"White Publishing"

There’s a unique fear that I experience as an editor--which I imagine other editors experience as well--after reading a manuscript by and about a minority group I know too little about.

For example, I’m a Persian male who was born in Iran, and raised all over Europe, and then Oklahoma. So if you send me FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, man, I am in it. I lived that experience. Maybe not exactly as Boobie Miles lived it. But I played ball in Oklahoma. I get the lingo. My first manuscript was the story of that experience.

In the same way, if you write a novel set in Rome, if you want to sample some Farsi for a character, or French, then I’m good. I’m still with you. I have firsthand knowledge of the languages, the cultural nuances, etc.

Diversity in the News

March 28th – April 4th, 2013
 

CBC DIVERSITY/COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

• Daniel Nayeri live tweeted CBC Diversity’s panel on “Marketing Your Books to a Multicultural Audience”. Check out his tweets from 4/4 starting at noon for a great recap of the event’s big takeaways.

ON OUR RADAR

• Diversity in 2012 Young Adult Bestsellers, Part 1: Overview at Diversity in YA – includes pie charts and graphs 
• Diversity in 2012 Young Adult Bestsellers, Part 2: Main Characters Only at Diversity in YA
• Argentine Isol Takes Home World’s Largest Children’s Literature Prize, via Publishing Perspectives
• The Grown-Up Behind a Tween Phenomenon – the NY Times’ profile of Rachel Renee Russell includes the author discussing her decision to make the Dork Diaries protagonist white

Here's a Question:

Does the digital era flip our definition of censorship?

Still Bleeding... by Hardmerolgirl

Here's a Question:

Do YA authors, editors, and librarians promote the idea that YA books have the power to do good, but reject the idea that they can do harm?

The Playroom of Good and Evil by ninjaink

The People of Sparks

I often recommend The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau as a case study in immigration. I’d like to mention it here, because it’s not an obvious choice, given that it doesn’t have many of the BISAC Codes we look for in diversity-friendly books.

I won’t speak to whether or not you will love the story….In words of the great LeVar Burton, you don’t have to take my word for it. 

I will, however, say that the book understands the dynamic of immigration in a way that I rarely see in MG or YA literature, and I was exceedingly grateful to Ms. DuPrau for writing it. The story follows Lina and Doon shortly after they defeat Bill Murray and lead the people of Ember out into the daylight. The Emberites have been inside an elaborate bomb shelter until then, and represent—more or less—a roving population of refugees. The plot centers on their discovery of a settlement called Sparks, and the tensions that arise when the settlers reluctantly take the Emberites into their camp.

Daniel Nayeri: How I Got into Publishing

When I came to the United States at the age of eight, I spent a lot of time in the library because I needed to learn English, and because none of the neighborhood kids knew yet how awesome I was at Nintendo.

We arrived in Oklahoma in the summertime, and I was terrified that I would show up to school unable to speak with the other kids. We were refugees from Iran who had spent several years bouncing from country to country, so I had a smattering of a few languages. My English, however, was a bit like Apu from the Simpsons. 

And so, my mom took me to the library, checking out 35 picture books at a time, determined to get us ready. At the time, I remember being dumbfounded by the likes of Dr. Seuss or Laura Ingalls Wilder (an Oklahoma favorite that I came to appreciate in due time). The language had too much slang, too many words I couldn't look up in the dictionary ("Vat is a sneetches?"). I ended up gravitating toward the Great Illustrated Classics--simple sentences, written in the Queen's English. I read abridged (perhaps abridged too far?) versions of The Three Musketeers, Treasure Island, Robin Hood, and Robinson Crusoe--I fell in love with all of them.