The Amherst Writers & Artists method emphasizes the role of the leader in the creating a safe and affirming environment for participating writers. Unconscious bias and a lack of experience with or awareness about marginalized groups can hurt our efforts. We offer these resources to help continue your education and explore best practices for engaging across difference.
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[memberonly]Suggestions for Further Reading
“Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh (PDF)
Excerpted from her working paper, “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.” Copyright 1988 by Peggy McIntosh.
Peggy McIntosh is Associate Director of the Wellesley College Center for Research for Women.. Permission to excerpt or reprint must be obtained from Peggy McIntosh, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley, MA 02181 Ph: 781 283-2520 Fax: 781 283-2504.
“The Complexity of Identity” from Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD (PDF)
“What Kind of Friendship is That? The Search for Authenticity, Mutuality, and Social Transformation in Cross-Racial Relationships” Beverly Daniel Tatum PhD (PDF)
Dr. Tatum is a psychologist, administrator, and educator who has conducted research and written books on the topic of racism. Focusing specifically on race in education, racial identity development in teenagers, and assimilation of black families and youth in white neighborhoods. Tatum uses works from her students, personal experience, and psychology learning. From 2002 to 2015, she was the ninth president or Spelman College, the oldest historically black women’s college in the United States.[3]
“Report from the Field: Racial Invisibility and Erasure in the Writing Workshop” by Lisa Lee
Blog post on January 11, 2016 to Vida: Women in Literary Arts.
Lisa Lee’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, North American Review, Sycamore Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2016 Pushcart Prize for her novel excerpt “Paradise Cove.” She has received fellowships and awards from the Jentel Artist Residency, the Inprint-Brown Foundation, Kundiman, the Korea Foundation, the Korean Studies Institute, and the EASC Association for Japan–U.S. Community Exchange (ACE) Nikaido program, and was named a 2012 NYC Emerging Writers Fellow by The Center for Fiction. Lisa received an MFA from the University of Houston where she was a Nonfiction Editor of Gulf Coast, a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley in English and Music, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University in Public Interest and Social Justice Law. She is currently a doctoral fellow in USC’s PhD program in creative writing and literature.
“Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” by Audre Lorde (PDF)
Paper delivered at the Copeland Colloquium, Amherst College, April 1980. Reproduced in: Sister Outsider Crossing Press, California 1984.
“The Transformation of Silence Into Language and Action” by Audre Lorde (PDF)
Originally delivered at the Modern Language Association’s “Lesbian and Literature Panel,” Chicago, Illinois, December 28, 1977. First published in Sinister Wisdom 6 (1978) and The Cancer Journals (Spinsters, Ink, San Francisco, 1980).
Audre Lorde was an American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist whose poetry was known for its technical mastery and emotional expression. She wrote widely in both poetry and prose about issues related to civil rights, feminism, lesbianism, and the exploration of black female identity.
“He’s Our Shakespeare” by June Jordan (PDF)
Excerpted and reprinted from the book Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays (Copyright © 2002 by June Jordan).
This essay in its entirety, and more poetry by Walt Whitman and June Jordan, are available on poetryfoundation.org. To learn more about June Jordan, see junejordan.com.
“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan
Blog post on February 6, 2008 to Home is Where the Heart Is
Amy Tan is a Chinese-American writer who’s works explore mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese-American experience. This article explores the different forms of English she uses in speaking to different people.
“A Room of One’s Own is Not Enough” by Joan L. Bolker (PDF)
Tikkun Magazine November/December 1994
Joan L. Bolker is a psychologist in private practice, a writer, and a writing consultant in Newton and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“Writers on Writing; Sustained by Fiction While Facing Life’s Facts” by Alice Hoffman (PDF)
New York Times August 14, 2000
This article is part of a series in which writers explore literary themes. Previous contributions, including essays by John Updike, E. L. Doctorow, Ed McBain, Annie Proulx, Jamaica Kincaid, Saul Bellow and others, can be found with this article at The New York Times.
“Tillie Olsen” by Tillie Olsen (PDF)
From Modern Language Association, Forum on Women Writers in the 20th Century, December 28, 1978, p. 335
Tillie Olsen was very influential for her treatment of the lives of women and the poor. She drew attention to why women have been less likely to be published authors (and why they receive less attention than male authors when they do publish). Her work received recognition in the years of much feminist political and social activity. It contributed to new possibilities for women writers.
“Given Tools, They Work the Language” by Lee Smith (PDF)
New York Times June 28, 1996
Lee Smith is an American fiction author who typically incorporates much of her background from the Southeastern United States in her works. She is the best-selling author of over a dozen books, including Dimestore: A Writer‘s Life and Guests on Earth.
“Towards the Splendid City” Pablo Neruda (PDF)
Nobel Lecture December 13, 1971
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda, was a Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician.
“The Performance of Transgender Inclusion: The pronoun go-round and the new gender binary” Jen Manion
This article first appeared in Public Seminar on November 27, 2018. Used with the author’s permission.
Jen Manion is Associate Professor of History at Amherst College and author of the forthcoming Born in the Wrong Time: Female Husbands and the Transgender Past (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
“We Still Need Pronoun Go-Rounds: A response to Jen Manion” by Dean Spade
This article appeared in Public Seminar on December 3 2018.
Dean Spade is an Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law, where he teaches Administrative Law, Poverty Law, Gender and Law, Policing and Imprisonment, and Law and Social Movements. Prior to joining the faculty of Seattle University, Dean was a Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellow at UCLA Law School and Harvard Law School. This article was originally published by Dean Spade’s website.
“When Defending Your Writing Becomes Defending Yourself ” by Matthew Salesses
Blog post on July 20, 2014 to Code Switch, NPR.
Matthew Salesses (@salesses) has written about adoption, race and family for the New York Times Motherlode blog, The Good Men Project, The Rumpus, Hyphen Magazine, and elsewhere. His most recent book is a novel, I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying.
“It’s Time to Challenge the Notion that There Is Only One Way to Speak English” by Harry Ritchie
The Guardian December 31, 2013
Harry Ritchie’s English for the Natives: Discover the Grammar You Don’t Know You Know is published by John Murray.
“Chasing Our Elusive Voice” by Susan Bruns Rowe
Blog post on January 11, 2019 to Brevity Mag
Susan Bruns Rowe writes and teaches in Boise, Idaho. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, The American Oxonian, and elsewhere. She serves on the editorial staff for Literary Mama and teaches creative writing workshops for The Cabin and the Osher Institute at Boise State University.