Disorientation

Being Black in The World

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Pub Date 30 Nov 2021 | Archive Date 30 Nov 2021
Europa Editions | Europa Compass

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Description

A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF 2021

Bestselling Scotiabank Giller Award-winning writer Ian Williams brings a fresh point of view and new insights to the urgent conversation on race and racism in these illuminating essays born from his own experience as a Black man in the world.

With that one eloquent word, disorientation, Ian Williams captures the impact of racial encounters on racialized people—the whiplash of race that occurs while minding one's own business. Sometimes the consequences are only irritating, but sometimes they are deadly. Spurred by the police killings and street protests of 2020, Williams offers a perspective that is distinct from that of U.S. writers addressing similar themes. Williams has lived in Trinidad (where he was never the only Black person in the room), in Canada (where he often was), and in the United States (where as a Black man from the Caribbean, he was a different kind of "only"). He brings these formative experiences fruitfully to bear on his theme in Disorientation.

Inspired by the essays of James Baldwin, in which the personal becomes the gateway to larger ideas, Williams explores such matters as the unmistakable moment when a child realizes they are Black; the ten characteristics of institutional whiteness; how friendship forms a bulwark against being a target of racism; the meaning and uses of a Black person's smile; and blame culture—or how do we make meaningful change when no one feels responsible for the systemic structures of the past.

Disorientation is a book for all readers who believe that civil conversation on even the most charged subjects is possible. Employing his vast and astonishing gift for language, Ian Williams gives readers an open, honest, and personal perspective on an undeniably important subject.

Disorientation is so honest, vulnerable, courageous and funny that it left me dying to sit down over a long coffee with Ian Williams. Make that two lattes, and I’m buying!”—Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes

A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF 2021

Bestselling Scotiabank Giller Award-winning writer Ian Williams brings a fresh point of view and new insights to the urgent conversation on race and racism in these...


Advance Praise

A CBC, Toronto Star, and Quill & Quire Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2021

Disorientation is so honest, vulnerable, courageous and funny that it left me dying to sit down over a long coffee with Ian Williams.”—Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes

“Williams extrapolates universal insight into the experience of living under white supremacy.”—Quill & Quire, a Fall 2021 Most Anticipated Book

“[Opens] up conversations we should all be having.”—Toronto Star

Praise for Ian Williams’s Reproduction

 “William’s imaginative, intricate tapestries are dazzling.“ ―The New York Times Book Review

“The startling brilliance of Ian Williams stems from his restlessness with form [and] his ceaseless creativity.” ―David Chariandy

“A brilliant modernist symphony, a truly unique blend of character, voice, sound, and style.”―Marion Abbott, Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore

“Williams brings a thrilling linguistic verve to this already-gripping story."―Danny Caine, Raven Bookstore

A CBC, Toronto Star, and Quill & Quire Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2021

Disorientation is so honest, vulnerable, courageous and funny that it left me dying to sit down over a long coffee with Ian...


Marketing Plan

Marketing & Publicity

Bookseller & Librarian Marketing

- Print- and E-galleys available through Edelweiss and Netgalley

- Off-the-book-page features in current affairs, politics, general culture and society pages

- Ian Williams available for TV, radio interviews and author events

- Digital/social pre-order campaign 

- Target Audience Marketing

- Author events with high-profile US writers, in partnership with bookstores

- Targeted consumer online advertising (e.g. The Atlantic, Harper’s, etc.)

- Author videos and book trailer available

Publicity

- National and Regional review coverage

- Targeted NPR publicity campaign

- Targeted off-book-page coverage in general interest magazines

- Excerpt in Granta https://granta.com/disorientation/

- Excerpts to run in US publications t.k.

Marketing & Publicity

Bookseller & Librarian Marketing

- Print- and E-galleys available through Edelweiss and Netgalley

- Off-the-book-page features in current affairs, politics, general culture and...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781609457396
PRICE $19.95 (USD)
PAGES 224

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