In this episode I talk with Yahdon Israel, one of Under the Gum Tree's previous contributors. Yahdon is 27-year-old writer from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, who has written for Avidly, The New Inquiry, Brooklyn Magazine, LitHub, and Poets and Writers. He graduated from the MFA Creative Non-Fiction Writing program at the New School. He is the Awards and Membership VP of the National Book Critics Circle. Run a popular Instagram page which promotes literature and fashion under the hashtag Literaryswag, and host a web show for writers called LIT.

In this episode we talk about:

• Writing as a means to confronting the world


• Telling lies to find your voice, and writing as a way to be heard


• Getting to the truth of feelings through false constructs like memory and objectivity


• How James Baldwin has influenced Yahdon as a writer


• White editors and their expectation that black writers should answer their questions


• Complexity of asking questions that reveal assumptions and lies we tell ourselves


• The essay as a form of asking questions that may never be answered


• What the literary market wants and expects from writers of color


• The Women, by Hilton Als


• The importance of literary citizenship and contributing to community beyond writing


• Yahdon's interview with Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Tyehimba Jess


• Yahdon's popular Instagram hashtag #literaryswag and his new web show for writers called LIT.


• Visit Yahdon online at yahdonisrael.com. Follow him on Instagram @yahdon and on Twitter @yahdonisrael.


• Follow Yahdon's projects on Instagram @litplatform and @literaryswagbookclub.

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Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram.

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