Raj Tawney Writes for Universal Connection in Upcoming Novel

Mixed Asian Media - August 06, 2024

By Naturally MonaLisa and edited by Maddy Carpou and Lauren Hardie

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Raj Tawney found his purpose through writing. He beams throughout our video call as he tells me about his refreshing and approachable writing style, one he describes as “simple, because I want to reach everybody and I want to be relatable.” And it’s easy to relate to Raj — he tells me about growing up as a multicultural American and despite our clear and obvious differences, there’s a relatability about his experiences.

Proud of his multiracial identity, Raj tells me of his Indian, Italian, and Puerto Rican heritage and his upbringing around “humble” neighbors just outside of New York City. As is common with many communities in America (especially in the pre-internet ’80s), everyone got their news from the local paper. “The newspaper is always straightforward and gets to the point directly because it is speaking to the general public,” Raj tells me. “I was inspired by newspapers to write essays and journalistic pieces in a way that’s accessible to everyone and not speak down to people.”

And write he did. Over his career, he’s written for over 80 outlets around the world, including Bloomberg, Newsweek, USA Today, and NBC News. From essays to articles and even poems, Raj continues to explore his identity as he writes about his family, food, and culture. 

In 2023, Raj published his first book, a memoir called Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience.* While the feedback has been great, with positive reviews from critics and readers alike, he only seems concerned with certain opinions. “My goal was to get the book in front of everyday people,” he says. “I don’t really care what a book critic says about my book. What I do care about is what the guy making my sandwiches thinks about my book. Or what my great aunt in another state thinks about my book. Or what regular book buyers think about my book.”

It’s the universal themes, Raj thinks, that make his memoir resonate with so many people: family, identity confusion, searching for independence, finding yourself. And for mixed-race people in particular, it’s easy to understand what it’s like to live in a societal gray area, regardless of your cultural background.

Writing a personal story that hits all the right notes for so many people was no small feat. Raj tells me how his family helped him throughout the writing process, especially his wife. When they met, he was not comfortable writing about certain things. “Ten years ago, I didn’t want to talk about the sensitive topics that are in the memoir,” he explains. “I was embarrassed and ashamed of who I was, because I never felt accepted anywhere. My wife helped me accept myself and take ownership of my identity.”

Other aspects of the memoir remain deeply personal as well. Perhaps the most relatable home-cooking experience across all cultures is asking a matriarch-type figure for a clear recipe and getting suggestions like “just eyeball it.” So when it came time for Raj to weave recipes into his memoir, the publishers asked if he was going to include exact measurements. He told them no. “The recipes are deeply rooted in our culture and I recorded them verbatim from my grandma, mom, wife, and other family members,” he tells me about the experience. “The recipes should stay the way they are. I stood my ground on this and I’m happy that I did that.”

There was other pushback from publishers during his Colorful Palate journey. Some told him that while his manuscript was beautiful, it wasn’t edgy or dark enough. “They wanted me to embellish and I refused to.” Eventually, Raj published through a smaller publisher he says was very supportive.

When I ask him about his next book project — a novel called All Mixed Up* meant for readers aged 8 through 12 — Raj gives me a smile full of redemption and pride. “I feel like this book was a response to all the rejections I got from publishers!” Meant for middle-grade readers, writing this story gave Raj space to be edgier on his own terms. He wrote an adventure story about a boy who’s like himself — a book he wishes he could have read when he was a kid.

As a child, Raj tells me he often asked his parents tough questions about race and identity. These days we intuitively know the importance of multicultural parents having honest conversations with their mixed-race children about race and identity early in life. But when he was growing up, Raj says his parents struggled to answer those questions; they didn’t think about things as deeply as he did.

Writing All Mixed Up gave Raj a chance to return to his childhood memories and channel his personal experiences. He was able to touch on tough topics like immigration, identity, family dynamics, and boyhood friendship. And while there were challenges — especially writing in the style and sensibility of a young reader’s vocabulary — Raj speaks highly of his supportive publishing editors and says he had a lot more fun writing this book.

“The power of a book is that it allows parents and kids to read together and exchange ideas and thoughts.” Raj muses. “A book can allow parents to feel more comfortable asking kids questions about their thoughts on their ethnic background, their appearance in society, their parents’ marriage or relationship, and other tough topics.” He hopes that instead of keeping thoughts and feelings bottled up, All Mixed Up will allow for better communication between parents and children in multicultural and multiracial homes.

I can’t help but agree with Raj on this: Having conversations about race and identity should happen as early in life as possible. I tell him about my personal story about discrimination as a child. I was a Chinese Jamaican kid living in Hong Kong, and my teachers clearly discriminated against me and reprimanded me multiple times for baseless reasons. My parents constantly refuted teachers’ actions, and they would remind me that nothing is wrong with me and I should be proud of my mixed background. Thanks to those tough conversations with my parents, I endured those difficult times and I became confident in myself. Perhaps All Mixed Up can encourage mixed kids to be themselves and help them navigate life’s gray areas.

Raj tells me that he hopes his writing can help bring people together and connect people from different cultures and backgrounds. In a nod to all our ancestors, with their huge life risks and inaccurate recipes, he points out that we stand here today because of the chances they took — we are mixed-race because the folks before us fell in love and bridged different cultures together. “Our parents were the ones who took the risk to create us, and we are the beneficiaries of their journey,” he says. “Mixed kids have a special vantage point of seeing different cultures and having more compassion and empathy for other people. Despite all the struggles that I have had in my life, I would never trade places with anybody else. I’m proud of who I am.”

And with Raj’s books on shelves — Colorful Palate* is out now, and All Mixed Up* will be released on National Immigrants Day (October 28) this year — hopefully more mixed kids will grow up with a similar pride in their identities too.

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