1:37am July 7, 2014

➸ diversity, literature, & the audacity of writing

shwetanarayan:

There’s a certain audacity required to write. There’s an audacity in believing that the story in your head, which is an extrapolation of something held as a deeper truth, might be interesting or important to anyone but you. There’s an audacity in believing that you can accurately transfer that story-truth into words on a page, and that those strung-together words will also be something beautiful. From where does this audacity arise? How do you develop a belief in yourself so strong that it can see you through to the end of a poem or the conclusion of a novel?

Adding this quote (bolding mine) from a bit later, because SO MUCH YES:

Why should parents have to embark on a literary research project and discard their televisions in order to create diversity in their children’s lives, to show their children that the world values people who look or talk or dream like they do? The audacity to write is harder to muster when you don’t believe you are valued.

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