Jennifer De Leon Dissects 'White Space' Through Essays on Culture, Race and Writing

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KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

In her book of essays, “White Space,” writer Jennifer De Leon explores how she became a writer — a journey inextricably linked to her parents’ migration from Guatemala to the United States. Throughout her life, De Leon carved a place for herself in spaces that felt unfamiliar: in the private college where she didn’t feel wealthy or white enough; in Guatemala where she immersed herself in a culture and language locals expected her to already know. This is De Leon’s second book release during the pandemic — her young adult novel, “Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From,” came out last May. De Leon joins to talk about her Central American roots, her parents’ reservations about her career and writing in mostly white spaces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:42.3	From KQED. Welcome back to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Joining me now is writer Jennifer DeLeon, who has published a collection of personal essays that explore her path to becoming a writer,
0:55.6	a journey tied to her parents' migration from Central America to the U.S. before she was born.
1:00.8	It's titled White Space, and it's De Leon's second book.
1:04.1	Her Young Adult Novel, Don't Ask Me Where I'm From, came out last May.
1:08.7	Jen Deleone, thanks so much for joining us.
1:12.6	Thank you so much for having me. This book is about you, this collection of personal essays.
1:17.6	It's basically broken up into three parts before you went to Guatemala, your time in Guatemala,
1:24.6	and your life after Guatemala.
1:30.8	And the title is White Space.
1:33.7	Can you talk about what that title means?
1:39.8	Yes, the title White Space has a double meaning. It refers to the white space on the page that I have always yearned to fill and struggled to fill as an emerging writer of color and now as an author.
1:53.5	And it also refers to the many white spaces that I have filled throughout my life.
1:59.7	You know, I went to school in a, I went to school in a predominantly
2:02.7	white town and my college was also predominantly white and affluent graduate school was the same
2:10.3	and so on and so forth. And now I am a professor. And although the environment is getting better,
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