A measure of belonging Twenty-one writers of color on the new American South

Review by Booklist Review

This collection shares the work of 21 writers of color as they grapple with their experiences living in America's South, weaving themes of sex, gender, academia, and classism into their captivating storytelling. Many of these writers found themselves back home: some out of a deep love for their city, and others because they knew they could manage its demons. Emotions range: some pieces celebrate the land, culture, and a sense of home, while others tussle with the dichotomy of their authors' success and the micro-aggressive reminders telling them racism is still the engine to the region's culture. Some writers are immigrants who must integrate themselves into spaces that refuse to acknowledge them much at all. Others humanize southern culture to northerners who stereotype them from inaccurate theatrical depictions. The collective is an imaginative, colorful collage of narrative that paints a clear and nuanced picture of the contemporary south, delivered with humor, sass, and pride. Readers will walk away with a portrait of modern southern ideologies and the hope for a new approach to old constructs.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"What constitutes being a Southerner? What constitutes being an American?" Each of the 21 contributors to this splendid assembly by memoirist Barnes (Malaya) reflect upon those two questions. They include both Northerners and native Southerners, as well as both first-generation Americans and immigrants. Some capture moments in time, such as the origins of the majorette tradition at historically black colleges, the impact of hip-hop music on generational identity, or familial memories of Klan terror. "Are you a Muslim?" Aruni Kashyap reports being asked by prospective landlords while apartment-hunting in Athens, Ga., reflecting, "I could say I am a Hindu and solve this problem." Toni Jensen writes, "I'm Native, but I absolutely can pass," while Ivelisse Rodriguez wrestles with racial identity queries at the DMV. Life in America for writers of color is not confined to race and ethnicity, the essays remind the reader. Jennifer Hope Choi describes living with an elder parent, Minda Honey learns "what it's like to be an auntie," Sonia Kamal deals with a miscarriage, and Latia Graham handles flooding on her family's South Carolina farm. Totally engaging, this informing, thought-provoking collection is valuable for its vision of a South that is not monolithic. Agent: Noah Ballard, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A collection of writers of color wrestling with the struggles and joys of living in a region rife with tension and possibility. Edited by Barnes, a Charleston, South Carolina--based author who was raised in the Philippines, the book promises to document the American South "as big as it actually is," refusing to engage with biased and flattened descriptions of the South that seek to portray a cultural homogeneity. The contributors, some emerging and some established, take on variations of the theme that readers may pull from Devi Laskar's "Duos": "I'm supposed to write about being a Southerner while simultaneously being a person of color. I'm somehow supposed to negotiate, on the page, how I have managed to be both at the same time for all of these years." Fortunately, the roads taken by these authors are anything but rehearsed. In the wake of his critically acclaimed memoir, Heavy, Kiese Laymon digs into the complexity of race and class tension in Oxford, Mississippi, where he is a professor at the university. Soniah Kamal delivers a heartbreaking elegy for the loss of a child in Georgia. Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, Joy Priest remaps her childhood through male-dominated Southern rap anthems toward feminine self-possession and mental mobility. Natalia Sylvester walks us through a lifelong history of doctor visits due to dysplasia of the hip. "My case turned out to be different," she writes, "in the way that all bodies are different, in the way that science can often explain how but not why." Not all the contributors are from the South; however, as the title suggests, they all lay claim to the ways they have come to feel "a measure of belonging" there. Across the collection, the writers push against the limits of what we think we know about the South. A sweet Southern sampling of a new generation of talented writers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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