Where is the support for writers of color in the dwindling economy?

Writers of color have very little support. Is this a fair statement to make? The only reason I say this is because I’m finding that many of the readings/festivals/conferences/publishing houses focused on developing and/or showcasing the work of black writers, particularly young black writers, have fallen through the cracks of our current economy. Even if these forums appear, they often disappear in the blink of an eye with outdated website pages that give error messages or events dating back to a year or two years ago as if nothing had happened since. It's like seeing a house in a Forrest that promises to have occupants who are able to point me in the right direction, but only to arrive and find it boarded up and empty inside.
Not that that we should only go through these venues to showcase our work as writers; but given that the literary world is made up of a majority that don’t necessarily care to listen to our voices, having these small forums to share our work as writers of color, in my opinion, is necessary. I think about the readings featuring writers of color that I’ve attended as a college student and how inspired I was to hear them and to know that there is a market out there for us. I’m not even going to touch on how I’m noticing that publishers are picking up street-literature as a way to perpetuate the stereotypes of what our lives as black people in America are about. That’s another blog all together.

In a country where race is very much an issue and have drawn many an invisible lines, it’s no surprise that there is a huge disparity in the literacy rate and hence a dismal proportion of people who are inclined to read well crafted stories by people of color about people of color. I think about James Baldwin and his success in writing “Giovanni’s Room”—a story featuring a white protagonist. I wonder how the story would've fared had it been a black protagonist. Perhaps stories about “the invisible people” won’t make the cut in today’s society where the literary world seems as homogeneous as Primetime television. In my opinion, good writing consists of meaningful work that can be shared with others both inside and outside a writer’s demographic.

Moreover, I’m noticing more and more that authors of color barely get any scholarly recognition. Last semester, my first semester in my MFA program, I had a craft class where I was given a list of authors to read, all white, mostly male. I was told that they are the “forefathers of literature” and that their work should be emulated, the same how I was told as a child that the Bible, written by men for the sake of their own prejudices, should be revered.

Of course, I sent the professor a long email stating my feelings and the reply was: “Sorry, but the authors listed all have work that contributes to the scholarship of our craft. This class is about technique.” Excuse me? Did I hear right or was I being told that there are absolutely no black authors with work that “contributes to the scholarship of our craft”? I can name five writers off the bat without catching my breath with work that has contributed enormously to literature: James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, Paule Marshall, and Zora Neale Hurston. Certainly there are more, but since those were the authors I suggested to the professor, I stated them here too. The professor’s reply was simply: “Maybe next year, I can write them into the syllabus”—MAYBE being an operative word here.
I guess if I want to make a major contribution to literature, then I should either: 1) Move back home to Jamaica and publish there---then of course have my books ripped off the shelf and burned given the focus on lesbian stories; or 2) Change all my protagonists to white and upper-middle class and not have any revealing information about author’s race and ethnicity. Of course, given that I love myself and my work too much to do any of the above, I will have to spend majority of the year working rigorously to find the writing community I desire. Authors Tayari Jones, Edwidge Danticat, and Tiphanie Yanique are doing it, so I’m sure there’s room for the five or ten of us “colored folk” in MFA programs in the United States to be successful too. I am very grateful for the literary journals that have included diverse authors in their publications. Pen American Center and journals such as Callaloo, Kenyon Review, and Granta are pioneers in diversifying the literary community by exposing readers to authors from different countries and races.
Lastly, I’ve been told that if I’m so in need of a community then I should create one. But where do I start? What resources do I have? Who do I look to and in what ways would they be able to help? If literary festivals like Calabash, a festival near and dear to my heart, could pick up and leave without a goodbye letter sealed with a promise, then why should I have faith in the other efforts to keep black literature alive? If independent publishing houses with an eye for diversity are losing funds and only putting their last dime on publishing writers who they’re more familiar with, what else is there to do besides join the slush pile of the bigger sharks and hope some sleepy-eyed editor would stumble on my manuscript? The best I can do right now is write, and hope someone will read it, hope someone will be inspired by it, hope someone will teach it in a class, hope someone will say to themselves and their respective groups that they need to hear more stories by us.

Nicole © 2011

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