CBC Diversity Newsletter: October 2013 v. 1

Click to view CBC Diversity Newsletter October 2013 v. 1 on GLOSSI.COM

Guten Tag! My trip with the German Book Office.

Riky Stock holding a 
very special German cheese.

Back in April, Riky Stock, director of the German Book Office in New York reached out to me with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—to join a group of children’s book editors on a trip to Frankfurt and Hamburg to meet with German publishers and agents.  The German Book Office hosts this annual trip for editors to experience the wonders of beer, brats, and books in hopes of building a bridge between our two countries, for both American books that could succeed in Germany and vice versa.

My fellow editors for this year’s trip included Stacey Barney from Putnam/Penguin (and one of the founders of CBC Diversity!), Sheila Barry from Groundwood Books in Canada, Grace Maccarone from Holiday House, Ben Rosenthal from Enslow, and Reka Simonsen from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Our group had a great vibe, and by the end of the trip, we had our fair share of inside jokes and insightful discussion about books and, in particular, why foreign translations are so difficult for the North American market.

Shelley Diaz: How I Got into Publishing

Guest post by associate editor at School Library Journal

---

I decided I wanted to work in children’s publishing in sixth grade. I had devoured all of the Anne of Green Gables books by this time, and I was convinced that I could be the Dominican Lucy Maud Montgomery. I kept writing through middle school and high school, and pondered over different career paths (should I be a literary agent, an editor?), and even momentarily thought about being a cultural anthropologist instead.

The fact remained: I was fascinated by stories—all people’s stories.

I declared my English Lit/Latino Studies double-major freshman year at Columbia University, and was lucky enough to snag an editorial internship with Dell Publishing (a crossword puzzle publisher) through my Hispanic Scholarship Fund mentor. That summer internship cemented my desire to work in publishing, while at the same time reinforced the fact that it had to be with work that I cared about (crossword puzzles, were just not that interesting), and at a place that gave me the opportunity to advocate for diverse literature.

Diversity in the News

June 20th – June 27th, 2013

NEW BLOG ALERT

• July 1—31: Disability in Kidlit —Organized by Kody Keplinger and Corinne Duyvis, the blog series  “will feature posts by readers, writers, bloggers, and other peeps from the YA and MG communities discussing disability and kidlit.” Call for bloggers now closed.

ON OUR RADAR

• As Demographics Shift, Kids' Books Stay Stubbornly White via NPR’s Code Switch
• Why Hasn’t the Number of Multicultural Books Increased In Eighteen Years? (includes infographic) at Lee & Low Books – features opinions from Kathleen T. Horning, Director of Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC);  Poet/Author Nikki Grimes, Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita, The Ohio State University, and more
• Related: Coloring Outside the Lines: The Diversity Gap in Children’s Literature via Bookriot
• Roger Sutton from Horn Book weighs in: A very good question

Industry Q&A with editor Rosemary Brosnan

Interview by Caroline Sun

Please tell us about the most recent diverse book you published.

 

P.S. Be Eleven
by Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia’s P.S. Be Eleven  will be coming out in June. It’s the wonderful continuation of the story told in One Crazy Summer, and I love it! In this story, sisters Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are back in Brooklyn after a summer spent with their mother in Oakland, CA. Delphine starts sixth grade, with all the perils that entails—a male teacher she can’t quite figure out, the sixth-grade dance, a growth spurt that leaves her taller than almost all the boys. And there’s the Jackson Five, this heavenly new group that is going to be playing in Madison Square Garden…  Although the book is set in the late 1960s, it’s has a very universal quality. And the setting never intrudes on the story—Rita is very careful about that. She is a master. We’ve worked together on all of her novels, and I’m proud to be her editor. Love Rita, love her books.

What’s the biggest challenge for publishing companies who want to feature more diverse titles?

Publishing diverse books has long been a passion of mine. I’ve been around long enough that I’ve seen the climate for publishing diverse titles get sunny, and then cloudy, and then sunny again, and so on. I’ve been involved in publishing Spanish-language and bilingual books at Penguin, and at Harper, through the Rayo imprint. The toughest problem is selling the books and reaching the market. I’ve heard a lot of publisher-bashing, which I feel is not entirely fair—and I suppose I’ll be criticized for saying so. In my experience, I’ve seen strong efforts to sell diverse books that are sometimes met with low sales—and I’m thinking of Spanish-language and bilingual books in particular. It’s likely that publishers don’t quite know how to reach the market. But perhaps people who want publishers to publish more diverse books should make a commitment to buy the books.  The problem does not lie only on the side of the publishers, although there is certainly more we can do.

Industry Q&A with author Bill Konigsberg

Tell us about your most recent book and how you came to write it.

My most recent novel is Openly Straight. It will be published by Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic) in June of 2013. I came to write it because I was exploring the coming out experience for LGBT folks like myself. I wondered why it is that gay people have to constantly label ourselves in a way that seems to overshadow every other aspect of our identities, and how unfair it is that we must continue to do this all our lives. I was interested in the idea that we are being dishonest if we choose to highlight a different label. I felt (and feel) that there are tons of books about the process and value of "coming out," but precious few about what happens after we do.

 Do you think of yourself as a diverse author?

As an author who believes there is great power in diversity of thought and experience, I am definitely a diverse author. In my first novel, Out of the Pocket, I wanted to make sure that my cast of characters reflected the diversity of our culture. In that novel, my main character is a gay Caucasian male. His best friend, Austin, is half Mexican and half Caucasian. His other best friend, Rahim, is African American. I do think that there is a tendency in young adult fiction to whitewash our culture, which may relate to the fact that a high percentage of YA authors are white. In each of my books, I make a point of showing racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity. I do this because I think it is so important for teens to see themselves reflected in literature.

Wendy Lamb: How I Got Into Publishing

My fourth grade teacher wasn’t surprised that I wound up reading for a living, because I gave 250 book reports that year.  All I wanted to do was read. I had a terrific fake cough and would use that to stay home from school with a pile of books. 

I grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut and my family was close to the family of Maxwell Perkins, the great editor at Scribner’s. Max had died before I was born, but I grew up knowing what an editor was. Max’s daughter, Bertha Perkins Frothingham, shared my passion for books and encouraged my reading in every way. One of my favorite books was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline  L’Engle, which led me to take physics in college. I struggled with that course, but when I botched a lab my professor let me write a story related to physics, which became my first published story. As a creative writing major, a job in publishing seemed like the right path.  

Diversity 101: Not Injun Joe

Native American Stereotyping in Literature

Contributed to CBC Diversity by Joseph Bruchac 

No group in American culture has been more stereotyped than Native Americans. While other ethnic stereotypes now meet with disapproval, harmful images of native people are still accepted or defended within majority culture, even when Native Americans complain. There are images and characters in books and other media, expressions in current usage, the naming of places and sports teams, and negative expectations about the behavior of Native Americans. It is so pervasive that non-natives often don’t realize they’re saying or doing things hurtful to Native Americans. (And when it is pointed out, the response is often disbelief or denial.)

Changing the Conversation Around Diverse Publishing

An It's Complicated! — Book Covers guest post by Felicia Frazier, Senior Vice President & Director of Sales at Penguin Young Readers Group.

---

Felicia Frazier

I would like to begin my post with a point of clarification that my opinions regarding diversity in publishing are based on my opinion and experience that may not be the perspective of my publisher. As a 20 year publishing veteran I have held many positions including Event/Exhibit Planning, Marketing, and Brand Management but my greatest and longest tenure has been as a sales strategist. I currently lead the best sales team in publishing. It is a position of strategic planning and challenging assumptions with the goal of reaching our consumers.

A side lesson...

A New "It's Complicated!" Conversation

As part of CBC Diversity's ongoing effort, we're pleased to present the second dialogue in the "It's Complicated!" blog series starting Sept. 3rd, this time addressing book covers.

The following voices in the industry will each contribute one blog post to the series over the week, addressing challenges they've faced and successes they've had in selling/designing/writing books portraying diverse characters on the cover, and participating in the open dialogue in the comments section of the site: 

• Coe Booth, Author
• Laurent Linn, Art Director at Simon & Schuster Children's
• Felicia Frazier, Senior VP and Director of Sales at Penguin Young Readers Group
• Elizabeth Bluemle, Owner of Flying Pig Bookstore
• Joseph Monti, Agent at Barry Goldblatt Literary - don't miss reading his recent post about his entry into publishing

Our first "It's Complicated!" blog dialogue in May addressed a topic that has arisen frequently at the Diversity table — the concept of responsibility and authenticity when writing about diverse characters and how authors, editors, and agents can choose/write stories that reflect the diverse nature of our society. Review that conversation!

As always, we urge everyone to participate in what we hope will be an informative and insightful conversation. We really appreciate hearing from you, our readers, through the comments section of the posts about the parts of the discussion that you feel are most important and want to talk further about. 

15 Authors Who Promote Diversity in Author Visits

One great aspect of the CBC Diversity blog is that we can highlight and celebrate many exciting new voices. We can also offer valuable resources for teachers, authors, librarians, and publishing industry insiders who want to incorporate more diverse and multicultural authors to their curriculum, or collection, or reading list, or professional network.

If you are a teacher or librarian who is looking to diversify your author visit experience, here is a small sample of authors to consider — including a few new names that you may not already know.

This list is in no way comprehensive. Stay tuned to the CBC Diversity blog for a more robust directory of authors — from the many CBC member publishers — who actively promote diversity through author visits to schools, libraries, and state and regional conferences. If you would like to be included in our directory of authors, please comment below or send us an email.

Full Disclosure: It is my job to arrange paid author appearances and some of the authors listed here include authors I represent. I really enjoy working with my authors and take every opportunity I can to promote their amazing work.

Stacey Barney: How I Got into Publishing

I began my professional life as a teacher and have taught the gamut: from preschool to high school. What I found most frustrating was the lack of compelling outside reading available, especially for my students of color. While teaching in Boston, I was also pursuing my MFA at Emerson College. It was there that I discovered Book Publishing as a career option. On a lark I took my first publishing class as a way to build-up the pre-requisite credits I needed in order to take my fiction workshops. I never expected to find myself so taken and invested in the material and the industry. In fact, before my book publishing courses at Emerson, I thought books were a gift from some mythical book fairy that I conveniently picked up at my local bookstore on a weekly basis. I never gave much thought to the industry behind the books I consumed so compulsively. But I caught the publishing bug quickly and left the teaching profession soon thereafter with my sights set on publishing those books that felt missing to me and to my former students.

My first job in publishing was a lucky and invaluable internship at Lee & Low, an independent multicultural children's book publisher in New York. I learned a great deal about editing, acquisitions as well as marketing and publicity from this experience. While working at Lee & Low, I contacted quite a few publishing professionals requesting informational interviews. I knocked on a lot of doors and was told the same thing over and again: you seem great, but I don’t have a job for you. I was starting to feel a little hopeless, though the truth is I’d spent only a summer looking for a permanent position and that wasn’t very long at all.

Antonio Gonzalez: How I Got into Publishing

Like many who work in publishing, books have always played a vital role in my life. No matter what stage of my life I’m in — I’ve always been drawn to books.

My publishing journey began at the age of 14. I was hired on as a page for the Dallas Public Library. Every weekday afterschool from 4 to 10 at night I shelved oversize reference books, aerial photographs, yellowing newspaper clippings, old-timey magazines, journals, small-town phone books, and even micro-fiche (!!). This was the dawning of the internet era; in between shelving, I’d teach patrons how to “surf the internet,” how to send email, and how to download Netscape Navigator and AOL.

During my breaks, however, I’d sneak away to the most secluded niches of the building to read my favorite books like Kate Chopin’s The Awakening or Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.