On Election Day in 2008, my father was bedridden, his body ravaged by lung cancer. Luckily, I’d convinced him to vote early, and less than three weeks later, he was gone. Herman Hugh Johnson, a man who lived through the Great Depression, World War II, and Jim Crow, cast the last vote of his life for America’s first Black president.
I believe those of us whose ancestors have been denied the right to vote have a profound respect for its power. My debut novel, The Kindest Lie, opens with an election night watch party for Obama, and I tell the story of the promise and limits of hope during that era. As an author, I’ve struggled with how public to be about my own political activism. Who am I to speak out about politics? Will I alienate readers? What I’ve come to realize is that as a Black woman in America, my very existence is political. The stakes are too high for me to remain silent, so I’ll continue to use my voice as an author to encourage civic engagement and fight for freedom and justice.
That’s my story, but I wanted to hear from other authors. So, I asked them why they’ve chosen to be politically vocal and public about it. Here’s what they told me:
“I talk to my (social media) followers about the election as if we were sitting in a room having a conversation. I like to know what people are thinking, and I like to be heard.” – Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of We Cast A Shadow
“I am a writer. It is something I’ve always wanted to do. Always wanted to be. I want to sell books. Lots and lots of books. And spend my days thinking about the next book I want to write. But I am a mother. Of two Black sons. The wife of a Black man. The grandmother to a tiny Black girl. This country has never GIVEN us anything. We have had to demand it, take it, die for it. The last four years have shown just how fragile these gains are, how easily taken away. If I can’t breathe the air, drink the water, have access to health care, marry who I love, make my own reproductive choices, or even be assured that my sons will come home at night, then having a bestseller is pointless. I DO care about book sales and alienating readers, but not as much as I care about living in a safe, clean, moral country.” – Rita Woods, author of Remembrance
“I believe in a movement of the Left, one that can stop American fascism and apartheid dead in its tracks, one that can mitigate or even reverse the worst consequences of climate change, one that can benefit an entire intergenerational, multiracial working class. This is a movement that goes way beyond this election, so, in my experience talking to readers, people are hungry to ask questions, confront realities, and transcend mass amnesia and nationalism. It’s a great privilege as a writer to participate in those conversations. My great-grandfather, who founded a small farming village in Ecuador, was a political exile and a poet in hiding. He built a small, adobe one-room library and stocked it with French, Spanish, and Latin American writers. My grandfather, his son, was a farmer and helped organize a national farmers and truckers union. For years, I taught re-enrollment high school students in Chicago. My novel The Lost Book of Adana Moreau is about exile, liminal spaces, and desplazados (the displaced). It’s impossible for me to separate all this history and lived experience as a first-gen Latino from my work as a writer, so I’ve never given a second thought to alienating readers.” – Michael Zapata, author of The Lost Book of Adana Moreau
“When contemplating how to best steer A Mighty Blaze through the rapids of the upcoming election, cofounder Caroline Leavitt suggested the Blaze the Vote initiative, encouraging viewers to vote—and offering very cute merch! (We may be a bit biased, but who doesn’t want Blaze The Vote t-shirt, dog sweater or knee socks?) We at Blaze are well aware that this election is NOT business as usual; it is a choice about what kind of America we want to be, and we stand in solidarity with everyone who is politically anguished, active, and energized—and also viewers and readers who may feel scared and alone. You’re not. We’re here—a reading community that is also an American community welcoming all readers, all viewers, every ethnicity, age, gender. (And even literary preferences!)” – Jenna Blum (New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us) & Caroline Leavitt (New York Times bestselling author of With Or Without You), Cofounders, A Mighty Blaze
“Anyone following my author accounts could probably figure out my political leanings — I live in the Bay Area, am an immigrant, support Black Lives Matter, and champion diverse voices — but I was never explicit about it. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, I dipped my social media toe in the political waters. I posted about making donations to Senate candidates in five key states (but didn’t specify which party) and about writing letters to “get out the vote” (but didn’t say for whom). I’m not sure why I was being so coy. It’s not that I was afraid of alienating readers. I think it was probably a combination of trying to keep my social media presence positive and thinking that no one would care about my political views anyway. Recently, when a fellow author asked me to join other thriller writers to co-host a text-banking party with Field Team 6 — whose motto is Register Democrats, Save the World — I didn’t hesitate. So much is riding on this election. If I can sway even one person to text-bank with Field Team 6, register as Democrat, or vote Biden-Harris on election day, it’ll be worth it.” – A.H. Kim, author of A Good Family
“I’ve always been politically active, but I doubled down after Scott Walker became governor of Wisconsin and pushed through legislation to eliminate collective bargaining. At the time, I’d hear rumblings from friends who disapproved of political content on Facebook, but the issues at stake felt pressingly urgent to me, and I wondered where else we could even share dialogue with the political parties so entrenched in our state. Once Trump was elected, I noticed that my feed became much more political, and with much less resistance to the shift in tone. I thought about neutering politics from my social media after I signed a contract for my book. I didn’t want to offend potential readers and was thinking about myself as a public figure for the first time. But every day I woke (and wake) to a fresh new hell, and it seemed more important than ever to leverage some of these platforms to share information about injustice and policies that affect our lives… and honestly, posting is also a form of venting. Jane Smiley said that when we fall in love with a book, we’re really falling in love with the way that a writer thinks. My politics is part of my thinking.” – Christina Clancy, author of The Second Home
“My father, a poet, was a revolutionary who escaped Hungary following the failed 1956 revolution. His mother was a novelist who wrote sometimes in hiding, sometimes not, often thinly veiling her political commentary in her fiction. She wrote two books that were smuggled out of the country and only published after her death. This is all to say that I have ZERO compunctions about being political as a writer. I just can’t get too worked up about alienating a few readers (who, spoiler, were probably not going to love my 400-page novel about AIDS anyway) when I remember what real political courage looks like. What I’m doing is easy. If it gets harder, I hope I’m up for it.” – Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers
My fervent hope is that we’re all up for it not just during election season, but every day. Thank you to these phenomenal authors and engaged citizens for their honesty, courage, and passion.
Please share why you vote, why you get involved politically, and why you’re encouraging others to make their voices count!
About Nancy Johnson
Nancy Johnson (she/her) is the debut author of THE KINDEST LIE, forthcoming February 2 from William Morrow/HarperCollins. Her novel has been named a most anticipated book of 2021 by Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, Refinery29, Woman's Day, and PopSugar. A graduate of Northwestern University and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Nancy lives in downtown Chicago. Find her online at https://nancyjohnson.net/.
I have voted regularly since I became of voting age in 1960. There are many reasons but mostly voting is the way our democracy works and every citizen is responsible to do their share. Yes, we are well aware that aside from the vote, politicians don’t care about us and regularly ignore us favoring big money donations and big business. But that’s not an excuse not to vote.
I have only been active in one campaign in my life and generally don’t contribute to any candidate or party on the basis of 1) I can’t afford it and 2) I don’t want to be wrong or criticized for my choices.
I consider myself an independent issues voter but sadly issues don’t seem to matter anymore. Nowadays it’s all about the money, the horse race, and party and candidate loyalty or popularity. Elections are more akin, these days, to a sports entertainment event with their overzealous team and player loyalty. Issues be damned.
In my debut novella The Implant I made the antagonist an oligarch who ran for president but I made no mention of any political party.
Thanks for this post.
It’s so important for us to have this conversation, so thank you for opening it for us here, Nancy.
I’ve found myself moving step-by-step over the past six months, struggling with the relationship between my writer-self and my person-self. At first, I took the position that I didn’t want to join the “cancel culture” or require readers of my books to share my political views. In part, it was obviously an anxiety-hope-need to sell books; it’s awfully hard for a debut author to gain a foothold, and risky to reject readers who see life differently than I do. I was very careful and posted nothing remotely “political” on social media.
But that’s changed. I guess you could say that I changed.
Because it’s not simply a difference of opinion about economics or trade or budget allocations. It’s a matter of our decency, our humanity, and the future of our planet.
A recent incident on Facebook showed that to me so clearly. The administrator of one of those reader groups that I count on for “author events” posted something on her personal page that I found highly offensive. I asked, to make sure I was interpreting it correctly, and I was. So I told her that we needed to part company but I wished the best to her and her loved ones. Then I unfriended her and withdrew from her group.
A small gesture, perhaps, but it was the moment when I took a stand. If you think that what Trump espouses is just fine, then please don’t buy my book and don’t review it on Amazon.
There can be no gap between who I am as a writer and who I am as a human being. Period.
I just realized that I didn’t answer the question about why I vote and why I urge others to. Well, I guess I needed to get that story out there, about taking that step. We declare our identities in many ways, small and large. They all matter.
I vote because it’s a way to raise my voice. To say what I stand for and what kind of country I want to live in. For the first time in my life, I believe we are really moving toward living up to the words engraved beneath the Statue of Liberty. I know all evidence points daily to the contrary, but I believe an old entrenched paradigm is experiencing its death throes, and a new one struggling through a dark place into the light. People who don’t vote make me angry. I harp. I lecture. I nag. I write and talk. But mostly, I’ve been trying to listen. As a white cis-gender American-born adult, there are many veils still over my eyes. Thank you, Nancy.
Oof, Rita’s words here resonate with my every cell:
Right on.
Something Christina said here has made me think, too. She wrote:
Reminded me of Stephen Covey’s 4 quadrant approach to setting priorities. What we’ve endured as a country over the last 4 years feels pressingly urgent to me, too, and critically important. The urgent-important quadrant is the one we must attend to. Book selling, even book creation, likely falls into the non-urgent-important quadrant for most writers (short of a pressing and contracted deadline). For me, those quadrants duked it out, and a choice was made; it wasn’t even close.
I found my voice for politics during the last election cycle, and never shut it down. I’ve tried to stay awake to as much as I can. I’ve tried to pass along those things that strike an urgent-important bell for me, in order to alert others, too — a small but real way to fight against the ‘frogs in the boiling water’ phenom. It’s a thing we can do for ourselves and others in a sea of things we can’t. #TeamEmpowerment
There are those who would say a single voice makes no difference. I don’t believe that. Every voice contributes to the wind of our time, and it’s that wind that gets us out of this mess or pushes us right over the edge. Every vote, too.
I have no regrets.
VOTE, my friends.
I vote because I was raised to understand it is about community and civic responsibility. My parents believed so strongly in the privacy of the ballot that I never knew how they voted ubntil 2008, long after my father was gone, my mom told me who she was voting for. Not directly, but by repeating a story.: She lived in an AZ retirement community at the time and at breakfast one morning, the women at her table began discussing the election. One asked my mom if she was voting for McCain. My mom told me she had never before told anyone who she’d voted for but she couldn’t let it stand unanswered, not when it was so important. She said that she felt proud when she said, “No, Obama.”
Likewise, Mom, likewise.
I loved reading these political-origin backstories! Thank you for sharing them.
I’ve been self-publishing for 9 years, which gives me the freedom to publish whatever I like. And from the beginning, my books were political. The first, published in 2011, well before the Trump Era, was SF mutants being put in concentration camps! I didn’t shy away from saying that was possible, in America, and ordinary people supported it as well.
But I wasn’t outspoken on social media then–mostly because I didn’t see the need to. That changed with the 2016 election. I’ve been tremendously outspoken, marching, protesting, donating, actively working campaigns, PUBLICALLY doing all of that, because I know the power of leading by example. Plus I was on a journey of my own political awakening. For too long, I had the privilege of being unaware of many of the problems in my country. The last four years have been one long education about what’s broken, where justice is failing, and what needs to happen to create a future for my children and grandchildren that isn’t filled with tyranny and literally on fire.
I’ve had so many people comment about how my overt activism has inspired them to register, march, or campaign for the first time. I have zero regrets about any of that.
Then, as I became more educated, my books became even more political. And more diverse. And lately, more intentionally constructing a future world where readers can explicitly see how compassion and science are transformative. Especially in this pandemic, the racial protests, the political strife–writing hopepunk has been a lifeline for me. And it’s resonating with readers as well.
As artists, we reflect our world… but we also shape it. I’ve never held that duty more solemnly than I do right now.
Oh, one more thing: I recently had a Black female author come to me, privately, and ask how I could succeed as a female SF writer while embracing my activism so openly. She wanted to do the same, but was concerned. We had a candid conversation about the industry, the biases that were there among readers, and what to do about that. More importantly, her taking the step to be that open with me gave me a chance to help her get some direction for her writing and her career. I have a group, Indies Together, explicitly formed to help writers boost their businesses during the pandemic, since so many have that as a side gig that might make all the difference as their primary jobs are lost or threatened.
Part of being open about activism is that people know they’re safe with me. And since we’re all in this together, having that as a starting point really can’t be overstated.
I hope I don’t offend anyone with my comments. I’ve voted in every presidential election since I was old enough to vote (1968). I may have missed one or two local elections, but I take my citizenship responsibility seriously.
As I’ve listened to arguments in this highly polarized season, I think I understand the reasoning of people on both sides. Sincere people can draw different conclusions based on their own life experiences and understanding of history. That doesn’t make them bad.
In fact, disagreement can help us refine our own thinking and produce a better result. When I managed software development teams, I encouraged respectful argument in deciding how to proceed with a design. That resulted in the best products. I often used the example of the Wright brothers. Orville and Wilbur argued constantly about aspects of flight. But they were brothers, devoted to each other, and never took their arguments personally. Look at what they did!
In the end, I’m grateful to live in a country where I have the right to speak and to vote.
Hi Nancy,
I love the quotes you collected!
I grew up in a family that talked about politics constantly. So did the friends, relatives, and neighbors who frequently visited us.
Because I spent so much time listening to adults discussing political issues and critiquing political figures, it made me political from an early age.
I was also fortunate to have several teachers in junior high and high school who were politically active and willing to speak about politics as a part of our class lessons.
Some were civics or history teachers, while others were English or math teachers. Regardless of their specialty, all discussed political issues in ways that were relevant to the subjects or materials we studied.
None of my teachers tried to sway the students’ political views. They just wanted us to be engaged. And they wanted us to be able to articulate why we supported one candidate or position over another.
After I came out, being politically active was even more important. My wife and I spent the first decade of our relationship as legal strangers, constantly worried that one car accident or illness could leave us at the mercy of intolerant judges or relatives.
We had to marry in Canada to acquire a smidgen of legal protection. And that still wasn’t fully recognized in the U.S. until 2015, twenty-two years after we first made a commitment to one another.
America’s structures and systems aren’t perfect, as 2020 has demonstrated in alarming ways. But unless we speak out and participate, we cannot retool them or build something better.
Nancy, this is a great article. Your story about your dad’s last vote is so powerful. It makes the resurgence of virulent racism, led by the current president, all the more difficult to bear. And thanks for gathering such inspiring words from these writers!
I vote because I have lived in countries where the election process was entirely corrupt, and citizens had no real say in who their political leaders would be. (Those corrupt governments were often propped up by the US, but that’s another story.) Some people in the US complain that voting doesn’t really matter, but we actually do have genuine choices to make, at all levels of government. In this country, voting continues to make a real difference in people’s lives, for better and for worse. Never has that been more apparent than today. Literally today—Election Day! Of course, voting isn’t enough. Whatever the results are from today’s elections, the newly energized groups promoting racist, sexist, and xenophobic agendas won’t simply fade away. But voting is an essential step toward the changes we need.
Thanks for your article!
I’ve said enough today, and now I’m reading and absorbing what you all have to say. So much rich backstory and insight. Thank you for lifting your voices, for sharing your truth. Keep it coming! And please vote! :)
My voting life, started when I, born in California, moved back to the States from Mexico where I grew up to finish college, and voted. I was 19. The year was 1969.
One of the pleasures of a long life in voting has been to cast my ballot for America’s first Black president, and to see him get elected and reelected.
I thought a man with a white mother and a Black father, who grew up Black, and was a distinguished Senator, would have united the country. Instead, it seems to have driven a segment of our fellow Americans to the current state. It was not him – it IS them.
Until the last four years, I had never been ashamed to be American. I mourn those who have died because we didn’t have a grownup I respect at the helm.
And it gives me infinite pleasure to see Kamala Harris on the ticket.
Love this, Nancy. Just what I needed–thanks.
Nancy,
I approach this completely differently. We’re citizens of a democracy.
Some Writers have anxiety over whether they’re really writers. Yet, they write, some of them well. Probably the only ones I read have somehow managed to overcome obscurity enough for their books to cross my path. No matter how badly written, Dan Brown’s famous books are ones I’ve bought, read, and enjoyed. (The character looks in the mirror and the author declares he’s handsome? REALLY? Yet the rest of the time the character isn’t narcissistic. Gheesh.)
While I don’t think I’ve read your books, I read your blog. You’re a real writer. So is Dan Brown: both of you write, publish, sell. (We can only hope to sell as well as Dan Brown!)
People avoid conversation with strangers about politics and religion. This is a CONVENTION, because so often such conversations go south. It’s polite to avoid the pair.
Who the hell says writing is supposed to be polite? Some of us write to be HEARD. We’re going to talk about politics AND religion in our books. Yes, we’re going to offend. Some people who have bought our books are going to take offense, vote with their feet, and not buy us again. (And others will take offense, and keep buying.)
You’re a citizen. Our democracy is under attack from within. Racism is something we all should oppose. My religion (I’m not one of the members of the big three, Christianity, Islam, or Judaism) opposes slavery, injustice, racism. Both your writing and your blog, as a citizen, can be rude and discuss these things. But you’re being rude, breaking the social convention against speaking about religion and politics, BECAUSE YOU’RE A CITIZEN and you are free. It’s a choice. Polite speech is a convention, not some sanctified rule. You’re talking to friends (you’re also talking to strangers who you hope may become friends).
Talk politics all you want. My religion is against racism (in general; individuals justify all sorts of things that ought to be against their religions, but somehow are exceptions in their view.
We’re still friends, and you’ve earned the privilege. We’ll stay friends, I can assure you. Not everyone will, however, feel the same; they’re free to disagree both with your politics and with your speaking out. This may cost you sales. It might also win you more friends and help you sell; Mark Twain found it helped.
-tc
Nancy, I salute your beloved father for his vote. He is resting in peace. And I salute you for this article—one of the best ever, with your guests and our comments among the best ever.
I vote because I was brought up to know that it is an important civic responsibility, although oddly enough, my family was not much inclined to discuss politics, so I was woefully uninformed. I don’t believe my parents even discussed their votes with each other. That changed for me when my husband introduced me to political discussions and analysis, and I became fascinated to the point of becoming a political news junkie (word accurately chosen), possibly too much so for my own mental health. The past four years have been agonizing; this election season even more so if that were possible.
Just a day or so ago, PBS interviewed a few people about why they were not voting this year. All their reasons seemed flimsy to me, but the one that sticks with me was that the speaker didn’t think either candidate aligned with her own values. I wanted to shake her. Why must a candidate be like her? Such a narrow focus! Why did she not look ahead and envision the future with first one candidate as president and then the other, and wake up to her responsibility? Whatever happened to setting aside one’s personal preferences, widening our focus, and voting on the basis of the greater good for our country? That would be an expression of real citizenship.
Whatever the outcome, we are in for more sadness and disruption (I’m trying to use mild language here) but, I hope, hope.
Nancy, good stuff. I vote because I’m cranky. I’m cranky at the ham-handed efforts at voter suppression (good god, again?), the saliva-spewing railing at women, minorities, immigrants, veterans, LGBTQ folks, the disabled, left-handed acrobats—just wait, you left-handed acrobats, he will rail.
But mostly, I’m cranky because of the indecency, the moral hollowness of this administration, the capitulation to transactional politics, the ersatz pandering to religion.
The vacuum. We need air. Thanks for your thoughts.
I vote not just for the best hope for democracy, impartial justice, real equality, women’s rights, international regard, our planet and so much more.
I vote for my children, who cannot. They will live tomorrow in the world we make today.
Nancy, I am late posting, because today was a beautiful day in Chicago and my husband and I took a long walk. We had voted by mail, putting our ballots in a drop box at the Beverly Arts Center over a week ago. We had waved and smiled at all the folks standing in line to vote. Now it is prayers and waiting. I too have voted in every election since I was eligible. I have always voted Democratic. But the most exciting vote I ever made was for POTUS OBAMA. Both times. Two things that stood out for me in those amazing days: Iowa, where I was living at the time, helped Barack to the presidency when he won the Iowa Caucus. Later I got to shake his hand during an Iowa meet and greet. But when you speak about your father, I will always remember that when Barack Obama was elected, his grandmother had died, just a few days before. Oh, I believe she knew he won, but the situation haunted me, as she so deserved to know of his victory. Your father knows of all that you have achieved.
When I look at the areas of the world who CAN’T vote, and I think of the sacrifices our military has made so we CAN have the freedom to vote, being lazy at election time really isn’t ever an option. No matter who you vote for, you must vote. Besides, as my mama always said, “if you don’t vote, you can’t bitch about who you get.”
(We’re writers, we love to bitch. Ergo, we love to vote. )
Sometimes, I just get confused. It seems like there is some strange double standard when a person is a liberal. Liberal Dems tear down historical statues and rewrite books removing “offensive words” from stories that were written during a different time. Why complete obliteration of the past? Why as a nation are we unable to learn from these texts? Why is everyone so easily offended? Why is it okay for musicians to use “offensive words” but a long dead author’s work which shows us a snapshot of the past considered inflammatory? As a writer would you find it acceptable if 40 or 50 years from now liberals (or any group for that matter) thought the text of your book needed to be changed because the current political climate is in opposition to your word choice? This country has an ugly and painful history. We should be learning from it not trying to erase it. There are so many talented writers. Please be the one that writes truth as you see it. Use the scary and controversial words. Show people a snapshot of life as it is now. And hopefully in 40 or 50 years “a fervent group of change activists” will not try to sanitize your story.