I wanted to write a book that would be incredibly hard to put in the “antiracist” category insofar as I didn’t want this book to be received as something that can teach white people about Black life in hopes that white people can get better. But also I wrote the book for Black people. I wrote the book first and foremost for me, because it was the type of book I needed to write and I knew I could write, but I had to challenge myself to write. “Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle” by Danté Stewart. Why did you write this book, and what do you hope readers will take away from it? This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Stewart spoke with Religion News Service about “Shoutin’ in the Fire,” his experiences in white evangelicalism and how reading has shaped his faith and writing. “I’m going to literature, I’m going to art, I’m going to our bodies to see what type of revelation can be had in both of those,” he said. He shares his own experiences as a Black man leaving and returning to the Black church alongside the stories of Black men whose lives were cut short by police violence. Instead the author weaves together memoir and social and cultural criticism along with theology - stories about his family with stories from the Bible and Black literature.
His first book, “ Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle,” released this week, isn’t necessarily a Christian book, he said, though it’s published by Convergent Books, which publishes major Christian writers such as Jen Hatmaker and Philip Yancey. “I wanted to be in the tradition of Black writing, but also wanted to do it as a Christian,” Stewart said. RELATED: Wanna Get a Read on Somebody? Check Out Their Bookshelf (PODCAST) (RNS) - When people reel off the names of American Black writers such as Kiese Laymon and Jesmyn Ward and Deesha Philyaw, Danté Stewart hopes they’ll include his name, too.
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