny, and poignant, these essays from new and established voices confront the complexities of the South’s relationship with race, uncovering the particular difficulties and profound joys of being a southerner in the 21st century.

With writing from Cinelle Barnes, Jaswinder Bolina, Regina Bradley, Jennifer Hope Choi, Tiana Clark, Christena Cleveland, Osayi Endolyn, M. Evelina Galang, Minda Honey, Gary Jackson, Toni Jensen, Aruni Kashyap, Latria Graham, Soniah Kamal, Frederick McKindra, Devi Laskar, Kiese Laymon, Nichole Perkins, Joy Priest, Ivelisse Rodriguez, and Natalia Sylvester.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Anthologies, Race, Southern, Short Stories, Memoir

189 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2020

About the author

BEAUTY in TRUTH

Cinelle Barnes is a creative non-fiction writer and educator from Manila, Philippines. She writes memoirs and personal essays on trauma, growing up in Southeast Asia, and on being a mother and immigrant in America. In 2014, she was nominated for the AWP Journal Intro Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and in 2015 received an MFA from Converse College. She was part of the inaugural Kundiman Creative Non-Fiction Intensive in New York City and will be attending the VONA/Voices workshop for political content writing at the University of Pennsylvania in summer 2017. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Literary Hub, South85, Skirt!, West Of, Your Life Is A Trip, the Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Series, Itinerant Literate's StorySlam, and Hub City Press's online anthology, Multicultural Spartanburg.

Follow me on Instagram! @cinellebarnesbooks
Cinelle teaches writing workshops throughout the year, including Poses and Prose, a yoga + writing workshop.

Her debut memoir, Monsoon Mansion, will be available through Amazon.com and independent booksellers in Spring 2018 (Little A).

Reviews

[Jackson Hignite · Rating 5 out of 5]

For southerners: wholeheartedly recommend. will give you a deeper understanding of our home and everyone who lives here. it's simultaneously heart-warming and heart-breaking and full of discomfort worth sitting in.

For non-southerners: wholeheartedly recommend. get to know us a little better.

[Nicole B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated many of these stories, but the anthology format is evidently just not my cup of tea. Most essays were too short for me to truly engage.

[Vanessa S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Measure of Belonging is an anthology of essays by writers of color living in the South. Each essay touches on a unique nuance of being a POC in the south and the many ways in which those who aren’t white are discriminated against and asked, “What are you really?”

I enjoyed all of the essays and felt myself swept up in each one, resulting in this being a really quick read. I would have liked to see more representation from Latinx and Native voices, but I have no complaints otherwise. This is a beautifully curated collection that I highly recommend!

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

“That’s how I think of it now, this place- a we rather than an it. I’ve acclimated enough to feel a measure of belonging.”

Quick Summary: This anthology is focused around the question, “who is welcome?” Each essay, written by a person of color, deals with the complexities of the South’s relationship with race, uncovering the profound difficulties and joys of being a southerner in the 21st century.

Thank you Hub City Writers for sending me a copy of this magnificent book!

I loved this book! Like really loved it. I expected the essays to be engaging but each one really blew me away. The writers cover topics including music, food, the DMV, landlords, academia, and the fucking Duke Blue Devils (boooooooo).

I was particularly crazy about the two essays written about Louisville, KY (my hometown) by Joy Priest and Minda Honey. Both women grew up in the area and Minda currently lives there. They wrote of what it’s like to grow up in a city that is a funny mix of the south and midwest. Priest wrote about the West End where thirty percent of residents don’t own a car. Her words about the Ninth Street Divide had my jaw on the ground, “Called such because it separates the West End economically, politically, visually, and psychically, the Ninth Street Divide is a common phrase uttered to tourists by downtown bartenders as a boundary not to venture beyond.” IYKYK. And it’s true. I lived in Louisville for over 20 years and didn’t start venturing to the West End until I started teaching at a school on 22nd St when I was 24 years old. And this was when my entire worldview blew up. I learned about how people outside of my bubble lived. I learned a new kind of understanding that people twice my age still seem to grapple with: systemic systems that keep people exactly where they are at. Once you learn these things, that is all you see. There is no unknowing what I now know. And thank god for that.

But I digress. Read this book! Especially those of you living in Southern states or from that area. Each writer’s story was fascinating and hard to put down. I also recommend this for someone looking for a quick read- it’s just a little over 100 pages!

[Jacquelyn Pedigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So so very good! It’s a large collection of many small stories describing the experience of being non-white in the American south. Each story is not long and all are incredibly well written and varied in artistic style. I can honestly say there was no slack to pick up, everyone was bringing their A-game. Incredible W from the book’s editor Cinelle Barnes to pick and guide these stories in a cohesive but distinct collection. Would definitely read another collection or work she’s done!!

The only thing I would say was that there was no Texas representation. Some people lived or studied or referenced there, but no actual Texan writer (and there are plenty writers of color from Texas ie Jia Tolentino, Bryan Washington, Oscar Casares). I’d even say the geographic representation was very skewed when considering the whole South. Three of the 21 stories (1 out of every 7) based in Miami. Miami! I know there’s a lot of talk about what parts of the U.S. count as “the South” but it’s pretty agreed upon Miami is it’s own place. I could expand and say Alabama and Louisiana didn’t get any rep, and Mississippi was included only thanks to Kiese Laymon. Furthermore, if you’re talking about the American South, you got to give a nod to Appalachia. Sorry if this sounds heated, it’s not that serious, but I just thought almost half of the south and much of the Deep South was not well represented in this anthology.

I knew some of the contributors going in, and I have a whole new list of writers to check out now.

Some stand out pieces:
- “that not actually true”, Kiese Laymon (not shocking I moved his chapter considering he’s one of my fav top three living authors)
- “Southern, Not a Belle”, Nichole Perkins
- “Pass”, Toni Jenson
- “Treacherous Joy”, Tiana Clark

[Cate Tedford]

Powerful and challenging and so important. I’m grateful for their voices, their words! I am learning!

I’m going to be thinking about Jaswinder Bolina’s essay for a loooong time…:
“Those majorities fear my bad luck this evening will be our collective misfortune, that undocumented boys fleeing poverty and violence everywhere else are arriving here in droves to mug, rape, and murder America. Those majorities would rather villainous boys like these be left rotting in the streets of their own brown towns, but my town is their town, and the faces of the boys who mugged me had not one flicker of villainy in them. The only thing I remember is their bravado, the false front they barely mustered against whatever hunger had driven them to this quiet street on which I happened to be walking home. I’m not a victim of their malice. I’m a victim of their desperation, which is to say, my neighbor’s misfortune becomes my own.”

“I knew that whether heaven really existed or not, it certainly belonged to little children confronted with mortality.” -Soniah Kamal

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this collection of essays from writers of color writing about "the new American South." There were several stories I really liked, but many didn't seem to have anything to do with the South at all and seemed random or out of place. In the introduction Cinelle Barnes writes about going to a work dinner with her husband and another wife asked her if she was liking the area (I'm assuming Charleston, but it's not said directly) and when she said there were things I would change the woman said, "Honey, nobody asked you to move here," and got up and left. I obviously don't know their whole conversation, but Barnes grew up in New York so it could have been more Yankee discrimination and not racial, but either way extremely rude of the other woman. I did appreciate that not every story was about race issues or discrimination (although that's still an obvious, on-going issue). Overall, it was OK and I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 2 for the stories that I really liked.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cinelle Barnes and all of the writers included in A Measure of Belonging have created something incredible: A complex, wide-ranging, and mind-expanding anthology covering so many nuanced aspects of being a person of color in the South.

Often anthologies can be hit or miss when it comes to their individual parts, but overall, this one was consistent and grounded, and I'm having trouble keeping track of all of the essays I liked because there were so many thought-provoking ones to choose from.

[cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars - this was a fantastic surprise of a stunner. The essays were so compelling and full of life. I was expecting something slightly more academic-y and was blown away by the stories these authors shared with us. I picked it up because I will read anything that Kiese Laymon writes (including grocery lists, I think - I love his words that much) and now I have new authors to go search out because I loved Osayi Endolyn, Soniah Kamal, and Latria Graham as much as I loved Kiese Laymon's essay or more.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly timely book to finish today! What an absolutely phenomenal collection of essays. Truly no misses here--every essay was beautifully written, each engaging with fascinating subject matter and helping to paint a picture of the dichotomous South as a welcoming and unwelcoming place, a racist and antiracist place, and home and not home. I would highly recommend giving this a read and checking out work put out by Hub City Press in general!

[Sayantani Dasgupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this anthology! The essays cover a variety of subjects from getting mugged in Miami to searching for a home to lease in Athens to growing up on a tobacco farm—all from the perspectives of writers who have made the US South their home. When I read collections like these, I put two check marks against individual pieces that I especially admired. Here, I had to do it to 16 of the 21 essays that make up this book.

[Sonya Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gem of a book! I appreciate being exposed to so many great writers with this collection. The essays are so varied and the perspectives so unique, just like the South. The collection both enforces and disqualifies southern stereotypes. It’s both heart warming and heart breaking. I would love to see another collection like this.

[shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories were weaker than others but overall I loved them.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a love some read on through some book for me. I found myself indulging in memories as a southerner, and also feeling that my life as a light skinned blue eyed girl was quite a beat different from that of the authors. I value their reflections on the south, recognized much, and felt more distance than was always comfortable, which was, of course, the great gift of this book.

[Demi (book_oasis) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Overall, I enjoyed some of the essays, much like any anthology. Some felt like they strayed from the theme of AOC in the South, but this may be because many of essays were 5-7 pages long. But, all of the essays were beautifully written and evoked that author’s experience.

[Sachi Argabright · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MEASURE OF BELONGING is an anthology collection edited by Cinelle Barnes focused around the experiences of 21 writers of color living in the American South. This book features a wide range of voices, and discusses many different places in the South.

[ Trigger warnings for discussion of miscarriage and stillborn fetuses ]

Barnes’s intro to this collection is strong, and it continues to deliver with every essay thereafter. As one could guess, there are many passages about racism and whiteness being everywhere, just in different forms. Microaggressions, insensitive assumptions, and intrusive questions are illustrated throughout the collection, and while they are not specific to the South, it is important to recognize they continue to occur all over this country. This book features 21 truly talented writers, and I will need to dig into their backlists for more of their work. The two essays that resonated with me most were Treacherous Joy by Tiana Clark and That’s Not Actually True by Kiese Laymon.

I have so much love for this wonderful book! Great for anthology lovers, or those who want to read more books focused on viewpoints from the South that aren’t lifted as much in mainstream media.

[Emma Ito · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really loved the essays in the collection, particularly “suddenly, an island girl,” by m. evelina galang, in which she explores her identity as a midwestern pinay transplanted to miami. she relays some of her father’s experiences in north carolina, where he faced the jim crow binary of Black & white & was directed to use the “Colored” bathrooms at gas stations but the “whites only” doors to the hospital. this reflects a lot of the history i work to uncover, where asian americans were often stuck in between these rigid binaries.

so many of these essays resonated with me & as a japanese american in richmond, virginia, who studies asian american & southern history, it made me even more bummed when i finished & realized there were no essays featuring virginia. don’t get me wrong, the essays featured in this are fantastic & i absolutely recommend this book. but, when i was growing up in rural new kent, virginia, i remember my cousin telling me va wasnt the “real south.” yall. virginia is absolutely the real south & the lack of a virginia essay was the only shortcoming to this otherwise excellent collection. def a good read for nonfiction november & i think a needed read for many folks who want to explore & learn more about the many nuances in the south. the south is an incredible place full of resistance & fights for civil rights, both historically & now 🔥

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compendium of 21 short essays includes some fine pieces of accessible writing. Particular favourites include Soniah Kamal's delicately tragic Face, the exhausted fury of Aruni Kashyap's Are you Muslim?, Natalia Sylvester's surprisingly joyful Dysplasia and the lump-in-the-throat evocation of Luthen Rael's Gum. The collection is, of course, diverse in all the good ways - writers love, hate, and tolerate the places they are writing about; some tackle things directly, others slyly from the side. As an anthology, not everything feels perfectly tied together. Miami is a very different place to Charleston and sometimes this led more to a feeling of two sides than variety. Similarly, the relationship of African-Americans to deep South culture is different to that of recent migrants. But the writing is excellent, not least for the exploration of what it means to be home, a question that feels more pertinent than ever.

[Anjie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every essay a gem in its own way. Written by a diverse slate of writers from across the new American south-- from Louisville to Miami to Austin to Charleston. Some of the accounts they share are universal, most deeply personal, some made my heart hurt. At times I nodded in recognition even though I only lived in the South a total of 3 years (1.5 in Atlanta, 1.5 in Richmond). I'm originally from Maryland which is, yes, south of the Mason-Dixon Line but I leaned into its Mid-Atlantic sensibilities hard to I wouldn't feel Southern. "A Measure of Belonging" has broadened what I thought of as the Southern experience thanks to perspectives that don't often get a chance to shine, at least in the nonfiction space.

[Valenda Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost gave this three stars. But instead of judging by it’s weakest I am going recognize the pieces that I enjoyed.
I’ve never really read many collections of essays but I did enjoy this book. I suppose it’s to be expected that not every essay is going to be your cup of tea. For example one author seemed overly loquacious in order to demonstrate his advanced vocabulary. Really, to the point of distraction. But that’s the good thing about short essays - they’re short.
Most of the essays I thoroughly enjoyed. I felt very comfortable exploring some uncomfortable topics, like I was having a thoughtful discussion at a dinner with friends, new and old. I am appreciative of the perspectives shared in this collection and I recommend reading them for yourself.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like the first half of this book, with the exception of Kiese Laymon’s excellent essay (because everything he writes is excellent), could have been written about anywhere. I guess this is a philosophical issue I have with people writing about “the American South,” a region larger than most countries and full of such diverse experiences. I was prepared to give this collection of essays 3 stars. But starting with Christina Cleveland’s essay on Duke basketball and continuing on with ruminations on southern belles, falling outside of the black/white dichotomy that exists in the south, HBCU majorette culture, and living in the south as a white-passing person of color, the second half of this collection really hits its stride. Five stars for the end of the book.

[simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible.
as a non-southerner, this book was both informative, and reminding me of the roles we cast places and people in without thinking, because that’s what we’ve always done. (as a new yorker, i am referencing here the intellectual superiority complex that the northeast can have about the american south)
every essay and story is masterfully written, poignant, and sticks with you long after.
big kudos to how this anthology was put together, as well. the pieces flowed into each other beautifully.
absolutely absolutely reccomend!

[ashes ➷]

These essays appear to have mostly been collected after their initial publications-- which means some of them are about being a person of color in the South, some are about being a Southern USAmerican person of color, some are about being a person of color, and some are about being Southern. And some of them are just about a person of color in the South doing something, even if neither of those elements are really at the fore. I wished most of these were longer and that the collection was more cohesive overall, but I'm not surprised a lot of other people had a blast; this just wasn't my vibe.

[Mackensie Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know if it’s a problem of essay collections or a benefit of essay collections, but I kept being mad that some of the essays were short because I just wanted to know more! Then i would hit one where I thought “oh good it’s short.” But this is a a great series for anyone who maybe has a very outdated view of the South- or worse, doesn’t recognize the racial issues in their own area outside the South.

[Baylee Less · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this collection while browsing my local book store. I was searching for Southern voices, especially Southern voices of color, and I couldn’t have found a more perfect, insightful, witty, challenging, and epic selection to read. Each essay and story differs in details but share a common thread of love AND distrust of the new American South. All in all, bravo, well done, and I will likely read and reread this collection for my entire life.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this. Most of these essays individually were interesting. There wasn't much cohesion to them collectively. Not all the writers wrote about the south particularly. Some of the essays felt too brief and almost cut off. I could imagine pulling some of them out to read and discuss in a class, for instance.

Read for the Read Harder Challenge 2022 #5 Read an anthology featuring diverse voices.

[Blythe Waldbillig · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays so beautifully and honestly reflected on the deep complexity of the south - the tendrils of injustice, subtle and explicit, as well as the deep richness and bounty and joy and beloved community. It’s helped me to reflect on my time here and embrace the nuance and that two things can be true at the same time, that I can hate it here and love it here and want so deeply good things for this place and people.

[Hays Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really compelling and nuanced collection of essays. Most of which were really brave and genuine. I laughed out loud a couple times. Definitely worth the read if you can get your hands on it (thanks public library).

I especially loved Kiese Laymon, Regina Bradley, Christena Cleveland, and Frederick McKindra’s essays. A lot of them centering around higher education were specifically interesting to me.

[Vern · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing collection! The diversity of authors and range of topics within this collection are arranged so well. I hated for each essay to end. "Face" by Soniah Kamal was heartbreaking and beautiful at the same. I can't pick a favorite because each essay was a delightful. I haven't enjoyed a collection this much in a long time.

[Manisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

powerful, beautiful writing that resonantes with me as
A first gen American/south Asian from the south. Like other reviewers have mentioned, 4/5 because I feel like latinx and indigenous writers were sorely underrepresented. As a south Asian myself, I feel south Asian writers might also be a tad over-represented in this collection.