Praise for Don’t Let It Get You Down

“[A] standout collection...a brutal, beautifully rendered narrative. Nolan is writing into a long tradition, and its contemporary renaissance. From Du Bois’s “The Souls of Black Folk” to slave narratives, the Black essay is rich with stories of otherness and duality. Writers like Clint Smith, Emily Bernard, Nishta J. Mehra, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Claudia Rankine, Mychal Denzel Smith and Robert Jones Jr. (among many others) bring the modern essay form to bear as much on how the experiences of Blackness differ as they do on how they cohere. This embrace of the heterogeneity of Black womanhood is part of this book’s charm...[D]ances in the spaces between binaries of Black womanhood.”— The New York Times Book Review

"An eloquently provocative memoir in essays...This fierce and intelligent book is important not just for how it celebrates hard-won pride in one’s identity, but also for how Nolan articulates the complicated—and too often overlooked—nature of personal and cultural in-betweenness."
—Kirkus Reviews

“In 12 probing essays, Savala Nolan explores her intersectionality of race, gender and body awareness with an unflinching honesty that is both revelatory and unsettling. The essays are personal and confessional but informed by an awareness of larger historical narratives rooted in American culture.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“I like the voice and intelligence with which these essays come together…A vibrant and thoughtful collection.” —Roxane Gay

“Nolan’s writing on identity and self-worth is captivating from start to finish; her words will resonate long after the last page.” —Library Journal *STARRED REVIEW*

“Savala Nolan is powerful and complex... Like Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, Nolan’s essays speak to both young and old Americans about our country’s pervasive history of racism.” —BookPage *STARRED REVIEW*

"A searing, unsettling, beautiful set of investigations deep into her own mind, body, and personal history. This is a book about love, friendship, family and freedom—and the deep discomfort that can exist within those simple words. A riveting, difficult work written with rhythm and artistry." —Alexis Madrigal, KQED

“In gorgeous prose and with profound clarity, Savala Nolan reckons with the interconnected oppressions, external and internalized, that have burdened her body: Anti-blackness, fat phobia, colonialism, and patriarchy. Don’t Let it Get You Down is vital reading for all of us working to bust out of boxes, binaries, silences, and shame.”
—Nadia Owusu, author of Aftershocks

“A deeply personal debut collection…the mix of cultural criticism and thoughtful personal writing will be just right for fans of Roxane Gay.”
—Publishers Weekly

“In these thrilling essays, built with one blazing, breathtaking sentence after another, Savala Nolan takes us from the personal to the political and back again as she explores her fascinating range of experiences as a Black American woman. Authoritative, honest, and often bitingly humorous, Don’t Let It Get You Down is a book for our time and every time. It is not a book to read; it is a book to savor."
—Emily Bernard, author of Black is the Body

“In this woven tapestry of stories and histories of race, gender, class, and the body, Savala Nolan gives readers a deeply personal insight into what it feels like to hold identities that are seen as ‘other’ in dominant culture. For those of us who feel like ‘in-betweeners’ this powerful collection of poetic essays offers a place to be seen and to be heard in the fullness of our beautiful complexities. In reading Savala’s words as she travels to understand her experiences, and free herself from the parts that oppress, I found myself saying, 'Wow. Yes. Me too.'”
—Layla F. Saad, author of New York Times bestseller Me and White Supremacy

“Savala Nolan’s voice is one that deserves to be heard in all its vulnerability and complexity.”
—BookRiot

“Nolan uses her voice to full effect. Her narration, like her prose, has heft. Her voice is full of life, inviting yet firm. She often pauses at the end of meaningful passages, allowing their full impact to sink in. The essays themselves are emotionally compelling and full of critical insight. Nolan explores the complexities of mixed-race identity, Black motherhood, interracial friendships, sexism in popular culture, and the lives of the Black women enslaved by her white ancestors. Her narration is so natural that it often seems like she's speaking directly to the listener, looking them in the eye as if to say: ‘Pay attention.’”
—Audiofile (reviewing the audiobook)

“The 12 essays are fiercely personal, confessional even, less concerned with the collective than her own origin story, which is both unique and reassuringly typical. [Nolan] is witty and gently self-deprecating, well positioned to wonder at the fault lines in our culture. [She] contains multitudes and is willing to ask herself questions she can't comfortably answer. That alone makes this slim book of essays worthy of our time.” —Arkansas Democrat Gazette

“It is a heavy book that takes aim at many of the issues facing so many people (and, in particular, Black women) today, but it is also a book that contains moments of pure joy, laughter, and insight. Not only is Don’t Let It Get You Down an important read, but it is also a delightful one that shows just how multitalented and impressive the author is when taking on subjects that resonate inside of her but also in the bodies and minds of her readers as well.” —Shondaland

“It takes temerity to tell this kind of truth, to be unbowed by one's own trepidation. Savala Nolan does so boldly, and this book will help so many Black women to get free.”
—Brittney Cooper, New York Times bestselling author of Eloquent Rage

“Savala Nolan deals a blow to the hollow—and very white—rhetoric of the body positivity movement with her essay collection, offering up her own stories of living in a body that are nuanced and warm, funny and painful.”
—Marisa Meltzer, author of This is Big

Shortlisted for the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing