Debra Dickerson: "Best African-American Essays"

Debra Dickerson, contributing editor at Mother Jones magazine and author of End of Blackness, appeared with Imus this morning to promote her latest effort, a compilation called Best African-American Essays. Dickerson served as guest editor for the collection, published by Bantam, which features acclaimed writers like James McBride, Emily Bernard, and Malcolm Gladwell.

Imus asked Dickerson how she and fellow editor Gerald Early decided which pieces to include. She said it was a bit like "choosing between your kids," but ultimately they focused on including voices from across the Black spectrum.

"One of the things I'm proudest of is including a section on the Diaspora," she said, adding that they were not looking to do a protest collection. "It wasn't going to be, 'Oh, here's what white people are doing to us today'...We weren't looking for articles about "the man," we were looking for articles about life."

Dickerson, who also teaches journalism at SUNY Albany, admitted to loving non-fiction because "the absurdity of life and the world can only be best captured in non-fiction." She expressed her and Early's desire to bring new voices into the mix as well.

"It used to be hard to break into the business because the goals were so high," she said about writing. "Now it's hard because there's a cacophony of voices out there, many of them unworthy; see: the Internet."

Essays had to have been previously published somewhere, either in hard copy or online, for inclusion in the book. One particular story, Stop Trying to Save Africa, by Uzodinma Iweala, caught Imus's attention, and Dickerson said it was an example of the Diaspora section.

"You know, black people-we think we're experts, but we're only experts on American blackness and slave-descended American blackness," she said. "So people who come here from Guyana or Jamaica, their stories aren't being told. I'm very proud that we made a place for them to speak back."

Dickerson pointed out that while the authors did not have to be black, the subject matter had to include something related to blackness. One particularly notable black writer is President-Elect Barack Obama, who has written two books.

"Hes a very, very good writer and he could very easily make a living at this," said Dickerson. "We made a point of including one of his speeches, and the difficulty there was, which one do you choose when someone is as beautiful an orator and writer and thinker, as he is."

"There's a pretty big deal-a huge deal-coming up a week from today," Imus said about Obama's upcoming inauguration.

Dickerson sighed, and said, "I'm going to watch it on television and keep my mother on the phone, and just let it wash over me. I can't wait to hear what [Obama] is going to say. It's probably going to be beautiful."

-Julie Kanfer