Our conversation with Claudia Rankine continues by talking about writing that crosses racial boundaries. The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind (Fence Books) was edited by Rankine with Beth Loffreda and Cap Max King. The discussion takes up writers who write about the racial "other" -- writers like J. M. Coetzee, James Baldwin or William Shakespeare. Can every writer do it successfully? Are there writers who shouldn't or can't? When is it appropriate and necessary? The discussion explores the limits of the imagination in relation to questions of race and gender.
Read an excerpt from The Racial Imaginary.