Bailey White & Belonging

I used to think writers needed intense life experiences for their work to be valid. Surviving childhood trauma, death of loved ones, grinding poverty, violence, or illness was necessary to produce lasting, meaningful work. Now I think this is BS. First, sadness and joy come with being human—like fries with a BLT at a roadside…

Earning Our Stories

Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter is about a young adult navigating her place in an upper-midwest Ojibwe tribe while pursuing justice among its members. The main character, Daunis, is already caught between two worlds before being recruited as an informant for the CIA—her mother is from a rich family with French roots, and her deceased father…