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Interview: Assuring the Authentic Voice in Modern Literature

Author: Cherie Claire

Cherie Claire is the award-winning author of the Viola Valentine paranormal mystery series and several Louisiana romances. A native of New Orleans, Cherie now lives in Georgia where she works as a travel writer under her birth (non-pen) name of Cheré Dastugue Coen. Visit her website at www.cherieclaire.net and follow her on social media.

Interview: Assuring the Authentic Voice in Modern Literature

In January 2020, the novel American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins hit bookstores after months of positive reviews and being selected to Oprah’s Book Club. Then Latinx critics called out the book detailing a Mexican bookseller crossing the U.S. border to escape a drug cartel as perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Cummins is not Mexican, although claims Puerto Rican heritage, and critics repeated what they had been saying all along, that authentic marginalized voices don’t get published, but white authors...

authenticity reader, characterization, craft, DEI, interview, Publishing, self-editing, sensitivity reader, Writing

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