Marita Golden is a living and breathing gift to America, and to this world, through her writing, teaching, and helping of others. Marita Goldens journey has been one of communion and community, of literature and the search for freedom for herself, for all people. With her new book How to Become a Black Writer: Creating & Honoring Black Stories That Matter, Marita Golden presents us with a text that is a virtual master class: it is part memoir, part history, and part meditation on race, gender, identity, and how we can be seen, and heard and felt when there are those trying to erase our voices, our books, our history.
Kevin Powell, GRAMMY-nominated poet and author of 16 books
Marita Golden is a giant of American literature. Also boasting a small stature, Ive often wondered how all that creativity and fierceness is squeezed into only five feet of brilliant Black woman. Her exquisite fiction and nonfiction have loomed large in my mind.
Kwame Alexander
How to Become a Black Writer is the book I wish someone had handed me when I was starting out on the writer's journey. Part intimate memoir, part living history (Eldridge Cleaver! Toni Morrison! Audre Lorde!) and part love letter to the power of storytelling and the vital necessity of art for Black people, this book would have saved me valuable time and artistic loneliness. Through her storied career, her peerless teaching and her ceaseless activism and institution building, Marita Golden had already done more for Black literature and Black writers than anyone had the right to ask. With this wise and witty volumethis covering, this gift to usshe has somehow done even more.
Kimberly Mclarin, author of Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me and Has Failed
In How to Become a Black Writer, award-winning author and institution builder Marita Golden takes us on an empowering and resourceful personal journey to discover the sorcery of words and the magic that attends her deep love of Black stories and Black lives.
Joanne V. Gabbin, founder of the Furious Flower Poetry Center and founder and executive director of the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective
Marita Golden pours love, passion, and wisdom into this writers guide for unlocking creativity, purpose, and power. The fascinating life journey that honed her voice and shaped her mission is a template sure to inspire budding writers and affirm established authors.
A'Lelia Bundles, author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker
Marita Goldens How to Become a Black Writer is a gift to all Black writersaspiring, new, and seasoned scribes alike. It is equal parts memoir, pep talk, writers toolkit, and historical record of our rich Black literary tradition. Golden beautifully weaves the challenges and triumphs of her life on and off the page to show the many ways of fashioning a creative life. Golden teaches us that we cannot walk this literary road alone and provides a roadmap for how she has built community for herself and sustainable organizations that support Black writers. How to Become a Black Writer is a testament to how our inherited legacies and our ancestors dreams nurture us. Golden reminds us that writing is a ministry and that telling transformative stories is sacred work. How to Become a Black Writer is an exquisite read. No matter where you are in your writing journey, Goldens gems will bless your soul.
Jodi M. Savage, author of The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind
