I suspect most of the criticism will come from certain definitions or ideas I present about how we imagine racial identity, ideas and definitions which themselves are constantly changing. So I’m not afraid about critical reactions to my criticism itself. If I trust anything in myself, it’s my ability to close-read a text. For these reasons, I spent most of my time writing the first draft bathed in cold flop sweat, but then when I sat down to analyze the poems, stories and novels I’d chosen, my training as a teacher kicked in. And if there’s any book that you don’t want to get wrong in this socially mediated world, it’s a book about cultural appropriation. PR: I’m not fearless at all-I’m probably one of the more conservative and timid people you’ll meet when it comes to public life. Did you have any fears or reservations before writing this book or during? How about post-publication? Do you think there will be any criticism of the book and if so, what? I ask this question because you are probably the most fearless person I know. VC: That’s a great story-I’ve heard that sometimes editors and/or agents contact people after they’ve read something on social media so it’s great to hear that happened here too.
The fact is, no writer, teacher, reader, or editor has an easy answer to these questions, and I wouldn’t trust one who did. Paisley Rekdal: This is going to give people the wrong impression about how publishing works, but I was approached to write the book after an editor saw a post on Facebook I’d written about Anders Carlson-Wee’s poem “How To.” My post took the question that eventually became the frame of Appropriate and applied it to Carlson-Wee’s poem: what are the desires about race and identity on display in this appropriative work? If we erase the dialectical frame of the poem, what message are we left with? The editor who saw this post sent me a message asking if I’d be interested in writing a book about cultural appropriation and literature my first reaction was to say “No.” But the more I thought about my own time in the classroom and in publishing, the more I realized I myself had too many questions about appropriation, cultural appropriation and race to ignore the opportunity to think through these issues at length.
I’m so thankful that someone as brilliant as you has written something to help me navigate and think through some of my own experiences and some of these larger cultural situations you mention in the book. Victoria Chang: How and why did you decide to write your book, Appropriate (Norton, 2021)? This book felt very much so like a service to all teachers, students, and frankly everyone in this moment in history.
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