On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (Maggie Nelson)
Open City: A Novel (Teju Cole)
Writer and my dear friend Aminatou Sow recommended Teju Cole’s work to me a while back, though I’m certain others have as well. I appreciate—and am in awe of (and totally get the rec!)—his ability to narrate things so vividly that you are always seeing as you are reading. It’s a particular skill that his history in photography, and his work in that field, seems to yield. When working with folks in the Storytelling workshop, my co-host Christy and I once did an exercise on the senses and how to use them in poetry. Reading this book brought that class back to life for me.
Black Women Writers at Work (Claudia Tate)
I have an original cover which seems extra special these days. While not completely prescriptive in form, it is enormously helpful and inspiring to hear these writers (many of which were friends) share more about their experience in the field decades ago.
Klancy’s Picnic Project Recomendations
LY: Did picnics find you early, or did New York teach you that language? KM: Picnics definitely found me early. As a kid growing up in Atlanta, I went to picnics with my parents when we went to concerts in Piedmont Park.
