Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 106

intertextuality

When I wrote Wish, I incorporated one of my favorite picture books into the narrative by having Genna read Christopher Myers' Wings to her baby brother.  This time around, I've got Genna searching for signs of magic, which leads her to discover Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly.  For half a year after graduating from college, I worked in a black bookstore in Toronto—to this day, certain book covers are fixed in my mind because it was my job to display the books and everything was...

torn

I'm doing research today, but I'm torn between wanting to read these scholarly articles and needing to wrap up the THREE different chapters I'm working on right now.  The A is for Anansi conference is coming up in a few weeks, and I'm moderating a panel on issues of identity and representation.  So this morning I finished up an article on the legend of "the Flying Africans," which is helping me with the creation of a portal for Genna, and then I looked up some other articles: "Reading in...

submit your best story!

About the Award

LEE & LOW BOOKS, award-winning publisher of children's books, is pleased to announce the eleventh annual NEW VOICES AWARD. The Award will be given for a children's picture book manuscript by a writer of color. The Award winner receives a cash grant of $1000 and our standard publication contract, including our basic advance and royalties for a first time author. An Honor Award winner will receive a cash grant of $500.

Established in 2000, the New Voices Award encourages...

weekend in review

On Saturday I made sure I packed my digital and Flip cameras before leaving the house; I planned to attend a talk between Mitali Perkins and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich at the Brooklyn Book Festival, and wanted to record the experience for this blog.  I spent the morning applying for jobs, then got myself ready to meet a friend at the Brooklyn Museum at noon.  I never watched Work of Art, the reality show where actual artists compete to have a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum.  But I'm...

sign of the times

a fine balance

Ok, this is the chapter that pushed me over the 46K-word mark.  It's still a bit rough around the edges, and way too long—so I've posted the first section here, and will keep tinkering with the rest.  My apologies to any native speakers of Creole—I haven't verified these translations, and still have some research to do.  Peter is Judah's friend; he has become an important character in the sequel, and in the previous chapter he mocks Genna for believing in Hollywood's representation of Vodou a...

shades of gray

If you're a fan of YA lit, then you need to know about this new site!  Em and Nora interviewed me a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday they posted Em's review of A Wish After Midnight.  I love that she appreciated the many shades of gray—people are rarely wholly bad or wholly good…

While Genna's mom seems to see people in black and white, Genna is conscious of the gray. She recognizes the difference between Mr. Christiansen, her elderly Danish immigrant friend, and the white woman who yells...

speaking in tongues

What do you do when you're reading a book and the author uses a word or phrase from a language you don't know?  Do you skip it and keep going, relying on context to figure it out?  Or do you flip to the back of the book in search of a glossary?  I've done a lot of writing this weekend, and one short passage includes two Haitian characters speaking Creole:

Peter looks at me now, daring me to tell his uncle the same bizarre story I have told him.  "Judah is…gone.  And I need to find a way to...

dodge

Sometimes I try to get out of things.  And sometimes the universe says, "Quit trying to dodge the work/gift I'm sending your way!"  You can't avoid your destiny.  So yesterday I was talking to a friend who was upset over being left out of the loop; she learned some major news via Facebook, and felt she ought to have been notified personally.  Another friend was upset when she learned someone very close had opted to have a "family only" wedding.  I was full of sage advice, of course, but then ...

art in the garden

I should have taken these photos when this art installation by Patrick Dougherty first went up in the garden, but you can still see how amazing these structures are—and they're meant to last a whole year! They make me think of Tolkien…