So if you didn't know by now, i'm a writer. I write poetry and fiction dramas. I go to school for it and everything. lol. [not that going to school makes u any better of a writer than a truly gifted one who has never seen the inside of a college classroom. If you're talented, you're talented] Also, if you didn't know, i'm a lesbian. *gasp!* Yeah. I am.
I've been thinking lately about the so-called professional writer's "burden" of representing the various social/cultural/ethnic groups that we might belong to, and i'm a bit confused. So since i'm a lesbian...who writes...will everything i write be considered a "lesbian novel"? Or "queer poetry"? And since i'm black, will everything I write automatically be presented as a black or (dare I say) an "urban" novel?
If so, i'm not sure how I feel about being so heavily boxed in. I love representing my beautiful silky smooth sexy luscious blackness and my uberfemme fierce gayness but when it comes to marketing and book sales, I want to be as accessible as possible...UNLESS i'm writing specifically to a gay or black audience. If I write a book called "How to make a thick caramel femme fall in love with you in 30 days or less" of course I know it will be geared towards lesbians. And that's great. But what if I write a civil war period piece...or a quirky relationship drama that doesnt signify race or sexuality?? How will that be accepted? Jus wondering...
Any published or non-published writers with any input or worries of their own would make me very happy!!! :-)
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yea, i think you will be boxed in. look at maya angelou, with all her awesomeness. she didn't stop being a great black author til she became poet laureate for prez clinton. then and only then did mainstream accept her as the prolific writer/poet we already knew she was.
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