“Like most writers, I started out as a reader. Essentially, I’m a fan who became a professional.” Colin Channer speaks about his origins as a writer and how race and ethnicity factor into his practice in this video for Brown University’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Channer is one of the honorees for the 2023 Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.

“One of the things that I think I can say now with a great deal of confidence about writing is that usually, the things that you are most ashamed of are actually what you should be trying to describe,” says Alexander Chee in this 2018 lecture titled “The Writer and Life,” part of Brown University’s public lecture series devoted to various forms of nonfiction writing. For more Chee, read “Which Story Will You Tell? A Q&A with Alexander Chee” by Amy Gall.

“I didn’t understand that I had to be ruthless. I didn’t understand that my job as a writer wasn’t to coddle my characters and create these fairy tales for them to live.” At Brown University's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Jesmyn Ward and Edwidge Danticat discuss writing about their homes and the power of place.