Here is a brilliant piece of writing on the challenge of being (in the author’s words) an Indian writer. As I told the friend who shared it with me, it’s a work of genius. The genius of seeing clearly. I think it’s helpful for any artist, or for any person who carries an Othered identity, or for any person who wants to see our American culture more clearly. Enjoy: Letter to a Just-Starting-Out Indian Writer—and Maybe to Myself by Stephen Graham Jones.
It’s part of the nature of writing or speaking aloud that you misspeak, that you write a line you wish you could reel back in. Just keep moving on. Don’t let that flubbed line define your career, your stance, your identity. Hide that flubbed line with ten thousand perfect bulletproof timeless lines. Be a different writer each time you turn the page. Anytime you see that dissection pin coming down for the center of your back, close your eyes and roll somewhere else.
STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES
Kaylen Rose 