Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 116

getting back on the horse

I was terrified of horses when I was a child, yet when my parents decided to separate, they enrolled my sister and I in equestrian camp to take our minds off the domestic situation.  I think I was six or seven, and I spent most of my time indoors, drawing the massive beasts I was too afraid to ride.  A few years later, my grandfather began to take us riding as a special treat (followed by a stop at Dairy Queen) and when I spent a semester in England during college, we actually went...

Love Your Library!

Tomorrow is Love Your Library Day in Brooklyn!  If you haven't already made a donation, please do Support Our Shelves.  And if you're in Brooklyn, stop by Grand Army Plaza for a day of fun events including performances, author talks, arts & crafts, and a book sale…I have fond memories of going to the library as a child and buying a used book for a DIME!  And, of course, I rely on the BPL for my research and recreational reading…if you're a sports fan, consider donating as much to your public ...

Grease Town

Technically, I'm not writing book reviews any more so these are just my thoughts on Ann Towell's novel, Grease Town.  I've already established that very few children's books are published in Canada featuring a black protagonist; most of the existing books are written by white authors and focus on the migration of African Americans from slavery in the US to freedom in Canada.  Fortunately, Grease Town doesn't paint Ontario as "the promised land" of milk and honey, and it concludes with the...

AGO?

Are you listening?  Ame!  Good, I have your attention.  Actually, AGO refers to the Art Gallery of Ontario.  No, I am not going to start another rant about race and Canada.  I just want to point out that Kenyan-born (Brooklyn-based) artist Wangechi Mutu has an exhibit in Toronto right now—I will *definitely* check it out while I'm up there later this month.  But, of course, while watching this interesting video (made by the AGO), I had to wonder how many black Canadian artists have had solo s...

last summer

The latest installment in the What a Girl Wants series is up at Chasing Ray.  This time around Colleen asked us to consider what books we wish we'd read before heading off to college (or before your senior year—I misread the question!).  My choices: Kindred and One Crazy Summer.  What about you?  Here's what Tanita Davis had to say about her younger self:

I don't think I knew how to think through the grays in life, even as a high school junior. In my conservative Christian school, everything...

A for admiration

I can't say that I loved Big Machine, but I have great admiration for its author, Victor LaValle, and his decision to construct a narrative that is original, engaging, and surprising.  I haven't read anything like it, didn't realize it was (sort of) sci-fi, and love that the cast included black folks who don't often get to play the hero in literary fiction.  I'm not sure I can actually summarize the bizarre plot, but the very ordinary tone and realism of the book are actually what makes it...

RIP Lena Horne

Lena Horne passed away last night here in NYC; she was 92.  I have to say, I think I first heard of Lena Horne when I was a kid watching The Cosby Show.  And when she finally appeared on the show, I couldn't understand why Cliff Huxtable thought she was such a great beauty.  But then I hit graduate school and saw Stormy Weather…and then I saw her appeal (though I couldn't separate her talent from her *very* light skin).  Lena Horne once lived in Brooklyn, and word is Alicia Keys will be...

I've always been a handful…

They called me "butterball"…

Book Blogger Convention

If you're in NYC or will be for the upcoming Book Expo, why not attend the Book Blogger Convention?  I'll be on the day's last panel: "Blogging with Social Responsibility."  Here's the complete agenda:

Agenda

The agenda is still being fine tuned, but this will give you an idea of what we're planning. Registration will begin at 7:30am, and the convention itself will start at 9:00am.

Keynote Speaker

Maureen Johnson [Blog]

Professionalism and Ethics in Blogging

Ron Hogan [Houghton Mifflin...

Mitali's Fire Escape

Many thanks to author Mitali Perkins for featuring me on her blog!  Mitali wanted to know more about the AmazonEncore program, so I filled her in on some of the details…

If you want to hear another AmazonEncore author's perspective, stop by Gal Novelty to meet Andrew Xia Fukuda (author of Crossing) AND enter a great giveaway!

And if you need MORE proof that self-publishing is a viable option, read this Publisher's Weekly article by John Edgar Wideman…

By self-publishing, I hope to liberate...