Telling Black Women's Stories across Platforms with Rebecca Carroll

Reed, Write, and Create

This is our last episode of Season 4!

On episode 46 of the podcast, I am so excited to share my conversation with Rebecca Carroll, whose new book, I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like: The Voice & Vision of Black Women Writers (Haymarket) was re-released on December 3, 2024.

Rebecca is a writer, cultural critic, and host of the podcasts Come Through with Rebecca Carroll and the award-winning Billie Was a Black Woman . Her 2021 memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, where she shares her experiences about growing up in New Hampshire as a Black adoptee with white parents, was called “gorgeous and powerful” by the New York Times Book Review.

During our conversation, Rebecca shares why she calls herself a storyteller rather than a writer; she offers advice on writing difficult memoirs with compassion; and then we dig into the incredible work that is, I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like, a collection of interviews with famous Black women writers including June Jordan, Pearl Cleage, Rita Dove, and Lorene Cary, among others.

First we talk about how Rebecca wrote the book as a young twenty-something just out of college, and then we discuss how she got the book reissued 30 years later, with up-and-coming authors like Safiya Sinclair adding their voices to the collection.

Stick around until the end of the episode to hear how you can win a free copy of Red Clay.

To keep in touch with Rebecca Carroll, follow her on Instagram @rebeljunemarie

To purchase a copy of I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like, please consider supporting the Reed, Write, & Create bookshop and independent bookstores everywhere.

If you want more information, inspiration and resources for your literary life, visit the Reed, Write, and Create website.

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The doors are now closed to the Reed, Write and Create Sanctuary, our private community for BIPOC women writers who take their writing seriously. But you can still add your name to the waiting list so you’ll be the first to know when we’re taking new applications in 2025.

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Thank you & Happy Holidays!