by Anne Liu Kellor
Beacon Press
10/13/2026, hardcover
SKU: 9780807021361
29 personal essays exploring mixed identity, belonging, family, racism, community and the paradoxical ways of being in the world
Multiracial people are everywhere--but so often their stories are oversimplified, overlooked, or left out of the narrative altogether. Mixed Roots 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.
Reviews:
"Each writer within this anthology boldly charts their own path to belonging. But the true magic forms in the broader chorus, where voices who have never felt a 'we' write themselves into collective lineage. Refusing to be defined by categories that have never encompassed the complexity of who we are, Mixed Roots anchors itself in both history and gratitude for the ones whose stories paved the way for us, while opening new paths of possibility for the ones who will follow. This anthology is a gift for anyone who lives within the both/and." -- Tessa Hulls, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and artist of Feeding Ghosts
"Mixed Roots meets individuals at all points of the journey to understand one's multiracial identity and root out internalized racism and anti-Blackness. For mixed-race readers, this book is a quiet moment and a reprieve from a world that defines who you are and what that means by the most rigid of parameters. Anne Liu Kellor has curated with care a collection of voices eager to join the growing conversation about the fluid nature of race and identity." -- Minda Honey, author of The Heartbreak Years
"Whatever confusion or ache you've experienced, residing in the land of in-between, you will find camaraderie within these pages. An existential homecoming for the soul." -- Stephanie Elizondo Griest, author of Mexican Enough and Art Above Everything
About the Author:
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.