Rebecca Carroll Understands the Power of Black Women’s Stories
On episode 46 of the Reed, Write, & Create podcast, Rebecca Carroll, whose new book, I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like: The Voice & Vision of Black Women Writers (Haymarket) is our guest. Red Clay was released on December 3, 2024.
Rebecca Carroll is the editor of I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like.
Rebecca is a writer, cultural critic, and host of the podcasts, Come Through with Rebecca Carroll and the award-winning Billie Was a Black Woman . Her 2021 memoir, Surviving the White Gaze - where she shares her experiences about growing up in New Hampshire as a Black adoptee with white parents - was called “gorgeous and powerful” by the New York Times Book Review.
On the podcast, Rebecca shares why she calls herself a storyteller rather than a writer; she offers advice on writing difficult memoirs with compassion; and then we dig into the incredible work that is, I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like, a collection of interviews with famous Black women writers including June Jordan, Pearl Cleage, Rita Dove, and Lorene Cary, among others.
First we talk about how Rebecca wrote the book as a young twenty-something just out of college, and then we discuss how she got the book reissued 30 years later, with up-and-coming authors like Safiya Sinclair adding their voices to this inspiring collection.
Press play and get inspired.
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To keep in touch with Rebecca Carroll, follow her on Instagram @rebeljunemarie
To purchase a copy of I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like, please consider supporting the Reed, Write, & Create bookshop and independent bookstores everywhere.
And if you enjoy hearing advice and wisdom from amazing BIPoC writers like Rebecca Carroll, then you’ll probably enjoy our episodes with Veronica Chambers and with Ilyon Woo as well.