Posted on May 5, 2022
How one book influencer championing Black authors is changing publishing
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https://www.npr.org/2022/05/05/ [login to see] /all-ways-black-penguin-random-house-cree-myles
Many years ago, Milwaukee-based book influencer Cree Myles first picked up Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and found the validation she didn't know she needed. The book affirmed many of her experiences moving through the world as a Black woman.
"I'm reading it and I was like, yes! And yes! And yes! And I was like, I'm not crazy," she remembers. "That was a seminal moment in my life for sure."
Myles immersed herself in other pioneering works by Black authors: James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker. She read Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me. "I emerged from the ashes a new person, and I just needed to tell the whole world about it," she says. "And that's how it kind of all started."
Now, Myles curates the Instagram account @allwaysblack, on behalf of publishing giant Penguin Random House. Myles says the goal of the account is "to celebrate Black writers and the readers who love them," and Myles is voracious in her ability to come up with fun and innovative ways to do that.
Many years ago, Milwaukee-based book influencer Cree Myles first picked up Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and found the validation she didn't know she needed. The book affirmed many of her experiences moving through the world as a Black woman.
"I'm reading it and I was like, yes! And yes! And yes! And I was like, I'm not crazy," she remembers. "That was a seminal moment in my life for sure."
Myles immersed herself in other pioneering works by Black authors: James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker. She read Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me. "I emerged from the ashes a new person, and I just needed to tell the whole world about it," she says. "And that's how it kind of all started."
Now, Myles curates the Instagram account @allwaysblack, on behalf of publishing giant Penguin Random House. Myles says the goal of the account is "to celebrate Black writers and the readers who love them," and Myles is voracious in her ability to come up with fun and innovative ways to do that.
How one book influencer championing Black authors is changing publishing
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."On a mission to glamorize Black writers
A big component of Myles’ work is individual chats and panel discussions with authors on Instagram live. From her home in Milwaukee, framed by plants and colorfully arranged bookshelves, Myles creates an easy rapport with authors, whether they are established and renowned or just releasing their first works.
During an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Myles half-jests that on “the Bookstagram streets” an interview with him is “the biggest flex of all time.”
“You know what, you know what? You need to tell them streets they need to dream a little bigger,” Coates chuckles.
Myles has a breezy interview style, connecting with authors personally and asking sharp questions about their works. It’s a mixture of natural talent, preparation and an earnest respect for writers – who she believes deserve the celebrity of singers or actors.
“I’m all about glamorizing Black literature and the writers,” Myles notes. “They give us such important stories. They should be treated accordingly. That’s how I feel.”
Myles says there’s a lot to be gleaned from the wisdom of these authors, the living and the ancestors. “Because [written] stories aside… their lived stories are also things to be revered, because they weren’t just writing these revolutionary pieces, essays and shorts and novels and then like going on and living non-revolutionary lives,” notes Myles. “They were embodying everything that they were writing about. And so, looking to them has always been really powerful for me.”
All Ways Black centers the joy of being Black. Myles ends her interviews by asking authors about their favorite thing about being Black, and she poses a laughter-inducing “speed round” to writers, asking them to make impossible choices between two options central to Black culture, like “Afro or dreads?” or “Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King?”
Myles says it’s all in good fun. “So, even if I’m dealing with the best wordsmiths on the planet,” says Myles, “they are also just Black like me, and we will laugh about the same things, and we will throw the same shade, and we will crack the same jokes. And they’re just masters at their craft, but they’re still very much human.”...
..."On a mission to glamorize Black writers
A big component of Myles’ work is individual chats and panel discussions with authors on Instagram live. From her home in Milwaukee, framed by plants and colorfully arranged bookshelves, Myles creates an easy rapport with authors, whether they are established and renowned or just releasing their first works.
During an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Myles half-jests that on “the Bookstagram streets” an interview with him is “the biggest flex of all time.”
“You know what, you know what? You need to tell them streets they need to dream a little bigger,” Coates chuckles.
Myles has a breezy interview style, connecting with authors personally and asking sharp questions about their works. It’s a mixture of natural talent, preparation and an earnest respect for writers – who she believes deserve the celebrity of singers or actors.
“I’m all about glamorizing Black literature and the writers,” Myles notes. “They give us such important stories. They should be treated accordingly. That’s how I feel.”
Myles says there’s a lot to be gleaned from the wisdom of these authors, the living and the ancestors. “Because [written] stories aside… their lived stories are also things to be revered, because they weren’t just writing these revolutionary pieces, essays and shorts and novels and then like going on and living non-revolutionary lives,” notes Myles. “They were embodying everything that they were writing about. And so, looking to them has always been really powerful for me.”
All Ways Black centers the joy of being Black. Myles ends her interviews by asking authors about their favorite thing about being Black, and she poses a laughter-inducing “speed round” to writers, asking them to make impossible choices between two options central to Black culture, like “Afro or dreads?” or “Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King?”
Myles says it’s all in good fun. “So, even if I’m dealing with the best wordsmiths on the planet,” says Myles, “they are also just Black like me, and we will laugh about the same things, and we will throw the same shade, and we will crack the same jokes. And they’re just masters at their craft, but they’re still very much human.”...
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