Here& #39;s the thing about writing as a "diverse" author (ugh), you& #39;re docked points by *everyone* wrt to whether your voice is "diverse-enough" by some random scale the reader/reviewer applies and implies is universal, but stop reading from that perspective bc it is damaging as hell

Stop judging the "authenticity" of a narrative against one specific experience — a book isn& #39;t bad because it& #39;s not the exact narrative a reader wants from it, it might just not be a book for that reader.

(Obvi this is not about harmful books, this is about the fact that myriad diasporic stories can co-exist)

We are so ready to tear "own voices" books down because they& #39;re not doing enough, or they& #39;re not the right stories, or whatever, but that& #39;s not what the descriptor is for, it& #39;s to amplify another *piece* of representation, bc one narrative should never represent the whole

Ppl shouldn& #39;t be afraid to tell their own stories bc they won& #39;t pass some fake identity purity test of what their story SHOULD be. Relationships to identities & communities & cultures & religions & bodies etc are complicated & messy. Text should be allowed to reflect that.