How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill

by Jericho Brown, Darlene Taylor

More than 30 acclaimed writers—including diverse voices such as Nikki Giovanni, David Omotosho Black, Natasha Trethewey, Barry Jenkins, Jacqueline Woodson, Tayari Jones, and Angela Flournoy—reflect on their experience and expertise in this unique book on the craft of writing that focuses on the Black creative spirit. How We Do It is an anthology curated by Black writers for the creation and proliferation of Black thought. While a creator’s ethnicity does not solely define them, it is inherently part of who they are and how they interpret the world. For centuries, Black creators have utilized oral and written storytelling traditions in crafting their art. But how does one begin the process of constructing a poem or story or character? How do Black writers, when faced with questions of “authenticity,” dive deep into the essence of their lives and work to find the inherent truth? How We Do It addresses these profound questions. Not a traditional “how to” writing handbook, it seeks to guide rather than dictate and to validate the complexity and range of styles—and even how one thinks about craft itself. An outstanding list of contributors offer their insights on a range of important topics. Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown explores the lives personified in poetry, while Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey explores decolonizing enduring metaphors. National Book Award finalist Angela Flournoy illuminates the pain of grief in all forms and how it can be revealed in the act of creation, and iconoclast Nikki Giovanni offers an elegiac declaration on language. New and previously published essays and interviews provide encouragement, examples, and templates, and offer lessons on everything from poetic form and plotting a story to the lessons inherent in the act of writing, trial & error, and finding inspiration in the works of others, including those of Toni Morrison, Shakespeare, and Edward P. Jones. A handbook and a reference tool, How We Do It is a thoughtful and welcome tool that offers direction to help Black artists establish their own creative practice while celebrating and widening the scope of the Black writer’s role in art, history, and culture. Contributors include Daniel Omotosho Black, Jericho Brown, Breena Clark, Rita Dove, Camille T. Dungy, W. Ralph Eubanks, Curdella Forbes, Angela Flournoy, Ernest Gaines, Nikki Giovanni, Marita Golden, Ravi Howard, Terrance Hayes, Mitchell S. Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Charles Johnson, Tayari Jones, Jamaica Kincaid, Tony Medina, E. Ethelbert Miller, Elizabeth Nunez, Carl Phillips, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Rion Amilcar Scott, Evie Shockley, Natasha Trethewey, Frank X Walker, Afaa M. Weaver, Crystal Wilkinson, Jacqueline Woodson, Tiphanie Yanique.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Essays, Crafts, Creative, Poetry

352 pages, Paperback

Published July 4, 2023

About the author

Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the Mayor of New Orleans before receiving his PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He also holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BA from Dillard University. The recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Bunting Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, and two travel fellowships to the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland, Brown teaches at the University of San Diego where he is the Director of the Cropper Center for Creative Writing. His poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, jubilat, Oxford American, A Public Space, and several other journals and anthologies. PLEASE, his first book, won the 2009 American Book Award.

Reviews

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

How We Do It edited by Jericho Brown and Darlene Taylor is a collection of essays by Black writers for Black writers, creatives, and readers. I enjoyed reading the personalized experiences of each contributor as they share their understanding of the craft of writing poetry, fiction, and storytelling in general.

Each essay provides an analysis of the way Black writers both engage with structure, plot, and form while also resisting these pre-established forms in order to create from a place of ultimate authenticity. I appreciate the way each writer speaks to how these structures can be helpful to the creative process and also limiting in the way the forms privilege Western perspectives. As writers of the African diaspora, each author engages with these expectations differently and on their own terms. It was a treat to explore the opinions and practices of each writer based on their own cultural vision of the way Black authors remember and execute the art of storytelling.

There is also homage paid to Black literary giants and many references made to Black literature considered part of the literary canon which I look forward to exploring further.

Thank you to the authors, editors, and publisher for the e-arc copy!

[Alexa Esperanza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a special book. If you’re a writer, especially a Black writer, you NEED this like… yesterday! I loved learning about the creative processes of so many different writers, from poets to novelists to screenplay writers. I am a songwriter and I already know that I’ll keep coming back to this book for inspiration because so many of the things I learned can easily be applied to my own writing.

I also really liked that This Is How We Do It includes many different formats, (interviews, essays ect) and really allowed each writer to shine in their own unique way.

[Ms. Woc Reader]

It's hard to rate a craft book since a variety of voices have contributed to it. And this one was different because it's aimed at writers who are already on their journey vs just getting started. Some of the passages in here were also taken from interviews so not specifically written for this book. Some of the advice was very helpful and had me looking at writing differently. Some of it felt a little long and drawn out and not as helpful for me. But overall it kept me thinking.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag but generally very good essays about how to approach writing. Whether it's fiction or poetry or an essay, this book provides guidence about how to approach emotions, and repetition and finding your voice, and how to write about grief and whether or not you should write outside of your own characteristics (spoiler, you should) etc. Some of the essays were overly long for the point. Lots of essays about writing poetry which didn't initially interest me, but I am intrigued. All in all, a good book about the craft.

4 Stars

Read on kindle.

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a unique way multicultural writers write. This is no different for the Black writers or authors. thirty-one essays written by different authors who are willing to share how culture can ring loud and true. Some of the authors you will recognize: Daniel Black , Jewell Parker Rhodes and Jacqueline Woodson. Each author writes about what has been important to get across to their reader.

I like "How We Do It" because it is the writings of silent voices The ones we really need to search for in the bookstore. I also like how each author Jericho Brown chose shares the names of other authors in their essays. William Faulkner's name pops up and so does Edward Jones name show up. It is like your getting more for your buck. You might find yourself taking notes. I am pretty sure this book is a keeper.

If you are not an author, the book is still a good one to buy. There is the chance to read the secrets about how you like writers to write, how they achieve their goals and how to make a character blossom. It is an important book. It is a practical book.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill," edited by Jericho Brown, is a book that deserves a place on the shelf of any aspiring writer. You'll find plenty of inspiration and specific advice on writing challenges like understanding character motivation and how to convey emotion on the page.

But that's only one layer. At its heart, the book is written by Black writers, for Black writers. It's about language and tradition. Family and kinship. Memory and authenticity. About telling stories and being silenced.

The anthology includes 30+ contributors who share their experiences and insights about finding their writers' voices. There are essays discussing survival narratives, colorism, and using the storytelling found in fiction to inform memoir writing to create a cohesive whole with a narrative arc that keeps readers turning the page. How We Do It combines practical, actionable advice with a deeper examination of culture, art, and survival.

I received this advanced reader copy of How We Do It from Amistad and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Phobean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eight years of writing instruction, from 1992 through 2000, have made me a very selective and persnickety creature when it comes to engaging with writing-on-writing. I encounter MANY instruction books, and engage with few. When I learned about How We Do It, edited by Jericho Brown, I gave it a bit of a side-eye, even though I'm always complaining that writing instruction (in English, at least) is largely the domain of white authors: Annie Lamott's Bird by Bird, Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, Steven King's On Writing (the one book in this collection that I haven't read), and so-on.

Last year, I took a chance on Felicia Rose Chavez's The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop, which blew me the heck away, and I suppose opened me to the possibility of reading How We Do It, a book I'd come across several times but kept on pushin' right past. When I finally followed curiosity to pick it up, I discovered myself in the first essay, "Rhythm in Writing" by Daniel Omotosho Black, like it was some kinda astrological reading! Although I had to return How We Do It to the library due to being checked out beyond the three-week minimum (and then some), then proceeded to check it out again (I'm just not that fast a reader) for several weeks, including trucking it 250 miles out-of-state (shh! don't tell my library), in the end it was all worth it. I'll probably remember 40% of what I read in here, 'cause it's a lot of content, but that's alright. Getting access to mostly not-instruction / more-inspiration and writing-ways like this is a gift. Unheard of, really, during those eight-straight-years of secondary-school/college writing instruction I referenced earlier.

Perhaps what I learned, most of all, is that Black writers have a lot to say about craft, creating, analysis, and legacy. Appreciate it.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, made up of both recent and older essays and interviews with Black writers, is ostensibly a craft book. But the idea of craft has recently been undergoing some much-needed challenges, and so the pieces in this collection that resonate the most with me are the ones that push back against craft--especially those by Rita Dove and Nikki Giovanni. Many of the older pieces included here are by authors who, during the majority of their career, were pushed by publishers and editors and others in the industry to "write White;" who were influenced by the lingering ideas of Booker T. Washington, who felt that for Blacks to be taken seriously and accorded rights, they had to be not just equal than but better than their White colleagues--to have better grammar, better vocabularies, better "style." This makes the collection a bit of a museum of ideas about writing and craft. Nonetheless, there is good advice to be found here. For writing instructors, I'd suggest also reading Felicia Rose Chavez's The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop and Matthew Salesses's Craft in the Real World.

[Celeste celestially_yours Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attention readers and writers alike-this book is absolutely necessary to have in your library. The introduction is well written and gives you a description on what you can expect from the rest of the book. The chapters have very “catchy” but accurate titles that made me smile. This is an anthology of essays;which again peaked my interest. (an Anthology is always a good thing)
The book also references lots of great published works by Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, and Shakespeare to name a few.
One of my favorite sections of the books was called In Abiding Metaphors and Finding a Calling. This really pointed out all the things about reading and word flow that I love while reading. All in all this is such a great idea and kudos to all the contributors and the editor Jericho Brown. You can find essays in the book by Tayari Jones, Daniel Omotosho Black, and Jacqueline Woodson, and so many others.
Thank you for such an amazing read!

[R.Z. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of essays by Black writers on how they write for their audiences. I learned some things from reading this book, but some of the essays were pretty skippable. Yes, I am a white person reviewing a book about what Black writers have to say, and although some readers of GoodReads will dismiss this review because of that, nevertheless, my take on this book was that these authors must not have been given any guidance on what the editors were looking for. Too many of the essays were rambling, unstructured, and not helpful to new writers. I would genuinely like to read a well-written how-to book for Black writers, because I KNOW that I would learn from it too.

[Angel (huge fan of all things Totoro) · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC. This review is my own opinion**

I seriously didn't think I'd get this ARC! I have been hearing a lot of good things on it. This is not your traditional "writing" books, which is totally fine! The diverse viewpoint from Black writers definitely gives a different spin on the craft. I learned things about historical Black writers and current Black writers. Being half Black myself, this book made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside because there aren't many books out there that gives voice to Black writers. I also love to write and am working on becoming a published author.

[Shenard Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing read. Thoroughly enjoyed listening to these practicing writers explain their approach to “craft”. What makes what we do as writers relevant and necessary to current and future audiences is a burning question I hope to discover an answer for.

[Cynthia Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book, especially for Black writers. I especially enjoyed...well I actually enjoyed most of the essays, so let's just leave it at that. ( But Mitchell Jackson's was amazing.) I read it slowly to make sure I got everything I could out of it.

[Britta Esmail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this so far. Especially the section on memory and experience. A must-read for writers and especially teachers of writing.

[Jasminum Mcmullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and necessary. Gratitude. ❤

[rhema joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘I don’t have a craft. I have the embrace and trust of my ancestors. And the language we created.’

[Joelle Byars · Rating 4 out of 5]

While, yes, this is another craft book, the perspective here is unique as it features Black writers and their perspectives on how to write about Black life using Black storytelling traditions. The text is organized into eight sections: “Who Your People?,” “What You Got?,” “Where You At?,” “How You Living?,” “What It Look Like?,” “Who You With?,” “How to Read,” and “Going Back.” Some essays are hyper-specific to Black writing about Black life (for example, how to write with rhythm to mimic that of Black vernacular speech), though most of it can be applied to writing in general. The advice provided by this book that I do not see often revolves primarily around writing characters/settings with which you are unfamiliar.

Regarding characterization (primarily from “Who Your People?”), the contributors offer similar advice: To write a convincing character, you need to know who they are. Wilkinson addresses this, “…when you begin to talk about your characters as if they are members of your family, then you’ve got it right.” This echoes a sentiment often discussed during writing workshops/in creative writing courses: incorporate yourself/those you know into your characters. What the contributors to this book, along with others, always emphasize is that characters will remain two-dimensional unless there is information about them only you are aware of, information that never makes it to the page. However, Wilkinson’s quote stuck out as it is contingent on being able to hold a conversation with your characters, thereby giving them autonomy that even the writer may know nothing about.

This also ties into the section, “Who You With?” This section is primarily about audience, more specifically, how we write to people who are different from us. Similar to “Who Your People?,” this section is primarily concerned with what we do off the page and how that translates onto the page. Walker echoes an argument made by Morrison, advocating for the removal of the familiar, in direct contrast to advice given in “Who Your People?” They claim the pitfalls of “writing what you know” is that often life is stranger than fiction and can, in turn, make your writing more unrealistic. Paired with the advocacy to enhance one’s imagination, the obvious question here is: how do we exercise our imagination? Walker discusses the “research” we can perform in daily life that helps us remove people we know/that are in our lives/ourselves from our characters. She gives the list of, “…visiting the library, checking Google, eavesdropping on folk, watching YouTube videos, shadowing subjects and subject matter, interviewing those who can help, sleuthing around, etc.” In other words, writing “what you know” does not have to be limited to what you or people you are close to have experienced, but instead, by observing the world around us with a critical eye, we learn more thus allowing us to “know” more, something critical to the research we do that never makes it to the page. Walker claims that this also helps us write about people who are different from us. When we surround ourselves by media created by people with whom we have nothing in common, eavesdrop on people different from us, expose ourselves to viewpoints, language, or gesticulation outside of with what we are familiar, we are increasing our internal inventory to pull from, allowing us to better include the “other” in our work. Walkers final suggestions include: immersing yourself through being around people like those you wish to write about, keeping journals of your characters and what they like/dislike, creating a playlist for your character, eavesdropping (especially if your character would speak differently than you), and reading aloud (which helps with finding natural rhythms in speech/narration).

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill, edited by Jericho Brown, is a fascinating collection of advice and pointers that stops short, thankfully, of the many books that make writing sound like simply following steps. This volume, while highlighting the many steps that are essential to writing, have as much or more to do with the subtle aspects of those steps and the important element of the writer's mindset.

This will be a valuable addition to any writer's library, especially those of color or, frankly, any other writer who feels they are or have been marginalized. This is about finding how best to express oneself, not in a lock step approach but in one that looks inward as much as backward to already published writers. Knowing what to do is great, knowing how to adapt that knowledge to what you want to express is even better. And that is where this book makes its largest contribution.

If you're not a writer, or if, like me, you write mostly for yourself, this is still a useful book since it helps readers better understand what goes into a writer's choices. Knowing that allows a reader to better do their part in making the story both the writer's and the reader's.

I enjoyed every essay in the book, but the one I think really spoke to me was Curdella Forbes' essay on kinship. While definitely speaking to the craft of writing, and by extension reading, it also touches on our everyday interactions in the world. I found it to be both a wonderful expression of an empowering perspective and a more open-minded and -hearted way to understand people in general.

Highly recommended for both writers as well as readers who want to be more active in their engagement with books, from novels to poetry and memoirs.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Niyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

How We Do It is a writing book far from other writers' books. As a Creative Writing Major, I'm bound to read many of them--and I have. Many of which I can't help but roll my eyes at.

How We Do It highlighted many perspectives of writing told wrong by White Authors and professors. So many of the tips I wrote down helped me with my writing. In this book, a mixture of essays and interviews helps the reader stay engaged. It hits many different topics and genres, from memoirs to poetry. Even if you're not a black author, I think this book has so many valuable things that can benefit you and your writing.

[Cardyn Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

An introduction, eight sections, the afterword, a list of extraordinary contributors, and the credits & permissions all deliver so much more than the sum of its most excellent parts in essays from an array of authors who offer a broad range of advice and insights on why and how to write. Motivations, strategies, hindsight ruminations, personal and wise observations, even a few exercises fill this text with an inviting vibe that makes it easy to digest the information provided.

[Vanessa Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handy

I will keep this book on hand for when I need refresher on
writing.I won't lie, it is quite tedious to ? But it's still good nonetheless even as a black writer. It's very novel and poetry heavy so if you write any of those, you benefit from this book. I'm mad at how long it took for me to finish but as I've stated before, it's ALOT

[Ja Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect, but "How We Do It" through conversations with writers and poets was a joy. Reading, in some cases provided the "light bulb" moments, illuminating reasons why I enjoyed some writers over others. Most of all, it reunited me with legends of the past and reinforced the shoulders on which today's creative forces are built.

[Greg Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It wasn't my goal necessarily to learn more about poetry when I set out to read this anthology, but I wound up learning more about poetry than I have in basically in my whole life. But there's much more here about the craft of writing, too, than just about poetry. I thought Mitchell S. Jackson's essay on revision was particularly amazing.

[Turtleberry Turtleberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm saying I finished this even though I only got 90% through. It was a bunch of food for thought and writing exercises. I wasn't in the right headspace to digest all of it. I was listening to the audio but I also have the paperback so I will revisit this later.

[Donna Otis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book on writing techniques of authors. Would have loved summary page after each section

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The majority of the essays in this book hit on more than just the craft of writing and that is what makes it necessary.

[Mellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this for class too. interesting. i really really enjoyed some chapters and then others didn’t speak to me.

[Laura Corin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great tips, ideas and stories. I also loved the mix of genres.

[Monchichi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnificent! 🤗

[Tasheika B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Tips and advice for writers!