Kavita Das - Craft and Conscience: How to Write about Social Issues

To the social change agents,
who risk much to change the way we think and act,
by speaking out and marching forward,
and most importantly, by modeling a better society.

To the writers,
who take us on journeys,
within and without,
through their wondrous imaginations and words.

And to those, like me,
who straddle these two realms,
fervently believing that writing can, and has,
changed the world.

Craft and Conscience is that rigorously researched and lushly written How-to book that every single human who has dared to write needs in our lives.... Rarely do we get books that encourage readers to reconsider how we read and write. Intellectually and soulfully invigorating.

KIESE LAYMON , author of Heavy: An American Memoir

A gift to writers and justice seekers everywhere! Craft and Conscience is a handbook for how to wield words to shape culture and inspire change. Insightful, practical, and empowering. Thank you, Kavita Das!

VALARIE KAUR , civil rights leader and author of See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

In Craft and Conscience, Kavita Das constructs a vocabulary, a methodology, and an ethics for socially engaged writing, while bringing together a staggering range of writers and issues. In the process, Das makes a profound and compelling argument for why this kind of writing matters and the radical, transformative power it holds. This book has restored my faith in the written word.

LACY M . JOHNSON , author of The Reckonings

Kavita Das has assembled a vital primer on writing with purpose, a guidebook that our turbulent times demand. In addition to her own insightful essays, she has compiled an impressive roster of dauntless thinkers who dont hesitate to share necessary and even troubling truths. These essays not only address the role of writing in exposing tyranny and injustice but also provide glimpses of a world where love and equality shape our lives.

JABARI ASIM , author of We Cant Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival

Writing with conscience is sometimes pitted against good writing as though the two cannot mean the same thing. Das blows up this false equivalency. Craft and Conscience is so clear, accessible, and profound, I wondered how a book on these themes had not existed before. The answer: it needed Das, who combines her unique skills as reader and writer to demonstrate how great writing always sees deeply into the human heart. As a teacher, Das breaks down precisely how and why such writingacross race, gender, and classreverberates, inspiring and challenging us to do our best and most intentional work. A book of phenomenal intelligence, generosity, and wisdom, and indispensable for the classroom and for anyone who wants to make words matter.

MARIE MUTSUKI MOCKETT , author of American Harvest: God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland

Brilliant! A must-read for anyone who cares deeply about social and political issues and wants to make their own voice heard. Kavita Dass Craft and Conscience aims to bring out the inner activist in your writingwhether youre an emerging writer or an established oneby showing you how to articulate your motivations, by showcasing essays from masters of the genre, and by analyzing what forceful, well-thought arguments are made of.

LAURIE GWEN SHAPIRO , author of The Stowaway: A Young Mans Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica

This compendium is a brilliant and kaleidoscopic must-read for writers. Das gathers up a wide-ranging and whip-smart array of thinkers while serving us a feast of timely advocacy and learning.

AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL , author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments

This is the book I wish Id had when I was starting out! What a joy to have it now. Kavita Das orients us with great precision to the many contradictory considerations that nonfiction writers face, from how we enter the story to how we balance dramatic elements and historical context. I found myself reading and nodding in agreement, thinking: yes, thats exactly right!

DAISY H ERNANDEZ , author of The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nations Neglect of a Deadly Disease

An instructive guide for writers hoping to move the needle, Craft and Conscience gathers some of our best contemporary writers, like Alexander Chee, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and Nicole Chung, while Kavita Dass steady voice introduces prospective writers to critical writing in our dystopian era.

MATTHEW SALESSES , author of Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping

For writers seeking guidance on how to write about social justice with compassion and insight, Das curates an eclectic mix of essays by authors whove long contemplated the immense struggles facing humanity, while proffering a thoughtful way of bearing witness to the world.

TANAS, author of In Sensorium: Notes for My People

A fascinating and forceful guide to stepping up and speaking out on the page.

SUSAN SHAPIRO , author of The Byline Bible: Get Published in 5 Weeks

Kavita Dass book is part how-to, part call to action. It is 100 percent lyrical and passionate and will resonate with anyone who is compelled to share and transform narratives that reflect the world. Filled with prose and practicality from some of the greatest writers and thinkers of our times, Craft and Conscience feels like the action plan we always intend to put in place after our fiery salons, dinner parties, and community gatherings. It is more needed than ever.

S . MITRA KALITA , founder and publisher of Epicenter NYC and cofounder of URL Media

Every poem is a love poem. Every poem is a political poem. So say the masters. Every love poem is political. Every political poem must fall in love.

JERICHO BROWN , from Love the Masters, in The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind

Every act of creation begins with a first impulse that things could be different. Small acts catalyze movements and monuments, placing a single word or stone on another until a larger structure emerges. This, too, is how we write.

ZEYN JOUKHADAR , from Small Acts of Creation: On the Short Story and the Novel, in Birds Thumb: Write Here, Write Now

B efore we have the words for understanding the systems we live in, before we can track the relationship between social change and social justice, we have our own acutely observing bodies and our ever-present desire to be part of the group. Humans, we know, have evolved to be social animals, an early need to band together against predators and elements becoming the desire to build complex communities, hold collective grief, warm ourselves with shared laughter and stories. Our instinct to bond is so deep that, sometimes, observing what keeps us apart from the group can feel like paving the path to our own exile.

What will happen to us if we dare call attention to the parts of the system that benefit some at great cost to others? Will it be received as an act of sabotage, or selfishness, or fragility? Will we find ourselves discredited or, worse, banished, and if so, how will we face that wilderness alone?