A powerful and provocative collection of essays that offers poignant reflections on living between society’s most charged, politicized, and intractably polar spaces—between black and white, rich and poor, thin and fat.

Savala Nolan knows what it means to live in the in-between. Descended from a Black and Mexican father and a white mother, Nolan’s mixed-race identity is obvious, for better and worse. At her mother’s encouragement, she began her first diet at the age of three and has been both fat and painfully thin throughout her life. She has experienced both the discomfort of generational poverty and the ease of wealth and privilege.

It is these liminal spaces—of race, class, and body type—that the essays in Don’t Let It Get You Down excavate, presenting a clear and nuanced understanding of our society’s most intractable points of tension. The twelve essays that comprise this collection are rich with unforgettable anecdotes and are as humorous and as full of Nolan’s appetites as they are of anxieties.

Over and over again, Nolan reminds us that our true identities are often most authentically lived not in the black and white, but in the grey of the in-between.

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Review: Don’t Let It Get You Down
‘This fierce and intelligent book is important not just for how it celebrates hard-won pride in one’s identity, but also for how Nolan articulates the complicated—and too often overlooked—nature of personal and cultural in-betweenness.’
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/savala-nolan/dont-let-it-get-you-down/

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‘Nolan’s writing on identity and self-worth is captivating from start to finish; her words will resonate long after the last page.’

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‘Like the 12 essays in Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body, Savala Nolan is powerful and complex.’

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Review: Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body
‘…the mix of cultural criticism and thoughtful personal writing will be just right for fans of Roxane Gay.’
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-982137-26-7

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Review: Don’t Let it Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body by Savala Nolan

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Savala Nolan Is Finally Being Heard Loud and Clear

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Twelve revelatory essays probe with unflinching honesty what it means to be black

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Savala Nolan Takes a Hard Look at the White Gaze and Its Blind Spots

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24 of the best new book releases in June

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‘Please don’t call me strong’: notes on race, gender and the body – an extract

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Savala Nolan: Don't Let It Get You Down review - finding voice in the liminal