Riverhead Books is inviting Black media, bookstagrammers, librarians, and bookstore staff who are interested in reading Akwaeke Emezi’s memoir, Dear Senthuran, to reach out to them through a direct message on Instagram.
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir is Akwaeke’s first memoir and fourth book. The book is scheduled to be released on June 8 by Riverhead Books.
In a post via Intstagram Akwaeke shared her experience while writing the book:
“ok so real talk. we all know that the publishing industry—like any other American institution—is intrinsically and profoundly racist 🤷🏾♀️ by virtue of being a book centered in Black spirit and facing Black readers, DEAR SENTHURAN challenges whiteness by rendering it irrelevant and as a consequence, shepherding this book through the machine of white publishing while fighting to keep its integrity intact was, to be very honest, the most traumatic experience of my career. In flesh terms, as a Black queer and trans disabled person who moves spirit-first with my work, i am not supposed to survive this hostile white supremacist world, let alone thrive in the publishing industry it birthed. It is literally only the hand of God that has seen me through. FRESHWATER was masked as fiction, so it trojan-horsed its way through the machine, but DEAR SENTHURAN wears no disguise, only the accumulation of bloody skins that have been flayed off me. I would not have made it through the process of publishing this book without the same spiritfam that I wrote these letters to. they helped me hold the center when whiteness tried to shift the book into something that would be more legible to it, a gesture that is inevitably and horrifically violent to experience when making work like this, work drenched in Black spirit, written to us and for us, saying we are more than enough and we do not need to explain a single thing to our oppressors. I am deeply grateful to my agents for protecting me as i protect the work 🙏🏾 @riverheadbooks has committed to exclusively centering Black voices in the publicity and rollout campaign for this memoir, more info on their page 📢 I can’t pretend that creating this book wasn’t a whole spiritual battle, but DEAR SENTHURAN is here, wearing a spiritskin made by a fellow nonhuman (@ruby_onyinyechi_amanze) as a cover, its essence whole, intact, and brilliant, by the grace of God. I celebrate that, and in the words of lucille clifton, won’t you celebrate with me ✊🏾✨💕 #dearsenthuran #ablackspiritmemoir (📸: @katebomz
If you’re interested in reviewing Dear Senthuran, click here to get in touch with Riverhead Books. You can pre-order the book here.
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