Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary audiobook

There is so much wrapped up in the soul of Kathleen Collins. I love how unafraid she was. She’s unafraid of passion, sex, love, healing, etc. I love how much she rests in her own honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable to read. She worked through so much of her thoughts and inner world through her writing. Touching on her role as a mother, a human being, a woman outside of motherhood, and a protector of her children — she goes deep on it all. Best of which is explored through her letters. Compiled by her daughter, Kathleen Collins’ letters were the most insightful and my favourite part of this book. I feel like it spoke to the heart of her interactions and the truths she wished to share with others. The opening by Danielle Evans, writer of The Office of Historical Corrections, reflects just how skilled Kathleen Collins is at reflecting human interiority. The format of this book made it challenging to read to me, but the Screenplays towards the end are better experienced. I went and watched Losing Ground and it was amazing.

The three short stories and novel fragments were a strong start, I enjoyed how frank they were, how unapologetic. The letters and diary/memoir were also interesting. It was the plays and screenplays where my interest waned because of the stage directions, they distracted me from the text when read aloud. This isn't a solid 5/5 like her short story collection Whatever Happened to Interracial Love but for those who want more Kathleen Collins it's worth a read.

This book was very disjointed to me. I don’t know if that’s because I listened on audio, or if it truly is that disjointed. However, it has many truly remarkable moments! I would recommend reading it instead of listening.

Stunning. I got this book for research and ended up devouring the works and life of this forgotten writer. Later, I read her resume and found even more incredible accomplishments than ever mentioned. They inform her writing in quality only. Collins writes with poetic and true emotion about her relationships - from her own mother to her lovers and husbands and daughter - in her diaries, rarely touching on her work. Yet her work, from poems, to plays and screenplays - produced, real events, are infused with her intellect. I wish I'd known sho she was when I was young and she was still alive, but I am grateful to be aware of her work now. Many thanks to her daughter, an intellectual in her own right, for bringing this out into the world.

I want to preface this to say that this had some great stories in it and the letters were really interesting.  It is a collected works so it's a little bit of everything. It has letters that she wrote, short stories, and also screen plays. I loved the letters and stories. I can't really say with the screen plays because I couldn't get lost in them. That means nothing about the quality of the work, they all seemed interesting. I just couldn't enjoy the format. But if you enjoy reading screen plays then you should pick up this collection for sure.

Another fantastic collection of Collins work. It's a bit uneven, compared to Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?, but there's still so much good stuff in here. Especially the novel excerpt and the screenplays.

4 ⭐️’s For the short stories, letters, unfinished novel and diary entries. I just couldn’t get through the plays and screenplays, because I hate reading them. I wish it had had more of the material I enjoyed!

Some very strong, compelling writing, particularly the short stories. Every word counted. And I enjoyed the short plays but my interest lagged during the longer screen play.

This was a beautiful collection and left me aching for more- more words, more screenplays, more complex characters, more of Kathleen Collins

Wish there were more diary entries and letters to her daughter. I got kind of lost during the anthology of screenplays, but loved reading the screenplay for Losing Ground. Beautiful how short a script can be, but how nuanced and well-paced the movie was.

I listened to this title and the first part was beautiful. The poetry read like a song and had a beautiful flow to it that had me listening to it twice. The first time I immediately was swept away in the flow and loved listening to the art it was as a symphony of words, but the second time I took the time to listen to the message and appreciate the passion behind the words.Notes from a Black Woman's Diary seemed to start off at the peak of Mt Everest and it slowly went down after the first few song. The narrator is superb though and even as I was growing disinterested in the subject matter, she had a rich, rhythmic voice and beautiful, powerful singing voice that was perfect for this book and had me finishing it.The part that lost me was it slowly became more technical as it matured into her showcasing her screenplays and started pointing out lighting and camera angles. I started focusing more on all the intricate details of her setting the scene than the scene itself.3.5