the shoulders upon which
we stand
The writing of those who came before us have made our work at Writing Academic Synergy possible. We acknowledge the many writers, particularly women of color, whose words fed us in times of need, named for us what we struggled to process, and taught us important lessons to guide our journeys as writers, educators, and human beings. This page offers an abbreviated list of quotes, resources, and books that have shaped Writing Academic Synergy. We hope they help our community of writers reclaim their relationship with writing, unpack academia’s hidden curriculum, and write new worlds and possibilities for us all.
Quotes to RECLAIM our relationship with writing
Nayyirah Waheed’s salt.
remember.
you were a writer
before
you ever
put
word to paper.
just because you were not writing
externally.
does not mean you were not writing
internally.
— stories
— p. 194 of salt.
trust your work.
— p. 10 of salt.
if we
wanted
to.
people of color
could
burn the world down.
for what
we
have experienced.
are experiencing.
but
we don’t.
— how stunningly beautiful that our sacred respect for the earth. for life. is deeper than our rage
— p. 197 of salt.
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower
All that you touch,
You Change.
All that you Change,
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.
— p. 70 of Parable of the Sower
adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
We are in an imagination battle.
Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown and Renisha McBride and so many others are dead because, in some white imagination, they were dangerous. And that imagination is so respected that those who kill, based on an imagined, racialized fear of Black people, are rarely held accountable.
Imagination has people thinking they can go from being poor to millionaire as part of a shared American dream. Imagination turns Brown bombers into terrorists and white bombers into mentally ill victims. Imagination gives us borders, gives us superiority, gives us race as an indicator of capability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free.
— p. 18 of Emergent Strategy
Art is not neutral. It either upholds or disrupts the status quo, advancing or regressing justice. We are living now inside the imagination of people who thought economic disparity and environmental destruction were acceptable costs for their power. It is our right and responsibility to write ourselves into the future.
— p. 197 of Emergent Strategy
Resources to UNPACK academia’s hidden curriculum
Kerry Ann Rockquemore & Tracey Laszloffy’s The Black Academic Guide’s to Winning Tenure—Without Losing Your Soul
Karen Kelsky’s The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job
Barbara W. Sarnecka’s The Writing Workshop: Write More, Write Better, Be Happier in Academia
Felicia Rose Chavez’s The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom
Paul J. Silvia’s How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing
Books on craft to WRITE new worlds and possibilities
Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
Mary Pipher’s Writing to Change the World: An Inspiring Guide for Transforming the World with Words
Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
William Strunk Jr.’s The Elements of Style
Helen Sword’s Stylish Academic Writing
Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
