GrubWrites

Writers of Color Roundtable at GrubStreet’s 2016 Muse and the Marketplace Conference [VIDEO]

To help keep our spirits up and our words flowing, we're sharing Muse and the Marketplace keynote talks and special event videos from GrubStreet's past in a series called "From the Grub Archive." This week, we're sharing the Writers of Color Roundtable from the 2016 Muse and the Marketplace Conference.

Four years ago, The Muse and the Marketplace held the first of its annual roundtables that centered writers, agents, and editors of color. In this session, the panel discussed how a writer is educated, the lack of diversity in MFA programs and a publishing industry that was (and still is very close to) 89% white, and the workshop model’s (in)ability to address intersections of identity and craft. With great honesty, vulnerability, and humor, authors Alexander Chee, Jennifer DeLeon, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and Mira Jacob addressed the “Muse” side of these questions, while agent Regina Brooks and editor Emi Ikkanda spoke from their perspectives on the “Marketplace” side. It is fascinating to look back and see how we asked and answered these questions in 2016, and how the issues discussed have only become more urgent today.