This list of writers' resources provides information on
writing cross-culturally, thinking about racial/cultural issues as a writer,
and reaching audiences different than your own.
Stephen King's Super-Duper Magical Negroes
Nnedi Okorafor examines Stephen King’s use of the “Magical Negro” trope and discusses how it can be avoided.
Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story
Chimamanda Adichie’s transformative TED talk, The Dangers of a Single Story, shows us what happens when writers focus on only one kind of story, and how a multitude of voices from minority cultures need to be heard for that danger to pass away.
Appropriate Cultural Appropriation
When writing cross-culturally, we need to remember whether we’re acting as an invader, a tourist, or a guest. Nisi Shawl addresses how to watch out for stereotypes, bad dialects, and other problematic portrayals of people of color.
Transracial Writing for the Sincere
Nisi Shawl’s resources for those who want to get it right when they want to write cross-culturally; how to do your research.
Challenge, Counter, Controvert: Subverting Expectations
Uma Krishnaswami on challenging subverting expectations in our writing.
Describing characters of color in writing
N.K. Jemison on how to describe characters of color in your writing without resorting to cliches and stereotypes.
Part 1: http://nkjemisin.com/2009/04/ways-to-describe-characters-of-color/
Part 2: http://magicdistrict.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/describing-characters-of-color-pt-2/
Monika Schröder on Saraswati's Way
Uma Krishnaswami on insider vs. outsider narratives (as she discusses Saraswati’s Way with Monika Schroder).
Don’t put my book in the African American section
N.K. Jemison’s response to the segregation of black writers (and often as a result, readers) in some libraries and bookstores.
Parenthetic Comma Phrases, Anyone?
Uma Krishnaswami on the use of parenthetic comma phrases to explain cultural details to the reader as if the reader were always an outsider to the culture. How else might these details be conveyed without alienating readers who come from that culture?
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Peggy McIntosh provides a classic list of privileges which a white middle class woman enjoys that many of other socioeconomic statuses or races do not. An example for writers seeking to write from a perspective not their own to muse on their own privileges, whether similar or different, so they can see their blind spots.
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
Things I Don’t Have to Think about Today
In the same vein as the above, science fiction writer John Scalzi talks about “Things I Don’t Have to Think about Today” paired with his post on narrative usurpation, covering why he wrote “Things I Don’t Have to Think about Today”.
“Things I Don’t Have to Think about Today”
Mitali Perkins on Writing Race
A Checklist for Writers
There’s no such thing as a good stereotype
N.K. Jemison writes sn article about the “strong female character” stereotype that also connects with racial and cultural issues.
Interview Wednesday: Stacy Whitman of Tu Books, a Lee and Low Imprint
Uma Krishnaswami interviews Stacy Whitman about using cultural experts to read cross-cultural writing or to check details of a controversial or historical subject (even when the writer is of that culture).
http://umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com/2011/07/interview-wednesday-stacy-whitman-of-tu.html
Is my character 'black enough'?
A great discussion of racial issues for writers ensues (be sure to read the comments section).
SCBWI Winter Conference 2012 talk on writing multicultural books
Notes from Stacy Whitman’s SCBWI Winter Conference talk in which she quotes from the book below (questions to ask to knowing what questions to ask)
http://www.stacylwhitman.com/2012/02/01/notes-from-scbwi-winter-conference/.
A Beginner’s Guide to the Deep Culture Experience: Beneath the Surface
This book by Joseph Shaules is directed to potential US expats living abroad helping them to think about cultural differences and ways to adapt to their new countries and enjoy the journey. But when read from the perspective of a writer, the questions Shaules raises can be applied to world building and culture building in writing.
Beyond Orcs and Elves
Stacy Whitman’s talk on the need for diversity in fantasy and science fiction (includes a resources for writers section in part 3).
The Language
of the Night
This book is unavailable online and also out of print, but if you can find Ursula K. Le Guin’s collection, published by HarperCollins in 1978 and 1989, two excellent essays for writers on diversity are “American SF and the Other” and “Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?”
