Free Within Ourselves

So every once in a while, people ask me for my opinion on books and resources they should consider for their writing process. I always feel weird, because it's not like I'm an expert, per se.

But.

One of the earliest books I picked up along the way was Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

The book shows, through examples by many black authors past and present, how tone, character, plot, dialogue, and viewpoint can be developed by writers. Throughout, the book emphasises the storytelling tradition of past and present black people in the U.S. And it goes without saying, the book is a great resource for people of all backgrounds.

Jewell Parker Rhodes is professor of Creative Writing and American Literature and former Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She's written several fiction and non-fiction books. Received many awards and honors for her work.

One nice bit of trivia I discovered about Free Within Ourselves... one of our favorites, Tayari Jones, worked as a research assistant on the book while doing graduate work at Arizona State University.
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