โ I started reading more this week! Did you?
Read on for: writing tips, writing inspiration, and book reflections...and also read to the end for a timely connection to our third year celebrating Juneteenth as a federal holiday ๐
Last week, I committed to reading more, a commitment I took seriously. After all, I asked you to read 934 words about why reading enriches our lives and supports our growth as writers. (And, yes, I am trying to reduce my word countsโฆafter all, my favorite writing gurus, Strunk and White, do implore us to โomit needless words,โ a perfect example of an aphorism that practices what it preaches ๐.)

And, so, this weekend I chose to dive into two books: Claire Keeganโs Small Things Like These and Nicholas Dawidoffโs The Other Side of Prospect.
Just for fun aside: I know readers hold STRONG opinions about how many books to read at onceโand whether to finish every book one starts; my rule of thumb is to read only one work of fiction and one work of non-fiction at once, and Iโll definitely ditch a book that isnโt doing it for me. What do you think?! ๐คบ๐
Back to my reading report: it makes me smile to share that both my dearest mother, Marnie, a lifelong bibliophile, and my mother-in-law (Gish Jen, an exceptional and critically-acclaimed writer herself), urged me to read Keeganโs latest work. That said, I will leave the reflections on this masterful novella to the professional journalists (review one & review two) as I am eager to share my deep and long-abiding love for the work of the less-known writer, Nicholas Dawidoff.
I fell in love with the writing of Nicholas Dawidoff when he spoke at my high school (Hopkins, New Haven, CT) as an honorary alumnus. He read from his memoir, The Crowd Sounds Happy, and I was mesmerized by his beautiful prose and childhood narrative that resonated with my own.
After acquiring and completing his book, I wrote an impassioned personal essay (if I recall, I wrote it purely for fun? ๐) about why I wanted to be a writer, too. (This essay was later followed by a similarly impassioned essay about my desire to be an environmental engineerโฆand so on and so forth until todayโs new passion ๐).
Dawidoffโs new work of investigative non-fiction, The Other Side of Prospect, returns his readers to New Haven, only now his narrative turns outward from his own experience and into the troubled history of New Havenโs overwhelmingly impoverished Black community. The individuals whose lives anchor this story literally live on the other side of Prospect Street from well-heeled Yale affiliates and their families.
Below Iโve annotated a snapshot from the Justice Map project (which allows users to visualize myriad national demographic data overlaid on detailed maps). Iโve also labeled, Hopkins School, Dawidoffโs and my alma mater, to further emphasize New Havenโs socioeconomic divisions (which closely mirror its racial divisions).
The book reveals in poignant, clear-sighted, and sympathetic detail the side of New Havenโs history that many New Havenites of the โblueโ neighborhoods above have never really understood. Dawidoff spent eight years digging into the archives and conducting over 500 interviews, mainly with residents of Newhallville (labeled above). The voices of these beleaguered Newhallville residents are front and center in the work.
Not only is The Other Side of Prospect an important work of journalism, but it is also gripping, both in its focus on a young personโs unjust murder conviction and in its revelations about the rise and fall of New Havenโs post-emancipation middle-class Black community.
One particularly compelling piece of the story might stoke your interest: Dawidoff reports that the majority of New Havenโs original Black residents migrated from rural South Carolina. Klan violence and unjust appropriation of hard-won farms (often by law enforcement agents) drove these South Carolinians to a โnew havenโ in Connecticut. Since the Great Migration, many Black residents of New Haven have made annual pilgrimages to South Carolina, and the residents report that neighborhood traditions into the second half of the 20th century clearly harked back to their Southern roots. These families found significant prosperity in their first decades in New Haven, only to be stripped of jobs and opportunity as New Havenโs manufacturing sector declined precipitously in the second half of the 20th century.
PS: If you would like the โTLDR", on The Other Side of Prospect check out Dawidoffโs recent Atlantic article that draws on his research for the book.
Now, I promised in the subtitle that this post would eventually circle around to Juneteenth, and I want to leave you with that message.
First, here are some resources for anyone who still feels fuzzy about what Juneteenth is or about how to write about race. And no shame in that! As a veteran classroom teacher, I know that one of the greatest hindrances to learning is fear that we are โtoo behindโ to ask. In particular, Iโve seen deep frustration from students when they are afraid of โsaying the wrong thingโ when trying to discuss race, and I hope these resources can help us all feel more comfortable discussing and learning about these topics.
โHonoring Juneteenthโ from the Anti-Defamation League, which includes an excellent section on introducing children to this new federal holiday & its history
A New York Times article that summarizes the history of the celebration in greater detail
The New York Times on โWhy We are Capitalizing Blackโ from 2020
Summaries of Associated Press (the general authority on journalistic style) guides on DEI in journalism (general updates from 2021 & identifiers/emojis)
As for the connection to Nicholas Dawidoffโs work:
The Other Side of Prospect reveals a story that has been right beneath the nose of all of us who have spent time in New Havenโs โother world,โ the largely non-Black, non-impoverished world of private schools and Yale.
The story of Juneteenth has also been right beneath the nose of non-Black Americans since the late 1800s.
Case in point: to my alarm, before 2020, I had never heard of the holiday or even the final act in the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans that took place in Texas on June 19, 1865. To be clear, I received a cum laude degree in history from Harvard in 2014, during which I undertook an eight-person seminar on the history and literature of the American Civil War. ๐ฌ๐
In sum:
Last week I shared that we need to read to become better writers & that we will read more if we choose books that appeal to us
This week, Iโve shared that it is ALSO important to push ourselves to find ways into books for which we donโt have an obvious โinโโin this case, Iโm reading The Other Side of Prospect because I fell in love with Dawidoffโs writing years ago when I found his own story mirrored mine
When we find ways into books about DIFFERENT experiences than ours, even when they โdonโt jump off the shelfโ for us, we uncover those stories that have been โright beneath our nosesโ
And, of course, we become better thinkers and writers as our worldview broadens and our empathy increases
Let me know: will your Juneteenth holiday on Monday, June 19th, will be an opportunity to drive into just this kind of book? I hope so ๐ ๐
And for inspiration, here is my shelf of a few โsocial justice favoritesโ at home. I heartily recommend all titles!