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How to Write About Social Issues
by Kavita Das
The first major book for writers to more effectively engage with complex socio-political issues—a critical first step in creating social change.
Writers are witnesses and scribes to society's conscience but writing about social issues in the twenty-first century requires a new, sharper toolkit. Craft and Conscience helps writers weave together their narrative craft, analytical and research skills, and their conscience to create prose which makes us feel the individual and collective impact of crucial issues of our time. Kavita Das guides writers to take on nuanced perspectives and embrace intentionality through a social justice lens. She challenges writers to unpack their motivations for writing about an issue and to understand that "writing, irrespective of genre or outlet, is an act of political writing," regardless of intention.
The book includes essays from a fascinating mix of authors, including James Baldwin, Alexander Chee, Kaitlyn Greenidge, George Orwell, Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz, Gaiutra Bahadur, Jaquira Díaz, and Imani Perry. By including Das's own perspective and those of the featured writers about motivations and approaches to writing about fraught social issues, this book both demystifies the process of engaging social issues on the page, and underscores the intentionality and sensitivity that must go into the work.
"Through concise language and well-chosen excerpts, Das delivers a one-of-a-kind writing guide that's pitch-perfect for her niche. Activists ready to put pen to paper won't want to miss this." —Publishers Weekly
"Craft and Conscience is that rigorously researched and lushly written 'How-to' book that every single human who has dared to write needs in our lives... . Rarely do we get books that encourage readers to reconsider how we read and write. Intellectually and soulfully invigorating." —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
"A gift to writers and justice seekers everywhere! Craft and Conscience is a handbook for how to wield words to shape culture and inspire change." —Valarie Kaur, civil rights leader and author of See No Stranger
This information about Craft and Conscience was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kavita Das has taught nonfiction writing at the New School and Catapult and has written about social issues for ten years. Previously, she worked in the social change sector for fifteen years, addressing issues ranging from community and housing inequities to public health disparities and racial injustice. Das is also the author of the biography Poignant Song: The Life and Music of Lakshmi Shankar. Find her online at kavitadas.com and on Twitter (@kavitamix).
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