Behind the Pages: Shannon Luders Manuel Reveals the Untold Inspirations Behind The One Who Loves You
SLM: The publisher came up with the subtitle, though I did have a variation of it. I think it points to both my external world and my family. As a child, my world was mostly my family, because that’s who I spent most of my time with outside of school, and then as I got older, my world broadened to encapsulate my friends, strangers and going out and experiencing more of life. I had my black family and my white family, and I talk about the black side of town and the white side of town. It also subtly references black-and-white thinking, which ironically can’t accept the nuance of interracial relationships or people. So, sort of a round peg me trying to fit into a square peg America.
