Behind the Pages: Shannon Luders Manuel Reveals the Untold Inspirations Behind The One Who Loves You
Sometimes, the hardest stories to tell are the ones we live every day but haven’t quite figured out how to put into words. When I sat down with Shannon Luders-Manuel — debut author of The One Who Loves You: A Memoir of Growing Up Biracial in a Black and White World — I found myself wrestling with a question that I suspect many of us do in one form or another: How do you carve out a space to truly belong when the world insists on splitting everything into black or white? Shannon’s memoir wrestles with that very tension — her narrative not just about racial divides but the subtle, often invisible lines drawn within family, faith, and identity itself.
Raised by her white extended family yet drawn to the elusive presence of her Black father, Shannon moves through a landscape fraught with the challenges of acceptance, love, and self-definition. What struck me most—beyond the powerful prose—was how her story unspooled those labels affixed by others and instead showcased the messy, human reality of defining oneself amid contradiction. It’s a story where yearning and disconnection meet resilience and profound insight — a reminder that memoirs aren’t just about looking backward; they’re a bridge to understanding and empathy in our fragmented world. So, if you’ve ever felt like a round peg in a square hole — or wondered how identity molds itself amid silence and shattered narratives — this conversation will resonate deeply.
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Interviewed by Michèle Dawson Haber
It was a joy and an inspiration to talk with debut author Shannon Luders-Manuel about her memoir, The One Who Loves You: A Memoir of Growing Up Biracial in a Black and White World (Lawrence Hill Books, February 2025).
