a lyrical life story

Grad school's really proven to be a great place to come in contact with some amazing authors and amazing works I may have not otherwise read. Davon Loeb, author of The In-Betweens, came to my university as a visiting author this week and truly made the experience of reading his lyrical memoir all the more meaningful. We read his book in one of my classes to prepare for his visit, and the conversation we had concerning his craft moves, approach to childhood, adolescence, and race, and tone were so fulfilling. Interacting with Davon was even more fulfilling; he is a teacher as well as writer, and an individual who made his gratitude to be with and offer us wisdom clear. I'm not primarily a writer of nonfiction, but I've developed an interest and fond for the genre over the past four years or so and begun to more seriously approach writing my own creative nonfiction essays. Getting to hear about how Davon went about capturing his coming of age story through his biracial perspective was inspiring in every sense of the word. He advocates for finding the universality in even the most individualistic of experiences, empowering writers to tell their variety of stories. I'm incredibly grateful for the feedback Davon was able to give me on one of my own nonfiction pieces near and dear to my heart. As I talked with him, he gave me the fantastic advice to try rewriting the piece as a fictional story to remove myself from the vulnerable narrative I've been struggling to tell in the essay as it currently is. That advice just settled on me immediately and made so much sense, so that whenever I'm able to devote time to editing the piece, I feel like I have a sense of direction I haven't been able to find before. From reading Davon's memoir, it's clear he is a writer who cares about giving language to his stark childhood experiences that, even as a white woman, instigated memories of both joyful and painful moments in my own upbringing that looked very different. It's a brilliantly well written, immersive, and powerful book I'm so glad to have read and discussed with its creator. Getting ice cream and chatting further with Davon as a group was a cherry on top. :) 


Some of my favorite quotes from The In-Betweens:

"I could say it was kids being kids, but it wasn't."

"I was the constant reminder that between the Black and white is where I planted, and I stayed." 

"Give Dad a pencil, paper, and a ruler, and he could design a house, cubit by cubit. Give me a pencil, paper, and a ruler, and I could draw our family and write our story."

"Our learning was always an experience."

"But I was seventeen, and I knew everything." 

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