We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rae Scott a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rae, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My current work in progress is a historical fiction novel set in the Baltimore neighborhood where my family lived for generations. Sincerely, Baltimore (working title) is inspired by my family’s story and the generational impact of the social, political, and temporal changes in Baltimore caused by the housing crisis of the 1940-50s. This book is a true passion project because as an aspiring historian, I am able to conduct extensive research into my city’s history and turn my family’s experiences into a piece of literature.

This is my most meaningful project to date because it’s always been a long-term goal of mine to become a novelist. During my freshman year at Baltimore City College High School, all students were encouraged to complete a “personal project” on any topic of our liking. Failure to complete the project did not impede on our chance to graduate, but those who completed the project received a special certificate and an orange honor cord to wear at graduation. On my first meeting with my personal project advisor, I announced that I wanted to write a novel. My advisor (who ironically became my junior year creative writing teacher) discouraged me from writing my novel stating that a short story would be more appropriate. At that moment, I decided that I would not complete this “personal project” because it was no longer personal. For years, I held onto my dream of becoming a novelist, and I’m excited to finally be working towards that dream.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I began my author journey as a bookstagrammer; a content creator and lover of books. I created my bookstagram during the height of the pandemic, simply to have a place to share my thoughts and reviews of the books I had been reading. I had no clue that a community existed on the instagram platform full of creators from all over the world who share the same passion for reading. The level of creativity and ingenuity I observed from my fellow bookstagrammers inspired me to follow my long time dream of becoming an author, and I was fortunate enough to have a community of readers to encourage and support my growth. Joining a women’s wellness group SoLoveSoul as book club coordinator gave me the space to rally and connect with more book lovers and professionals in a more intimate setting. Through this book club, I met the owner of Mahogany Pen Publishing, who assisted me with the publication of my first book Through Blood & Becoming (a poetry collection about my postpartum experience) which was honored as a finalist in the 2022 Best Book Awards and International Book Awards for Urban Poetry. The success of this book provided me with more opportunities to broaden my horizons as a writer and content creator so much so, that my fellow bookstagrammers voted me Content Creator of the Year (2023) for the AllWays Black Literary Awards. I was also selected as a scholar to represent a local civil rights program (Harford Civil Right Project) at the Maryland Scholars Summit where my research for my current work-in-progress Sincerely, Baltimore won an award for Best Scientific Work. My biggest honor to date has been getting accepted into one of the largest organizations for black writers, The Hurston/Wright Foundation. I am excited to participate in workshops & network with other black writers and professionals and am hopeful that this will open the door for more opportunities as I continue to grow in this industry.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal for my creative journey is to work my way up to becoming a notable author and historian. I want my books to write names, places and stories into history, similar to what Zora Neale Hurston did in her career. Sincerely, Baltimore is a story inspired by the life of my great grandmother, and what she along with her children and grandchildren likely experienced during a time of racial discord in the city. My goal for this book is for her to be recognized as a hidden figure in the story of Baltimore.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I personally think that the way social media sites have shifted over the past few years with the overuse of algorithms and monetization has taken the fun out of creating content. I created my bookstagram right before the platform began making changes to it’s algorithm so I was able to grow my audience organically. Nowadays, there are a lot of tricks you can try to tap into the algorithm but I like to keep it simple. Social media should not feel like a job (unless of course it is your job). My biggest tip for anyone trying to build a social media presence for the purpose of selling/promoting a business/ product is to focus more on building a community of supporters than trying to gain a lot of followers because followers does not equal dollars. Just because you have a large group of followers does not mean those followers will get in formation to support your business. Post the type of content that will allow you to interact with your supporters, rather than just trying to sell to them.   

Contact Info:

• Website: poetraebooks.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/poetraebooks
• Twitter: twitter.com/poetraebooks

Image Credits
Image 1: @allwaysblack Image 2-4: @poetraebooks