SWRT 274 | Craft and Conscience, special guest Kavita Das

This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida & Kathryn welcome Kavita Das to the Story Works Round Table. Kavita has a new book out, called Craft & Conscience, all about writing that is concerned with social issues. And really, what writing isn't in one way or another getting at the aspects of being human and being human together that could use some work? This conversation is equally beneficial for fiction and nonfiction writers.

Craft and Conscience delves into topics including parsing our motivations for writing about social issues, understanding the relationship between the writer, reader, and subject, balancing narrative and context, differences between writing about social issues from an outside or inside perspective, writing opinion editorial pieces, understanding the importance of cultural sensitivity and avoiding cultural appropriation, and considering the implications (positive and negative) of writing about social issues to others and to ourselves. I'm happy to have a wide-ranging conversation or to delve more deeply into one or more of these topics.

Beacon Press author Kavita Das, whose book Craft and Conscience: How to Write About Social Issues was released this fall. Das describes Craft and Conscience as "the guidance she wished she’d had as an emerging writer," and the book offers key lessons, reflections, frameworks, and considerations for writing effectively about hot-button issues. Das herself has taught nonfiction writing at the New School and Catapult and has written about social issues for ten years. Previously, she worked in the social change sector for fifteen years, addressing issues ranging from community and housing inequities to public health disparities and racial injustice. Das is also the author of the biography Poignant Song: The Life and Music of Lakshmi Shankar.

Find Kavita Das at www.kavitadas.com

Show notes and more at www.storyworkspodcast.com