Stay in your lane?
Writers are increasingly told to stay in the lane of their expertise or imagined racial group. WritersMosaic interrogates this notion by asking nine writers how they attempt to think beyond the parameters of their cultural identity, or to address why they might find it problematic. In doing so, they reflect on the limits of empathy and the risks and rewards of straying from your lane.
Download WritersMosaic Quarterly 06 as published in The Bookseller September 2026
Edited by: Colin Grant
Listen nowSpotify | Apple | YouTube
Editorial
Colin Grant
"[To] 'think black', i.e. to try to put himself in the shoes of a black writer when he writes."
Nine writers interrogate the received wisdom of staying in their lane by questioning how they attempt to think beyond the parameters of their cultural identity.
The prescience of Staying Power: in praise of Peter Fryer
Colin Grant
"Fryer stepped into a vacuum and made an effort to write about the complexity of black British life."
What can be learned from Peter Fryer's Staying Power about 'thinking black' without necessarily being black?
Reading for Carnival
Magnus McDowall
"To write and live blind to perspectives beyond your own is to write and live thoughtlessly."
Thinking through a lens of a different colour in a different space.
Beyond Baldwin
Taíno Mendez
"They did not wait for politicians to tell them how to live together; they found common ground, and changed the face of Britain."
The comforting boredom of being bound to your lane.
Scuffing the lines
Naomi Foyle
"‘Stay in your lane’ conjures a blatantly rigged contest: while some lanes are studded with prizes, others are potholed, end at brick walls, lead off cliffs or to prison."
Staying in your lane: protecting marginalised voices or fuelling polarisation?
Cul-de-sacs of the mind
Chitra Ramaswamy
"Straight white male writers wrote with zero explanation; there were no lanes for them. [...] I made the conscious decision to seize some of that freedom for myself."
Fluid lanes built by the avenues of enquiry we have travelled and the cul-de-sacs in our minds that have formed.
Thinking white
Will Harris
"Racialised thinking is fuelled by a sense of threat. It wants things to be clear and separate."
Challenging the all-pervasive, internalised voice of whiteness in order to 'think black'.
On finding kinship in difference
Amy Abdelnoor
"If I could just bring you here for a week or a day, you would understand."
Imagination and empathy as key to understanding each other through the written word.
A matter of survival
Maggie Gee
"Novelists creating characters are bursting out of the cage of selfhood."
The need to be free to write without constraints.
Not another poem about my father
Hannah Lowe
"Where is the real man, and how might he have represented himself had he had the chance to speak publicly of his experience?"
The consequences of representing the voices of others through your work.