Jess Martinaitis

This raises immediately the question of whom one is writing ‘for’. My own, short answer is that I have never had a reader in mind. I have ideas, people, events, shapes, and I write ‘for’ those things, and hope that the completed work will be of interest to others.

Writers and politicians are natural rivals. Both groups try to make the world in their own images; they fight for the same territory. And the novel is one way of denying the official, politicians’ version of truth.

Self Determination Theory is the idea that your happiness is related to:

Autonomy: the feeling that you have control over your day, and that your actions are important.

Competence: the feeling that you are good at what you do.

Relatedness: the feeling of connection to other people.

The black American writer Richard Wright once wrote that black and white Americans were engaged in a war over the nature of reality.

It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity.

Their moves are at once personal and driven by a desire to connect; and if these artists do not expect to feel wholly at home anywhere in the world, neither do they assume America is the only, or the best, place to exercise their collaborative gifts.

Writers in my position, exiles or emigrants or expatriates, are haunted by an urge to look back, even at the risk of being mutated into pillars of salt. But if we do look back, we must also do so in the knowledge – which gives rise to profound uncertainties – that our physical alienation from India almost inevitably means that we will not be capabl... See more

To ensure it was more than a trend and rather the start of lasting change, several organizations set out to hold brands to task. Aurora James's Fifteen Percent Pledge publicly called on corporations to dedicate at least 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned products. Harlem's Fashion Row, Black in Fashion Council and Every Stylish Girl aim... See more