For this prompt, we will start with a brainstorming exercise.
Write down a list of questions someone might ask a character about their identity, culture, or heritage, such as the classic: “Where are you from? No, where are you really from?”
Spend 10 minutes brainstorming your list.
Next, choose questions from the list to develop a dialogue (or monologue) as part of a short story, personal reflection, or poem.
In your writing, consider, who is asking the questions and who is answering them? What emotions come through in the asking and the answering? What cultural and historical knowledge becomes part of the conversation, and what is unsaid?
This prompt is inspired by the Diane Burns’ poem (excerpted below):
Sure You Can Ask Me A Personal Question
by Diane Burns
How do you do?
No, I am not Chinese.
No, not Spanish.
No, I am American Indi—uh, Native American.
No, not from India.
No, not Apache
No, not Navajo.
No, not Sioux.
No, we are not extinct.
Yes, Indian.
Oh?
So that’s where you got those high
cheekbones.
Your great grandmother, huh?
An Indian Princess, huh?
Hair down to there?
Let me guess. Cherokee?
…. read the full poem here.