Mixed Roots

29 personal essays exploring mixed identity, belonging, family, racism, community and the paradoxical ways of being in the world

“An unprecedented ode to the wide range of mixed-root experiences and what is shared across difference. Required reading for anyone who has ever been asked what are you? I want everyone to read this.”
—Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood and The Dry Season


Multiracial people are everywhere—but so often their stories are oversimplified, overlooked, or left out of the narrative altogether. Mixed Roots: Writers on Multiracial Identity & Both/And Belonging collects 29 voices from different generations, geographies, and mixes of race and ethnicity. Combining powerful personal narratives with community-oriented perspectives, Mixed Roots explores themes of inherited belief systems, racism, whiteness, migration, language, trauma, ancestry, and healing.

When society so often wants to divide us into either/or categories, Mixed Roots reminds us that multiracial experiences are complex and can be told in different ways. This anthology engages with the familiar questions of “what are you?” or “where do you belong?” with nuance, dispelling the idea that there is ever one right way to identify. In a time of increased polarization, Mixed Roots invites more of us to examine the historical legacies and harm caused by racism within ourselves and our communities.

With compelling, intimate, lyrical and conversational prose, the voices in Mixed Roots honor the realities we’ve inherited around race, while pushing against old assumptions— encouraging readers to embrace paradox and non-binary belonging.

Anne Liu Kellor is a mixed-race Chinese American writer, editor, and teacher based in Seattle. Her memoir, Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging, was a 2021 IPPY Winner and Washington State Book Award finalist. Kellor's essays have appeared in publications such as Memoir Land, Longreads, New England Review, Fourth Genre, and YES! Magazine. She loves supporting other writers through her work as a facilitator of online creative nonfiction classes, workshops for multiracial people, and a yearlong nonfiction manuscript program for women and non-binary writers. You can learn more at: www.anneliukellor.com