The Writer - 05.2020_

8 | The Writer • May 2020

FROM THE FRONT LINES

BY YI SHUN LAI

L

et me tell you a short story.
It’s about the time I worked
with a writer on a story I
loved for close to six months.
We were on the phone together for
multiple hours over this process; we
were both happy with the results. And
then, two days before our literary mag-
azine went into production phase,
right before we go to press, the writer
decided to pull his story.
I know, I know. When I saw his
email, I went weak at the knees. I pretty
much wanted to cry. On the phone with
him, talking over his decision, my voice
seemed pitched toward my boots; disap-
pointment clogged my trachea. All the
constructive editing, all the good con-
versations, wiped out. And yet, I could
understand exactly why he had done it.
It came down to the three things: First,
the writer’s identity as a white male.

Second, the story’s characters compris-

ing mostly black people. Third, the sen-

sitivity reader I had hired to ensure we

could publish a work that was as true to

the black experience in Baltimore as

possible. The writer said to me, after

reviewing and working hard with two

sets of comments, “I don’t see how my

story can survive his reading of it.”

I made a couple critical mistake in

the editing process: I’d had one sensi-

tivity reader look at it early on, but

she’s Latinx, not black. And it was late

in the process when I did finally hire a

black sensitivity reader to look at the

edited version of the story.

And I’ll posit one more wrinkle for

you: In order to give the work as fair a

chance as possible, I read blind: I try

not to look at either the cover letters or

the writers’ names before I see their

stories. In this case, I didn’t know the

writer was white until I’d already fallen

in love with the characters. He and I

got on the phone soon after, to talk

about some of the prior challenges he’d

had trying to publish this story, and it

became apparent that his identity had

been an issue with this story before.

I’ve laid the groundwork for you, but

let me just say a few more things before

we dive into the actual meat of this

month’s column. First, the intentions of

this writer were never up for debate.

He’d made it very clear in our many

interactions that he could be considered

an ally of the people in his story.

(Related: I didn’t agree with all of my

second sensitivity reader’s comments,

and in some places I was more than

willing to defer to my writer.) Second, I

am of the opinion that we can try, as fic-

tion writers, to put ourselves in some-

one else’s shoes. Third, we should have

Unfami liar waters

How to navigate someone else’s experience successfully.

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