I had drinks (lychee martinis, to be precise) with the fabulous Lauren Cerand last night at Verlaine. She suggested that I go and read Tayari Jones' essay on being pegged as a "Southern" writer or a "Black" writer. Tayari writes:
I know that we are a nation that strives for color-blindness, so it seems sort of inherently offensive to label a writer as “black”. But this is what happened to me, and I have to tell you that, for the most part, it wasn’t so bad. Especially when you compare it to my book tour as a “southern” writer.
It's a very honest essay that brings up some good points. I think that sometimes publishing houses have trouble dealing with things that could be niche, but actually, should be mainstream. It confuses them, it's almost like they look so hard for an angle that they end up only pursuing the angle and forgetting that there's also a wider audience for this. You don't JUST have to be pigeonholed. But that's what happens. On the other hand, it seems that this pigeonholing kind of worked, to build up her fan base. On her next book, a wider audience should definitely be pursued, especially taking into account what an incredible writer Tayari Jones is.
But, I wish that pigeonhole thing could change. Maybe I'll say that is one of my goals on the performance evaluation I'm supposed to be writing right now.
