One of the great blessings of having written The Adjunct Underclass is that a huge number of people have reached out to tell me what the book has meant to them, or to tell me their own story. But sometimes, people reach out to disagree. To tell you that what you’ve written has hurt them.
Last summer, I was at a writers’ conference, and one of the facilitators, the poet Patricia Smith, said that writers have the right to write about anything or anyone we find interesting… but that we have the responsibility to stay and be part of the conversation that writing generates. To hear back from our readers, about their satisfactions and about their complaints.
This week’s story has done that. I’ve had readers tell me how much they appreciated it… had another reader tell me that it wasn’t my story to tell. So I hope I’ll hear from you as well. I always want not merely to be a better craftsperson, but a more generous storyteller. So let me know how that’s going for you, with this week’s story, “Angels Among Us.”
Herb Childress 