{"product_id":"i-just-keep-talking-a-life-in-essays","title":"I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2026 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Winner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2024 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist: The 2025 PEN\/Diamonstein-Speilvogel Award for the Art of the Essays\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Painter puts muscle and heart into history so that her readers can easily, but thoughtfully, draw the lines between past and present. Her history is inclusive, not in a pandering or self-consciously correct way, but because her artful telling of it is full of complexity that's both beautiful and bracing.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Robin Givhan, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eI Just Keep Talking\u003c\/i\u003e] is more than an odyssey for the senses; it's a revelation that will inspire courage in anyone seeking to express their truth.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A grand and capacious vision not just of Painter's life and times but of Black history and culture, too.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout her prolific writing career, Nell Painter has published works on such luminaries as Sojourner Truth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Malcolm X. Her unique vantage on American history pushes the boundaries of personal narrative and academic authorship. Led by an unbridled curiosity for her subjects, Painter asks readers to reconsider ideas of race, politics, and identity. \u003ci\u003eI Just Keep Talking\u003c\/i\u003e assembles her writing for the first time into a single volume, displaying the breadth and depth of Painter's decades-long historical inquiry and the evolution of Black political thought--and includes a dazzling introduction and coda being published for the first time in this collection. From her mining of figures like Carrie Buck and Martin Delaney for their resonance today, to a deep dive into the history of exclusion through the work of Toni Morrison, to a discussion of the American political landscape after the 2016 election, Painter nimbly portrays the trials of a country frequently at war with itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlong with Painter's writing, this collection offers her original artwork, threaded throughout the book as counterpoint and emphasis. Her visual art shows a deft mind turning toward the tragedy and humor of her subjects; pulling from newspapers, personal records, and original sketches, Painter's artwork testifies to the dialectic of tremendous change and stasis that continues to shape American history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese essays resist easy answers in favor of complexity, the inescapable sense of our country's potential thwarted by its failures. This collection will surely solidify Painter's place among the finest critics and writers of the last half century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Doubleday Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45917433036973,"sku":"9780385548908","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/6954\/9997\/files\/imageloader_32bc6b18-205f-4e9b-8e4d-279a9ea70206.jpg?v=1776431204","url":"https:\/\/thirdspacereadingroom.com\/products\/i-just-keep-talking-a-life-in-essays","provider":"ThirdSpace Reading Room","version":"1.0","type":"link"}