Summary

In Chapter 6 — “Six: influences, sources, language, education” (177) — Evaristo writes about the influence of language and education on her creativity. In the early stages of her poetic career, the Black women poets she admired tended to be American, and she did not feel she had a place in British poetry due to its overwhelming whiteness.

Evaristo reflects on how she developed an interest in reading due to the isolation she experienced as a middle child in a large family and the lack of entertainment options at the time. She notes that she misses the pre-internet days, and contrasts the restful experience of reading books with the hectic nature of emails and social media. She considers that she may have become a writer because introspection appeals to her, and that this appeal was cultivated from reading as a...