These essays are addressed to writers of color and, at the same time, benefit readers. Especially readers coming at stories with a Western perspective, expecting a certain narative structure and style from all fiction, as if the literature from their culture (or our culture - I'm included in this) was the universal standard. If you have engaged with literature from other cultures with an open mind, you do quickly learn that the way to enjoy that literature is to not measure it against your own culture's standards. Opening your eyes to other ways of telling a story is like discovering for the first time that Western music theory is not the only one that exists - it rocks your very foundation of what art is supposed to be and how we judge it.

The first essay in the collection, On Origing Stories, happens to be by an author I read recently (Taymour Soomro who wrote Other Names for Love), and it was a pleasant surprise to get to hear about his background and writing process soon after reading his debut novel. The other essays I was particularly drawn to were Xiaolu Guo's On Translation which talks about the complexities of writing in English and communicating your own story to an English-speaking audience, as well as Ingrid Rojas Contreras's On Trauma where she dwells into how to write about real-life trauma while respecting the experience and not turning it into "trauma porn" or by feasting on the shock value. And, of course, Zeyn Joukhadar's On Queerness, which talks about how difficult it is to talk about your sexuality and gender in a language other than English, when terms like "queer" do not have a good translation but, at the same time, English isn't the language of your identity and not being able to talk about your experience without code-switching feels alienating (I feel this frustration, since my native language does not have separate words for sex and gender, for example).

You'll come away from this collection with a lot of additions to your TBR pile, because in addition to wanting to pick up these authors' works, every essay ends with a list of recommended reading on the topic to expand your worldview further. All in all, these essays will help you engage with literature from other cultures in their own terms and make you a more adventerous, mindful reader. Highly recommend.

Sometimes a book comes along that makes you wonder why nobody else has said those things before. Things that help shift your perspective on something you thought you knew well. This book did that for me. Let me explain:

I am a writer. I taught creative writing classes at university for a few years. I read a lot, and widely. I think Tiphanie Yanique in this collection put it best: I am a product of my literary upbringing - white and western, steeped in psychological realism. My prism will always be that. Writers of colour are taught in this mode too. This can strangle a writer into a straight jacket they perhaps shouldn't wear. Reading her essay, and all the others in this very fine collection, talked about a way of writing that is different.

The above makes me sound ignorant of other writing not of my white western background, which couldn't be further from the truth. When I was a student at the university I ended up teaching at, I found a distinct lack of ethnically diverse writing there, so I talked about Achebe, Garcia Marquez, Gurnah and more. I tried to show other ways of writing and thinking about writing but this collection did it so much clearer and concisely than I ever did. It also showed me new ways of thinking about writing and the craft of writing.

I wondered whilst reading if this collection would be of interest to someone not involved in writing or teaching writing - and by the end of the second essay I had decided that it would be. This collection is full of fascinating insight. It will bring you into contact with a great many writers, swell your TBR pile, and help improve your reading of writers of colour - especially true if you are not that to begin with.

This is a vital, urgent and necessary collection that should be obligated teaching on all creative writing classes around the world. It was an absolute pleasure and honour to read it and I thank all of the writers within it for so beautifully explaining their craft to us.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

All content within this book includes all races and as a white woman, it has opened my eyes and made me more thoughtful about changes we can make. This is not a light-hearted read but it is an essential read.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, and no significant gaps between words. Some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

What a gem of a book. So many different experiences by writers of colour. Each one giving a powerful message that sometimes they feel coerced into having to change how they want to portray a story to how it is perceived best for them to do this.
It had not occurred to me previously that a story by a writer of colour or a different first language but writing in English, might lose something important or some rich nugget of meaning, in the translation.
A wholly fascinating book. Thank you for the pleasure of reading it.

This is an inspired idea for a book. It is a collection of essays by published authors from a variety of countries and therefore different racial backgrounds. They recount the challenges facing them as the seek to write books which will be appreciated by readers from more traditional backgrounds when it comes to publishing. The tales demonstrate the tenacity of the authors. It is well worth reading as it brings into the open challenges and issues readers don’t usually consider when they take a book of the shelf. I recommend it.

Letters to a Writer of Color is an essential to read collection of essays about the extra layers of difficulty certain marginalised groups of people have in being heard and published.

I loved this book.
It is not the kind of book that I would normally read, although I do enjoy a wide range of books, in my mind the only relevant criteria are am I enjoying what I read, is it well written, does it say something important, or new, and lastly am I a better person for having read it.
With this book, all of the relevant criteria were covered.
Not all of the letters covered all of the criteria, but they were all covered nonetheless.
I was drawn to this book by the fact that some of my favourite authors had written letters in it.
I was not disappointed. I am too old to become an author, although I have written lots of reports and letters in my lifetime, and I have seen and heard lots of people, places and events, the previous usually being helpful in creating a good story.
I would recommend this to anyone that is considering writing as a career, or as a hobby. It has some invaluable advice, not only about writing , but also about how to deal with the book industry.
I would also recommend it to anyone who likes reading good books, because as well as being readable, it also takes the reader down a layer of understanding of the writer's mind and the process of writing.
My thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy for honest review.

The perfect example of the type of books I want my Sixth Formers read to open their eyes to the wider world around them. Fantastic!

This is one of those hugely important books that needs to be explored like a lost continent: it is full of hidden gems, eye-opening honesty, heartbreaking pain and spirit-lifting hope. It is educational and enlightening and needs to be savoured.
As a reader and a writer I have always felt the need of reader and writer to have a connection. I don't mean we need to be the same. In fact as a reader I tend to take more from writers who come from completely different cultures to my own.
It becomes more and more important for the future of literature that writers of color are included in the mainstream but at the same time must retain their individual voices. Perhaps it is the big publishers who are most at fault? But times are changing now ...

This is a thought provoking read. It's a collection of essays that are interesting and well written. These letters were written by writers of colour and share how their traditions and experiences have shaped their writing. Each letter focuses on a specific theme or topic connected to writing. The writers share their personal life's, failures in getting published, and their joys. We also get a list of suggested books from each of the authors that they recommend. I am not a person of colour, or a writer, but I quite enjoyed this book, regardless.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #RandomHouseUK #Vintage and the author #DeepaAnappara #TaymourSoomro for my ARC of #LetterToAWriterOfColour in exchange for an honest review.

As a writer of Colour, I was intrigued to read these essays by writers of various shades, with nuggets of advice and situations so similar, we have to sit up and take note.
An interesting read from a wide range of writers of colour. And it awakened an eye-opening sadness that we all face the same barriers in publishing, unfortunately... Unless we conform.
It's not enough to write what we want in the prose that we feel sits naturally and best with us if we want to get past the gatekeepers of the big publishers out there and into the hands of the readers. Or the readers those same publishers seem to think we should be writing for.
There are many more readers out there that don't fit the standard blueprint of all readers as they see it.
As POC writers, we can deliver our stories with different nuances.
We can make that bland story come alive with the extra spice or flavour we can add, depending on our background.
Unfortunately, it is sometimes dictated to us how 'hot' a curry (book) our readers can handle. Often we are stuck writing a mild chicken tikka masala when we want to add so much more.
Our writing should not always be considered a literary piece of art that can be studied and picked apart to learn about certain people. It should be read as fiction. To entertain, make people think, laugh, cry, as just that. Fiction. Not fiction from/for a certain diaspora.
I know I write how I want to write. My own experiences are woven within the stories to make them more real. And I will forever continue my ChickPea Curry Lit!
Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House UK and Vintage for an ARC.

As a white individual, I wanted to read this book to get a better understanding of the challenges coloured individuals face in the writing world.

I loved all the stories, and the discussions raised, and there was interest in each one. Even as a white individual, I learned new things about writing with this book. It provided me with inspiration, but also given me so much to think about regarding the challenges people of colour experience.

It’s also given me cause to make sure I include people of colour and their books. To actively look for their work, read it, and review it. The world needs more diverse novels, especially ones that delve into the different cultures and races of the world, and it makes me so mad that it’s not something that isn’t just done.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a copy of this book to read and review.

This is a rich and fascinating collection of contemporary essays that meditates and moves on the postcolonial conceit of 'writing from the margins'. All the writers are non-white from across the globe and this also tackles issues of writing from queer, female, and non-Christian religious/cultural viewpoints.

One of the clear messages that emerges across the collection is the way publishing gatekeepers as well as readers have expectations that push writers of colour to tell 'immigrant' stories or stories about the histories and traumas of their countries or countries of ancestral origin, how they and their characters are supposed to stand-in for an entire complex nation or community, and how the books need to be 'comfortable' for a white audience. [author:Tahmima Anam|429519], for example, is excellent on how acceptable she was when her Bangladeshi trilogy was published, but how confused agent, publishers, and some readers, critics and reviewers were when she published her [book:The Startup Wife|50345451] that had other themes and was built on a desire to make readers laugh. The freedom of white writers to tackle all kinds of topics unrelated to their racial status and identity hasn't, it seems, been fully extended to all authors.

This is a collection which, in places, it surprisingly well theorised. It's also one which has much to say to readers as well as writers. Especially important is the concept of Western literary metrics and dogma when it comes to prose and style, and the dangers of writing that springs from non-Western traditions being dismissed as 'badly written' because it doesn't conform to diktats such as 'show, don't tell'.

With thoughtful essays on translation - cultural and literal - especially one on moving from a pictorial/visual language to an alphabet-based language, this is wide-ranging and consistently fascinating.