Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism—all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age.
We had the pleasure of chatting Echo Brown about her upcoming YA memoir, Black Girl Unlimited, which publishes on January 14th 2020. She talks about what readers can expect and her publishing journey, along with her writing and what she hopes readers will take away after reading Black Girl Unlimited.
You can find Echo on Twitter and Instagram, along with her Ted Talks on YouTube.
Hi Echo! With the new year, what are three things you are looking forward to or hoping to achieve?
My goal is to visit Rumi’s prophetic field, out beyond ideas of wrong or right doing, labels, religion, even identity, which he talks about in his poem entitled, There is a Field. I want to experience that kind of elation and enchantment with life. For me, Rumi’s field is a metaphor for continuing to grow the inner dimension, and expanding internally by becoming more aware, patient, and compassionate. To simplify, I’m working on being a better person in the world. I’ve healed a lot of trauma in my past through my spiritual practices including yoga, meditation, and shamanism. My goal for this year is to deepen those practices and see what else I find.
Professionally, I want my book to make the NY Times bestseller list and since my background is live storytelling, I want to perform and tell stories around the country, connecting with as many people as possible. I love the stage and I love captivating an audience. I already have gigs lined up in Philly, North Carolina, and Baltimore. So I’m on my way!
Your debut novel, Black Girl Unlimited, releases on January 14th. If you could only describe your book in five words, what would they be?
Harry Potter meets the Wire
Now tell us a little more! What can readers expect?
It wasn’t enough to just tell this story as a memoir. As such, my use of magic in this book is really to elevate the suffering of the characters in the book and canonize that struggle, honouring it with grace, humility, and reverence. Using magic was the only way to truly paint the depth of humanity of the characters and help you understand what it takes to survive in American with nothing. It takes sheer wizardry. An ability to wield the unseen and manifest out of thin air. To stand at the base of mountain after mountain but keep climbing. So the people in this book are not just ordinary people, they are magicians and wizards, willing an impossible destiny right up out of the dust.
What caused you to write Black Girl Unlimited? Every publishing journey is different. Can you tell us about yours?
I had no intentions of writing a book. In fact, when the opportunity first appeared, I was trying to make my way to LA to sell my soul, ha! Seriously! I had a lot of success with my first one woman show, Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters. Some producers and casting directors flew up from LA to see the show and I started to see my name in the lights. They eventually all disappeared and I was left trying to figure out my next move, when I got a call from a young editor at Macmillan. She had read a profile on me in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (I went to Dartmouth) and seen my second Tedx talk. “I think you have a voice that will resonate with young people,” she said.
I was initially apprehensive, since I hadn’t read much YA, but the editor was so enthusiastic and sincere, I couldn’t turn her down. She is now one of the greatest creative partners I’ve had in my life. She understands my voice and vision and has helped me craft a book that speaks so poignantly to the experience I was trying to capture, I’m blown away by how it all unfolded and am super grateful that she found me. I believe that there are some creative projects that can only come into being in the space between the right people. She was definitely the right editor for this book.
We are currently working on my second book and I look forward to writing many more books with her input and insight.
Did you face any challenges while writing?
I did not. In fact, I’m based in Paris, France so I wrote this book while drinking hot chocolate right next the Eiffel Tower. I would arrive early in the morning, watch the sun rise, write for several hours, and then watch the sun set. Paris is really a magical place for artists. There is so much creative energy and inspiration. The force was definitely with me. The book simply poured out and all I had to do was allow it. It was almost like a channelling. If I did get stuck or couldn’t find the right word, I would simply sit back and ask the forces around me, “Well what should come next,” and wait for the answer to emerge. That was my process and it worked like a charm.
What do you hope readers take away from your novel?
There is magic everywhere in existence, even in the poorest neighbourhoods. Even in people that society may throw away. People with addictions, or who are the “wrong” race, creed, or faith. Sometimes, there is more magic in those places than we could have ever imagined. We just have to know how to look.
That, and it can be healed. No matter what happened to you, no matter how bad it was, it can be healed. It will be the hardest work of your life, but it can be done. This is also why I created an online “Wizard Academy,” which will be released with the book. The online academy will seek to teach some of the most important healing work I’ve done in my life to young readers. My hope is they can start applying some of these lessons sooner rather than later, as it took me 33 years to finally stand right side up!
The other thing I hope readers take away is that sometimes you are not just healing yourself, but healing something in your family lineage. There’s a quote that goes something like, “Pain just keeps moving from generation to generation until someone has the courage to heal it.” I love that quote because it really demonstrates the importance of doing the work and that nothing really just disappears, but has to be thoughtfully healed through living people to truly be released.
As such, part of what I tried to accomplish with this book is to facilitate healing around some of the generational traumas that have plagued my family for decades. I tried to give voice to those that have been silenced and tried to resolve some of the most painful experiences that happened in my family.
What’s your writing process like?
I’m an obsessive writer. What that means is I block off chunks of time to write and then write around the clock, obsessively until I feel it is “right.” I know it is “right” when I feel deep satisfaction and don’t feel nagged that something needs to change or is off. For example, I just finished writing half of my second book. It took me a week of writing for 12 hours a day to write the initial draft and then go over and edit it. I tried doing it little by little. Getting up in the morning and writing sections. I’ve found, however, that this works better for me. Once my creative channel is on and flowing, I can’t turn it off. Even when I go to sleep, ideas and thoughts about how to adjust the manuscript will keep coming. Now, I just schedule entire blocks of time to be in that creative space fully. Then when I’m out of that space, I can turn it off fully.
I’m lucky that my “day job” as a corporate trainer supports this. It’s gig based work, so I can set my own hours and accept or decline work based on my financial needs. I usually have at least two weeks open a month in my schedule that I can use for creative projects. Super grateful to have the time and space to work as I’d like.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
I’m actually currently reading Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the Sequel to Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. It came out in December 2019, but I still highly recommend!
