Make no mistake—writing is power. What this fact should prompt us to ask is: What kind of power is it, where does it come from, and what does it mean? If we take from Aristotle his idea of plot, for example, we should also remember that he believed art relied on slavery: slaves freed their masters to think and create. For the most part, writing has

To name or not name a character’s race is a matter of craft. To consider a character to be white unless stated otherwise is a matter of craft.

Some of us have larger arguments at stake, arguments often about the bounds of the argument themselves, of what is and is not normal, good, beautiful. A workshop should not participate in the binding but in freeing the writer from the culturally regulated boundaries of what it is possible to say and how it is possible to say it.

any mention of race affects a story, then, like setting, race must be a part of any craft discussion.

Over a decade ago, I sat silently in an MFA workshop while mostly white writers discussed my race. I had decided not to name the race of any character, Asian American or otherwise—but the workshop demanded that the story inform “the reader” if my characters were like me, people of color.

It could easily end up harmful to both the garden and even the gardener’s desire to garden, especially if the other gardeners have experience in a different kind of garden,

reading and writing are not done in a vacuum. What people read and write affects how they act in the world. If writers really believe that art is important to actual life, then the responsibilities of actual life are the responsibilities of art.

Craft works best, then, when a writer and reader share the same cultural background. If a writer were to use “ask” in a culture where “queried” is the invisible term, then “ask” would draw attention to itself—

like most readers, I actually enjoy having many of my expectations fulfilled and a few undermined or challenged. To meet expectations is not inherently bad.