Minda Honey On Being ‘Shameless’ in Telling Your Story

About this episode

Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon sit down with Minda Honey to discuss her recently published memoir, The Heartbreak Years, and the role that Honey’s own experiences, and the stories told to her by family, have had on shaping her work.  With her debut, Honey — who also edits Black Joy at Reckon — was praised for her ability to linger in the body and the desires of a Black woman while also seamlessly moving through not just place, but time. As Kiese Laymon says, “I actually thought what Minda was doing was like a new kind of travel writing. And so I was just so excited when everybody got to read it.” Reading List: Authors, Stories, and Books Mentioned The Heartbreak Years (Minda Honey) “The Reality of Dating All Men When You’re Black” (Minda Honey, Gawker 2014) “Woman of Color in Wide Open Spaces” (Minda Honey, Longreads 2017) Black Joy at Reckon Cheryl Strayed's Dear Sugar Sari Botton Sweet Valley High Series (Francine Pascal) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred D. Taylor) Milk Blood Heat (Dantiel Moniz) “On Being Black in Kentucky and Charles Booker’s Historic Run for Senate” (Minda Honey, Salon 2020) Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghost (Crystal Wilkinson) Their E