Creative Writing and the Experiences of Others

Book excerpt: In times that are rife with complex manifestations of identity politics, writing classrooms across the world are hosting heated debates about what it means for authors to write about experiences outside their own. This book focuses on writing as the act of witnessing when the writers themselves were not present to witness in person. It seeks to answer the questions that come along with these experiences, such as what might it mean to write in order “to watch,” “to try and understand,” “to never look away,” and “to never forget” when the writer is an outsider to an experience? What might it mean to write about others in ways that do not essentialize or sensationalize, and in ways that are as humble, ethical, and responsible as possible? What might it mean to bear witness through the written word while engaged in a constant (re)negotiation with one’s own positioning i.e., to cultivate a condition of critical empathy that doesn’t also have the consequence of creative paralysis?