Creating cultural characters involves understanding and empathizing with different experiences. Mainstream society is based on certain ideas, perceptions, values, and beliefs that are accepted as the norm. These norms are the standards by which everything and everyone else is judged. Too often “different voices” become problematic stereotypes rather than rich, complex images and ideas. This lecture will specifically explore three elements that make up the uniqueness of culture: the physical (appearance and language), the cognitive (beliefs, values, and traditions), and the behavioral (actions and reactions). Each is an area that must be well developed in your writing if you want to create unique cultural characters.

Venise Berry’s most recent publication is a co-edited anthology, The Black Superwoman & Mental Health: Power & Pain, published by Peter Lang (June 2025). She is the author of three national bestselling novels: So Good: An African American Love Story (Dutton, 1996), All of Me: A Voluptuous Tale (Dutton, 2000), and Colored Sugar Water (Dutton, 2002). Her fourth novel, Pockets of Sanity, is finished, and she is seeking an agent. Berry is a professor of Journalism and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, as well as a faculty member at the Solstice low-residency MFA Creative Writing Program at Lasell University in Auburndale, MA. For more information, visit www.veniseberry.com.