How Dare We! Write

How Dare We! Write: a multicultural creative writing discourse is an inspiring collection of intellectually rigorous lyric essays and innovative writing exercises; it opens up a path for inquiry, reflection, understanding, and creativity that is ultimately healing. The testimonies provide a hard-won context for their innovative paired writing experiments that are, by their very nature, generative. --Cherise A. Pollard, PhD, Professor of English, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

So-called "creative writing" classes are highly politicized spaces, but no one says so; to acknowledge this obvious fact would be to up-end the aesthetics, cultural politics (ideology) and economics on which most educational institutions are founded. How Dare We! Write, a brilliant interventive anthology of essays, breaks this silence. This so-necessary book takes "finding your voice" to a whole new level, redeeming the privileged individualism of that clich© by documenting the powerful experiential writing of those writers of color who dare to acknowledge that, in the words of contributor Wesley Brown, "the most valuable stories are those which we would prefer not to hear." To paraphrase another contributor, here is marvelous, energetic proof of "writing [as] a form of social justice." --Maria Damon, Pratt Institute of Art, co-editor of Poetry and Cultural Studies: A Reader

How Dare We Write! is a collection of brave voices calling out to writers of color everywhere: no matter how lonely, you are not alone; you are one in a sea of change, swimming against the currents. --Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, and The Song Poet--Winner, 2017 Minnesota Book Award in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir

How Dare We! Write is a much-needed collection of essays from writers of color that reminds us that our stories need to be told, from addressing academic gatekeepers, embracing our identities, the effects of the oppressors' tongue on our psyche and to the personal narratives that help us understand who we are. I found myself in many of the shared experiences in this anthology and I hope it fuels the reader to keep on writing, as it has fueled me to write more loudly and freely about the stories inside me. --Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria, writer, spoken word poet/performer, contributor to A Good Time for the Truth: Race In Minnesota

This anthology can easily be used as a supplementary text in a creative writing workshop environment, especially at the graduate level or upper-level undergraduate courses. Not only are the essays informative and make the reader consider new manners of writing and reading, but each essay is also followed by a writing prompt, so the reader can put a theory to practice. I can even see this anthology being used in a composition class. No matter how it is used, I recommend this book for all writers and those who write about literature, and when you do, be sure to have a lot of sharpened pencils, as there will be a lot of underlining. I know I will be a better teacher of writing because of editor Sherry Quan Lee's How Dare We! Write: A Multicultural Creative Discourse. --Tom Holmes, Editor, Redactions: Poetry & Poetics

"This collection of essays winds through the subjects of literary gatekeeping and the learnings and constraints of academia, to the loaded notions of "correct" grammar and palatability, to the bullets (and dodged bullets) of rejection in the publishing world, to the ways writing can heal. At the end of each essay, the reader is pointed outward to the writings that inspired and informed each author's work, then invited back in with a writing prompt that resonates with the essay's content or theme. he writing prompts are as rich and varied as the voices that inspired them. They push the reader to act and to explore." -- Vanessa East, East Side Freedom Library