“If you have read anything by Coates, Kendi, or DiAngelo (or many similar writers), little here will surprise.”

Built upon the pair’s workshop series, this is a suitable guide of pragmatic advice for writers fairly unfamiliar with most contemporary discussions of race. If you have read anything by Coates, Kendi, or DiAngelo (or many similar writers), little here will surprise–more, it will seem like a shortcut to thinking richly about difference. Nevertheless, the exercises contained here–while fairly simple (and also surface-y in how non-threatening their outcomes)–are helpful enough.

Most valuable in the book, however, are the post-titular writings, particularly Shawl’s short essay on cultural appropriation, which offers some more helpful and thought-filled ways for writers (and anyone) to think about their connections to other spaces. Her novel excerpt, as well, is the best of all illustrations offered in the text to modeling how Writing the Other might be done.