CBC Diversity Newsletter: September 2013 v. 2

Click to view CBC Diversity Newsletter September 2013 v. 2 on GLOSSI.COM

Diversity 101: Blurring the Lines Between Familiar and Foreign

Part I—A Focus on Narrative

Contributed to CBC Diversity by Uma Krishnaswami

My Personal Connection

Back in the last century, when I dreamed of writing for young readers, the conventional wisdom about weaving foreign languages into fiction written in English went like this:

Don’t.

The stories I longed to write spanned continents. My characters often spoke in two languages, sometimes with varying degrees of fluidity. My narratives demanded a mixing of languages, reflecting the hybridity I was trying to show.

I plunged in, wanting to find my own answers. I wrote a lot of bad stories that earned the rejections they deserved. I kept asking myself, how can I represent this linguistic and cultural material while being truthful to the stories I’m trying to tell?

Is the Race Card Old School?

An It's Complicated! — Authentic Voices guest post by author, Mitali Perkins.

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When my book Rickshaw Girl (Charlesbridge) came out, one reviewer said I was “drawing on my cultural roots” to tell the story.

I winced when I read that line.

I was writing about Naima, the Muslim daughter of an impoverished rickshaw puller in Bangladesh. My grandfather was a Hindu landowner who exploited people like Naima. The rift between me and my character was almost as wide as a daughter of a slave-owner writing about the daughter of a slave. Sure, we’re both Bengali, so we share a language and other cultural commonalities. But why is race the primary authenticity card when it comes to granting storytelling permission? What about power, gender, class?

The bottom line is that all fiction crosses borders. Age: middle-aged people write about children. Gender: women write about boys; men write about girls. Class: suburbanites write about inner-city kids.

If we don’t write an imagined life, we craft memoir.

Does that mean anybody can write anything when it comes to fiction? It must, with caveats. Because what an author learns before the age of seven does matter in fiction.

Take Four! A New, Two-part "It's Complicated" Conversation

As part of CBC Diversity's ongoing effort, we're pleased to present the fourth dialogue in the "It's Complicated!" blog series starting next week, and for the first time, it will run over two consecutive weeks, starting on Monday. This time we've invited five authors to share their thoughts about writing inside their cultural perspective, and five authors to discuss writing outside their cultural perspective.

I think most would agree that in an ideal world, the diversity depicted in books and of their creators would match the diversity of our world. But I know some might disagree on the best way to get there--what if that's not immediately possible? Is it better to have white/straight/able-bodied, etc. authors write books about non-white/LGBT/disabled, etc. characters? Can those characters truly be authentic? What if the only way authors of color can achieve commercial success is by writing books with non-diverse characters? And can those books be authentic, too? Are there any topics that should be "off-limits" to outsider writers? Do you trust an author you perceive to be an insider more than you would an outsider?

Diversity in the News

August 2nd – August 9th, 2013

NEW AT CBC DIVERSITY THIS WEEK

• Industry Q&A with Robin Smith, children's book reviewer
• Talking to Teens – Liz Waniewski, Executive Editor, Dial/Penguin Books for Young Readers offers insights into how teens pick books

CBC DIVERSITY/COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

• CBC Diversity: Our Industry Cares About Kids on the Margins at Mitali’s Fire Escape – “One of the most encouraging signs of change since I've been in this vocation was the establishment of the Children's Book Council’s Diversity Committee…”

ON OUR RADAR

• Publishing Diverse Books Isn’t About Reaching Quotas at Rich in Color – Tu Books publisher Stacy Whitman on why she publishes diverse books
• Young dreamers at The Horn Book – author/illustrator Christopher Myers on Trayvon Martin and children’s books

Children's Book Week CBC Diversity Event

As a part of the amazing line-up of events occurring during Children's Book Week (May 13-19, 2013), the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country, Charlesbridge Publishing has teamed up with the CBC Diversity Committee to host a special panel featuring  editors from Charlesbridge Publishing, Candlewick Press, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; as well as the inspiring author, Mitali Perkins; and the extremely talented illustrator, London Ladd. 

This intimate panel will be held in Watertown, Massachusetts and, unlike CBC Diversity events we've held in the past, this event is open to the public. See below for all of the important details and keep in mind that space is limited so registration is required.

An Unexpected Mirror

About a year an half ago I had an experience that refocused my understanding of diversity in children’s books. It happened quite by accident.

One day, on the free book shelf at S&S, I spotted a treasure--The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg. It was a Newbery Medal Winner. It was published by my imprint, Atheneum. And it was by Elaine Konigsburg, the amazing author of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. How could it be that I’d never read it? So I took the book home and the next afternoon I found myself completely absorbed in the novel.

When I started reading The View from Saturday, I didn’t think that I was going to be grappling with issues of diversity or my relationship with diversity in books. I was simply enjoying a sunny afternoon spent on my couch enjoying a great book. It was perfect.

I’d often heard books described as “Mirrors or Windows”--the idea that books can either show you a reflection of your own experience or give you a view into a culture different from your own. Mitali Perkins had spoken quite eloquently about this at the 2010 BEA Children’s Breakfast. But what I hadn’t really ever thought about was that I’d never read a “mirror” book. For me, at least.