Craft and conscience : how to write about social issues / Kavita Das.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Boston, Massachusetts : Beacon Press, [2022]Description: xix, 320 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780807046494
- 0807046493
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 808.0663 D229 | Available | 33111010918163 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The first major book for writers to more effectively engage with complex socio-political issues-a critical first step in creating social change
Writers are witnesses and scribes to society's conscience but writing about social issues in the twenty-first century requires a new, sharper toolkit. Craft and Conscience helps writers weave together their narrative craft, analytical and research skills, and their conscience to create prose which makes us feel the individual and collective impact of crucial issues of our time. Kavita Das guides writers to take on nuanced perspectives and embrace intentionality through a social justice lens. She challenges writers to unpack their motivations for writing about an issue and to understand that "writing, irrespective of genre or outlet, is an act of political writing," regardless of intention.
The book includes essays from a fascinating mix of authors, including James Baldwin, Alexander Chee, Kaitlyn Greenidge, George Orwell, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Gaiutra Bahadur, Jaquira Diaz, and Imani Perry. By including Das's own perspective and those of the featured writers about motivations and approaches to writing about fraught social issues, this book both demystifies the process of engaging social issues on the page, and underscores the intentionality and sensitivity that must go into the work.
Includes bibliographical references.
Why we write : interrogating our motivations for writing about social issues -- How we are all connected : understanding the relationship between the writer, reader, and subject -- Diving in deep or casting wide : considering context versus narrative to shape our stories -- Writing from outside in or inside out : reporting, personal narrative, or a hybrid approach -- Staking a claim : writing opinion pieces (op-eds) -- Are you the right storyteller for this story? : understanding cultural sensitivity and avoiding cultural appropriation -- Ripple effects of making waves : implications (good and bad) of writing about social issues.
"Craft and Conscience helps writers weave together their narrative craft, conscience, and analytical and research skills, to create prose to illuminate and underscore the individual and collective impact of crucial issues of our time"-- Provided by publisher.