How to Become a Black Writer - by Marita Golden (Paperback)

About the Book

Prologue

Chapter 1 "The Girl Who Flew on the Wings of Words"

Chapter 2 "Pride Power Passion/The Tree of Knowledge"

Chapter 3 "Biting the Big Apple

Chapter 4 "Coming Home"

Chapter 5 "Making It Real"

Chapter 6 "Witness, Witness"

Chapter 7 "Teaching"

Chapter 8 "A Calling Not a Career"

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Book Synopsis

Prologue

Chapter 1 "The Girl Who Flew on the Wings of Words"

Chapter 2 "Pride Power Passion/The Tree of Knowledge"

Chapter 3 "Biting the Big Apple

Chapter 4 "Coming Home"

Chapter 5 "Making It Real"

Chapter 6 "Witness, Witness"

Chapter 7 "Teaching"

Chapter 8 "A Calling Not a Career"

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Review Quotes

"Marita Golden is a living and breathing gift to America, and to this world, through her writing, teaching, and helping of others. Marita Golden's journey has been one of communion and community, of literature and the search for freedom for herself, for all people. With her new book How to Become a Black Writer: Creating & Honoring Black Stories That Matter, Marita Golden presents us with a text that is a virtual master class: it is part memoir, part history, and part meditation on race, gender, identity, and how we can be seen, and heard and felt when there are those trying to erase our voices, our books, our history."

-Kevin Powell, GRAMMY-nominated poet and author of 16 books

"Marita Golden is a giant of American literature. Also boasting a small stature, I've often
wondered how all that creativity and fierceness is squeezed into only five feet of brilliant
Black woman. Her exquisite fiction and nonfiction have loomed large in my mind."

--Kwame Alexander

"How to Become a Black Writer is the book I wish someone had handed me when I was starting out on the writer's journey. Part intimate memoir, part living history (Eldridge Cleaver! Toni Morrison! Audre Lorde!) and part love letter to the power of storytelling and the vital necessity of art for Black people, this book would have saved me valuable time and artistic loneliness. Through her storied career, her peerless teaching and her ceaseless activism and institution building, Marita Golden had already done more for Black literature and Black writers than anyone had the right to ask. With this wise and witty volume-this covering, this gift to us-she has somehow done even more."

--Kimberly Mclarin, author of Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me and Has Failed

"In How to Become a Black Writer, award-winning author and institution builder Marita Golden takes us on an empowering and resourceful personal journey to discover the sorcery of words and the magic that attends her deep love of Black stories and Black lives."

--Joanne V. Gabbin, founder of the Furious Flower Poetry Center and founder and executive director of the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective

"Marita Golden pours love, passion, and wisdom into this writer's guide for unlocking creativity, purpose, and power. The fascinating life journey that honed her voice and shaped her mission is a template sure to inspire budding writers and affirm established authors."

--A'Lelia Bundles, author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker

"Marita Golden's How to Become a Black Writer is a gift to all Black writers--aspiring, new, and seasoned scribes alike. It is equal parts memoir, pep talk, writers' toolkit, and historical record of our rich Black literary tradition. Golden beautifully weaves the challenges and triumphs of her life on and off the page to show the many ways of fashioning a creative life. Golden teaches us that we cannot walk this literary road alone and provides a roadmap for how she has built community for herself and sustainable organizations that support Black writers. How to Become a Black Writer is a testament to how our inherited legacies and our ancestors' dreams nurture us. Golden reminds us that writing is a ministry and that telling transformative stories is sacred work. How to Become a Black Writer is an exquisite read. No matter where you are in your writing journey, Golden's gems will bless your soul."

--Jodi M. Savage, author of The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind