On @OverlandJournal :

‘I want to write about the intersections of death and ecology and ethics and decolonisation, and I will not be able to do this with integrity if I am forever expected to tell you about the food eaten by my family...’ https://overland.org.au/2020/10/stop-asking-diverse-writers-to-tell-you-about-their-lives/

This is so spot on. I was asked to be on a panel of writers at a festival to talk about diversity. I pushed back & said why so diverse writers only get asked to talk about diversity? Diverse writers should get to talk or write about anything that interests them, not perform their

identity for others. If you want to share about your life, that’s your choice, but if you don’t, why should you be expected to do so? There are diverse writers who are also very private individuals who don’t want to write about themselves. Why are they not afforded this freedom?

Support diverse writers to write whatever they want to write about. Don’t exploit their culture, their history, their lives for your consumption so you get to experience their worldview then move back into your comfortable world. We are tired of performing our trauma. Thank you.

This is a very important issue for me as I am also at times a writing mentor & writing teacher. I don’t want my students to feel like they have to keep rehashing pain to be valid. I wrote about it here. PS. I won’t use ‘FNBPOC’ again, it is not right—

https://twitter.com/eileenchongpoet/status/1281006082853179392?s=21 https://twitter.com/eileenchongpoet/status/1281006082853179392

While I do write a lot about food, I think my work is far more complex than ‘just’ food. (Food writing is also very valid, it’s powerful & complex in its own ways & right, but I am not primarily a food writer; I am a poet.) Diverse writers shouldn’t be reduced to their trauma.