Writer, editor and sensitivity reader Shannon Luders-Manuel will be the next featured guest in SUNY Oswego’s Living Writers Series, appearing virtually at 3 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27.
Her event via Zoom will include a reading, Q&A and conversation. It is free and open to both the campus and broader community.
Luders-Manuel is the author of “The One Who Loves You: A Memoir of Growing Up Biracial in a Black and White World,” published in February 2025 by Lawrence Hill Books, an imprint of Chicago Review Press.
In her work and life, Luders-Manuel explores the complexities of identity, with a particular focus on race and the lived experience of being mixed race. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, and JSTOR Daily, among others.
“This tender, yearning debut gives us complexity and heart in equal measure,” wrote bestselling author Alia Volz about “The One Who Loves You.” “It speaks to anyone who has ever fallen through the cracks of a school system, a family, or a life.”
“I’m so excited Shannon will be joining us,” said Living Writers Series organizer Sari Fordham. “It’s incredibly tricky to recreate the childhood self for the reader. Shannon does so with wisdom and tenderness. She shows us how to write hard moments and how to balance the tension between who you were then and who you are now. Her perspective on home is complex and essential. We’re lucky to have her Zoom in from California.”
Luders-Manuel’s appearance ties into this fall’s Living Writers Series theme: Home.
“‘The One Who Loves You’ is a coming-of-age memoir about the search for home for a young girl who doesn't fit into the binary of Black or white or the permanency of a steady family unit,” Luders-Manuel said. “The book explores both the unique experience of growing up mixed race and the universality of looking for a place to belong. The quest for an elusive idea of home propelled me throughout my childhood into the space of religion, friendship, and relationships. Ultimately, I'm asking readers if finding home is the lighthouse beacon we need for safety and happiness—or is it something already shining inside us?”
Living Writers Series events are made possible by ARTSwego and the Student Arts Fee, with additional support from campus partners.
For the Zoom link and more information, visit the SUNY Oswego events calendar.
— Submitted by the Living Writers Series