The Reason We May Never Have Another bell hooks, Eve Babitz, or Joan Didion

I’m Going to Write About Writing. Sorry In Advance

Once, while researching a piece for the New York Times Magazine , I came across a debate between William Styron and Ossie Davis moderated by James Baldwin. The reason for the debate: Styron, a white guy, had written a first-person historical novel from the point of view of Nat Turner, the real-life historical figure who, as you will recall, led an 1831 slave rebellion in which he and his fellows literally killed every…