Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 33

spotlight

Reading at Franklin Park on Monday night was a little surreal; the lamp next to the table is angled in such a way that you can see your book but can’t see anyone in the audience, so you’re sort of reading “blind.” When I present before kids, I’m used to making eye contact and reading the audience almost as much as I’m reading my book. But I couldn’t read the crowd at Franklin Park and my opening “Good evening” got no response. So it was gratifying when three or four people came up at the end to say that they’d appreciated my reading and my preamble—a rambling introduction where I talked about some of the challenges facing people of color in this country right now. It feels rather self-indulgent to hang out in a bar and read to folks who are drinking, and laughing, and ordering food. The Franklin Parkers are serious about literature, though, and I definitely felt like people were listening even if I couldn’t see their faces. I felt very geeky and dashed off at the end, but lingered to talk to the curator Penina about the state of publishing. We have a lot of work to do! But Penina’s one of those rare White women in the lit community who’s always trying to bring more folks in and keep the door open.

I’m working on that reparations essay once more; I head to Cincinnati tomorrow and for some reason the flight takes up most of the day, so I plan to use all that air(port) time to write. I’m psyched that Maya and Matthew over at Reflection Press have launched their new IndieGoGo campaign for which they developed this amazing graphic:

Some folks like to celebrate “the next Walter Dean Myers” or the latest award-winner who happens to be a person of color. But look at what we really need to achieve equality and justice in the kid lit community—and this is just the number of books. How can we ensure their quality when the industry remains dominated by straight White cisgender women who don’t have disabilities? So much work to be done…we’ll be talking about these issues during our panel for Books by the Banks so if you’re near Cincinnati, do drop in. Our panel starts at 11:30am on Saturday and then (hopefully) I’ll be signing copies of Melena’s Jubilee afterward. Then it’s back to Brooklyn for a couple of days and off to IL for the Youth Lit Fest! Grateful for these opportunities to travel but also looking forward to a couple of weeks at home in November. I need to write! (novels, not essays)

Franklin Park

I just finished Essay #3 and wanted to share a passage that applies to Penina Roth, founder of the Franklin Park Reading Series. I’m one of six readers included in Monday’s lineup, which has a spooky Halloween vibe. The essay I just finished is about my week in Minnesota and I tried to include all the wonderful people and organizations whose sponsorship made my visit possible. Yesterday I received two invitations to present for kids and college students here in NYC—I’m not sure people know how much I appreciate these opportunities to connect with young readers AND earn a living. It’s sort of miraculous that I’ve managed to keep my head above water for the past two years, and it’s because of open-minded folks who are willing to break with convention and give an indie author like me a chance:

I’m grateful for every invitation I receive as an indie author because I recognize the risk a professor, librarian, or educator takes when they open the door to someone deemed by many to be ‘not quite legitimate,’ ‘unaffiliated,’ and/or ‘too provocative.’ The invitations I do receive invariably come from people who share both my commitment to social justice and my love for children from underserved communities who are also underrepresented in children’s literature.

If you’re in NYC, I hope we’ll see you at Franklin Park on Monday night!

Embrace Race

As promised, here’s my conversation with Janine Macbeth of Blood Orange Press. “Healing the Child Within” is live over at EmbraceRace, so stop by! Here’s one question I asked Janine:

ZE: I self-publish with CreateSpace but Blood Orange Press just became an LLC; I only publish my own books but you have a growing list of authors. I often think of us as being on the same team, but traveling different paths. Can you talk about the path you’re on and how you see indie authors like us as being part of a movement?

JM: I was just at a workshop where they were sharing research on the common traits of successful social movements. One commonality between movements that fit their definition of success is that these movements were full of leaders. Power was decentralized and based in community efforts that spread far and wide.

Presses like yours, Reflection Press, School of the Free Mind, and Come Bien Books are only a few examples of efforts to take back our power as self-determining owners and decision makers in our work — to take back our power as storytellers.

I love that we’re just a few freckles or beauty marks in a much larger landscape of efforts for justice in children’s literature. From teachers, to librarians, to after school and community programs, to booksellers and families, and on and on, we’re all part of this ecosystem evolving change. Just thinking about it makes me happy.

 

an embarrassment of riches

What a week! I met some wonderful people at my talk on Monday evening at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the NYPL. Then on Wednesday I talked to wonderful 4th-grade writers at the Countee Cullen School in Harlem. Then yesterday the four bloggers over at Rich in Color posted their insightful discussion of A Wish After Midnight and The Door at the Crossroads, and today they’ve posted an interview where I get to answer a question I posed in the discussion guide for AWAM:

As a teacher and book club member, I appreciated the inclusion of the discussion topics, activities, and research at the end of the books. One of the questions was, “If you could change something in your life simply by making a wish, what would it be?” How would you answer that question?

Whoa–that’s a tough one! I met some teenage girls in DC last summer; they made an awesome video and their wishes were mostly for their families and communities. In this era of Black Lives Matter, it’s hard to put your own needs/desires ahead of others’. As an introvert I wish I had more daring. It’s hard for me to be open, and I’m very protective of my alone time/dream time. I crave security but that’s not the path I’ve chosen. Sometimes I wish I could embrace uncertainty instead of trying to anticipate and avoid problems before they even arise. They say, “Leap and the net will appear!” but that’s hard for me–especially as I get older. I turn 44 next month and find it harder to take risks. I sometimes joke that I’m all about artisanal pickles–I’m happy to bottle them by hand and sell at the local farmers market. Scaling up is hard…

And today I learned that artwork from Melena’s Jubilee is featured in the Children’s Book Council’s Diversity Newsletter! My niece is visiting from Nova Scotia so the next few days will be dedicated to showing her all that NYC has to offer. Tonight I’m working on two essays for Embrace Race; once those are done, I’ll get back to The Return…

support Blood Orange Press!

New Series of Diverse Children’s Books Set to Launch

Oakland Mom Founded Publishing Company to Ensure No More Kids Grow Up with “the Invisibility I Experienced”

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – Following the success of its first book, Oh Oh Baby Boy – called “remarkable” by the San Francisco Chronicle — Blood Orange Press is preparing to launch three new titles, expanding its effort to bring diversity in all its dimensions to children’s literature.

The first of the new books, One of A Kind, Like Me / Único Como Yo, written by Laurin Mayeno and illustrated by Robert Trujillo, will be released in late September, with the others following over the next two years.

Oakland native Janine Macbeth, a mother of two, created Blood Orange press out of frustration with the lack of diversity in children’s books. “As a kid I loved books – I mean loved books – so much so that I wanted to make them myself,” she recalls. But seeing the overwhelming whiteness of the children’s book world – from authors and illustrators to the characters portrayed – discouraged her. Still, Macbeth never let go of her dream, piling up experience in design, production and marketing at a variety of publishing firms before launching Blood Orange Press in 2013.

Blood Orange Press seeks to fill a longstanding gap in children’s literature: While over half of U.S. children under age five are children of color, only 15 percent of the kids’ books published last year featured main characters of color. “When children see themselves, their family, their community in books, it tells them that reading belongs in their life,” says Macbeth. “And that can fuel their success for a lifetime.”

School Library Journal praised Oh Oh Baby Boy, written and illustrated by Macbeth, as “emotionally and artistically satisfying … a beautifully conceived and executed book.”

One of A Kind, Like Me / Único Como Yo tells the story of Danny, a multiracial Latinx preschooler who decides to go to the school costume parade as a princess. It’s a gentle story that lifts up children who don’t fit gender stereotypes, and reflects the power of a loving and supportive community. Next up, in late 2017, will be Best Day Ever, in which cultural textile patterns unlock the imaginations of 12 diverse children as they take different journeys to the local park. In 2018, Blood Orange Press will release The Blue Flute, about a young African American girl’s relationship with a magical flute that reveals the music of her city.

To finish funding ongoing production expenses, Macbeth has launched a Kickstarter campaign. The Blood Orange Press Kickstarter page features a video in which Macbeth and the authors of the three new books discuss their vision for a more diverse and inclusive children’s book universe. The campaign includes one unique twist: Instead of choosing a sponsorship reward for themselves, sponsors who wish can instead elect to send books to the school, library, or community-based organization of their choice.

“Blood Orange Press is about creating the books that I missed as a child,” Macbeth says. “My sons are not going to grow up with the invisibility I experienced.”

###

Contact: Janine Macbeth, Publisher, janine@bloodorangepress.com

www.bloodorangepress.com

@BloodOrangePress

I’ll be interviewing Janine in the coming days so stay tuned! And check out this beautiful video she made about the importance of inclusive kid lit.

take care

This morning I went to get my annual mammogram. Part of me wanted to skip the 9am appointment; I’ve had 3 migraines in 5 days—always at night—so I take my medication before crawling into bed and then feel groggy in the morning. But I was more determined to keep the appointment this year because I wanted to get some advice from the nurse. A dear friend has lost two relatives to breast cancer and still won’t schedule a mammogram. I’ve repeatedly sent her information about ScanVan, which covers the cost whether or not you have insurance, but she still hasn’t made an appointment. The nurse today was just as perplexed as I am—why wouldn’t you do something that could save your life? If you can get through a pap smear, you can handle a mammogram, and both ensure that women stay healthy. I’m taking a break from Facebook because there have been several more police shootings and I can’t take the videos, and op-eds, and memes that highlight the uproar over a Black male athlete “taking a knee” versus the silence from so many Whites when yet another unarmed Black man “takes a bullet.” I want to focus on health and healing and how we manage to take care of ourselves and each other despite ongoing attacks against our community. When I met with the incredible young people at Juxtaposition Arts in Minneapolis, they talked about the intent behind the stunning mural they painted outside the center.

With a Black mother and child at the center, the mural memorializes lives lost in the community while also celebrating the achievement and potential of Black women throughout time. I thought of the many RIP murals that crop up here in NYC whenever another Black man is shot, and I was really glad that the young women who developed the mural looked inward as well and came up with ways to promote healing within the arts center. They made a space where guests can feel at ease and be comforted by the art and furnishings of the living room they call “the Blackhouse.” They even made healing kits that contained self-care items like tea bags, and bath salts, and a button like the one pictured above. Art has the power to heal and I know that when I write with murder on my mind, my stories change. Sometimes I let that happen, and sometimes I resist. We’re working on final illustrations for Milo’s Museum, and I got a positive response when I debuted the story last weekend at The Loft Literary Center. I made it very clear that the book still needs a lot of work and this afternoon I’ll be revising the text—again! But the illustrations are really coming along and I love being able to add nuances that a child might not understand but an adult will appreciate. Today Purple sent her first attempt at reproducing the European tradition of including Black servants in portraiture, and I love it! We’re going to mimic the pose in the portrait by having Poppa hold Milo’s hand. THIS is what I need to focus on right now. Half a dozen Black men talked to me as I walked the ten blocks to the clinic this morning; sometimes I responded, sometimes I didn’t because that’s my right. I’m trying to take care of myself this week, and that means being alone, turning inward, and doing things that make me feel valued and safe. Sam Bloom over at Reading While White alerted me to a lovely comment left by a woman who was taken by A Hand to Hold. She called it a “dandelion book”—“one [you]’d blow on, sending the seeds far and wide to rest in libraries and bookshelves everywhere.” And this is why she loved the book:

…some white/nonBlack people, even some lefty, anti-racist white people really do think of Black 3, 4, 5 year olds as baby criminals, or little monsters, or born filled with violence to the point that random white children might be in danger from them. And one of the more horrifying things is, it’s not at all unheard of for small Black children to be treated like that by teachers and others in authority. Not unheard of at all.

And that’s why I love this book. Mind, I am not a librarian or children’s book person, so there may be 1000s of books like this already on the shelves, but I don’t know them. I just know this book at the moment.

But back to why it’s my dandelion book, why I think it’s so important. I went and looked up more about it and throughout the book the little girl is treated by her father as something precious. Loved. Cherished. And her father, of course, is the one doing all the loving and cherishing. And I love that it shows that, but also both the child’s and father’s vulnerability when it’s time to let go, for the little girl to go to school. That’s this precious, loved little just as frightened as all the other children. Just as confused by the big wide world outside of dad and mom’s influence. And just as ready for a friend of any color as most other children are. It frames Black children, this child, in a way they rarely are in children’s or adults literature.

It’s a sunny, warm day so I’m going to go to the botanic garden a little later. I have more to say about my week in Minnesota but Sarah Park Dahlen and I may try to publish a joint account elsewhere so I’ll save the rest for now. WNDB is hosting a #BlackGirlMagic roundtable today—and we definitely need a little magic this week. It’s a great opportunity to hear Black women kid lit authors defining the term and how it operates in their work. Here’s part of the introduction by Dhonielle Clayton:

As an adult looking back, I realize now that my discomfort came from the fact that I couldn’t find myself. I was always the sidekick in books, movies, and TV. Girls who looked like me never got the guy. Seventeen magazine gave tips for the latest hair trends, but they never included my hair texture. I was always pretty for a black girl. I was the smudge.

I needed magic.

I hope a new generation of black girls can cling tight to the novels of the ladies below and start to find themselves in interesting and dynamic new media. I know that if I had had even a few of these books and role models, the teenage me wouldn’t have felt so invisible.

This is a grim moment in our history but we can only move forward if we take care of ourselves and each other. So do what you gotta do…

highlights

I meant to start my sugar detox today but woke up this morning wanting to try the maple syrup gifted to me by the Minnesota Humanities Society (along with some beautiful books published by community groups). So I made pancakes for breakfast and then went to Starbucks in the afternoon and got some of the chocolate-covered biscuits I ate every other night while I was away (there was a Starbucks in the hotel lobby). It rained all day so I didn’t make it to the park, and that means I haven’t gone for a run in over a week. Travel always disrupts my routine, and sometimes that’s a good thing; I need to be pushed, otherwise I stay inside my comfort zone and end up in a rut. My week in the Twin Cities was full—a campus talk, five school visits, and a couple of other public events. The introvert in me was worried about having the social stamina to make it through each day, but I realized that it’s possible to feel exhausted and invigorated at the same time! I usually got back to the hotel in the evening with a full head and heart, which means I didn’t sleep well because I didn’t write while I was away. I can’t remember everything that happened, but I was struck by certain moments and interactions, so will try to record those now. I arrived Tuesday afternoon and that evening Prof. Sarah Park Dahlen hosted a fantastic event at St. Kate’s; her MLIS students and colleagues helped us to have a really substantive conversation. Sarah also revealed the new kid lit graphic she commissioned, which is great—I used it in my book talks last week and the students really responded to the mirrors diminishing in size and number as you move from the White child over to the Native child. You can read about the team Sarah assembled and download your own copy of the graphic here. I met a lot of wonderful future librarians that evening, but I was struck by one grad who came up to tell me that reading A Wish After Midnight meant a lot to him because at the time he was preparing to come out and he really identified with Genna’s journey and her struggle to be seen as her authentic self. I tend to simplify the mirror metaphor when I’m talking to kids, so we don’t always talk about the many different ways you can identify with a character and see yourself reflected in a book. But it means a lot to me when Genna’s story resonates with a wide range of people. The next morning I was taken to Bancroft Elementary School; they co-sponsored my week in MN and I met with their three 4th-grade classes. School culture is important and as soon as I entered Bancroft, I noticed a difference in tone. All the schools I visited in MN were fairly quiet (compared to NYC schools) but the mindfulness training for students and staff there created a really unique experience. When one child asked me to name my favorite food, before I could even answer a girl with beautifully hennaed hands blurted out, “Cake!” How did she know?! That afternoon my two hosts from Umbra & the Givens Collection of African American Literature took me to Gordon Parks HS; most of the students left when the bell rang halfway through my presentation, but six or seven stayed and we had an excellent conversation about Black masculinity/fragility and the need for more stories about the Black Lives Matter movement. The teens in the Twin Cities are definitely “woke!” The next day I was taken to Lucy Laney Elementary School by one of my other hosts, Chaun Webster. Chaun runs Ancestry Books and his kids attend that school so we got a warm welcome followed by a tour. Then I presented for two groups of second graders. I don’t have much experience working with kids that age, but they were wonderful and very excited to meet an author for the first time. When I talked about teaching a little girl whose mother was in prison, almost two-thirds of the kids raised their hands to tell me about their family member who was also incarcerated. We don’t have enough mirror books to adequately reflect the many realities of these kids…

That afternoon Sarah picked me up and took me to Maplewood MS where I presented one and a half times for 7th and 8th grade students. One asked me how much I earn as an author and I told her about half of what I once earned as a professor ($70K). I thought about that later and wondered if I should have kept that information to myself. I’m generally for greater transparency in publishing, and don’t want to give the impression that I’m “living large” when most of the time I’m hustling to make ends meet. But the hustle is worthwhile—I left the academy because it no longer gave me the time I need to dream and write. The past two years haven’t been easy, but I’m blessed to have friends and colleagues who value what I have to offer and I’m always honored when they bring me out to meet the members of their communities. I’ll have to finish blogging about my trip tomorrow—time to catch up on some of the sleep I lost by ruminating endlessly last week…

 

jitters & joy

I’m packing for Minnesota! It’s cooler out there so I’m looking forward to autumn weather after our hot and humid week here in Brooklyn. Books are taking up half the space in my suitcase, plus I’ll have a carry-on full of books for the school visits that have been scheduled for the next five days (I’m super grateful that my publisher offered to ship a box containing copies of Melena’s Jubilee). I always get anxious before I travel but that just prompts me to over-organize. I’ll stop at the copy shop this afternoon and then I can hopefully come home, relax, and write for a little while. It’s such an honor to be invited anywhere because indie authors are generally left out of the “official” kid lit loop. But it’s especially gratifying when your hosts go to so much trouble to build community around your visit; I’m not the only one doing what I do, and so I’m really looking forward to meeting other writers, activists, scholars, and students who are fighting to change the arts landscape in the Twin Cities. I’ll be in public schools most days (Lucy Laney Elementary School, Bancroft Elementary School, Gordon Parks High School, Vadnais Heights Elementary School, and Maplewood Middle School). Below are my public events; if you’re in or near the Twin Cities, I hope you’ll join us!

Inclusivity and Indie Authors: The Case for Community-Based Publishing

Hosted by the St. Catherine University Master of Library and Information Science Program and its American Library Association Student Chapter, Progressive Librarians Guild, and Student Governance Organization & Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen (pictured above)

Tuesday September 13 @ 7:00 pm

St. Catherine University – Mendel 106

2004 Randolph Ave.

St. Paul, MN 55105

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1576818495957311/

Flyer: ZettaElliott-StKatesMLISProgram-Flyer

Inclusivity and Indie Authors: The Case for Community-Based Publishing

(This is “Everyone Has a Story to Tell”–a writing workshop, not the same as the talk above)

Hosted by Ancestry Books & the Center for Earth, Energy, and Democracy

Friday, September 16 @ 10:00 am

Lucy Laney Elementary

3333 Penn Ave N

Minneapolis, MN 55412

10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Facebook (please RSVP): https://www.facebook.com/events/187857264966279/

Zetta Elliott Reading & Panel Discussion on Elevating Absent Narratives

Panelists include R. Vincent Moniz Jr., Shalini Gupta, Andrea Jenkins, Sarah Park Dahlen, and Junauda Alma. With moderator Chaun Webster.

Saturday, September 17 @ 7:00 pm

The Loft Literary Center

1011 S Washington Ave

Minneapolis, MN 55415

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/312269269124828/

 

coming up!

Next week I’ll be heading to Minnesota and I can’t wait! I’ll blog more about that in a couple of days, but you can find my schedule of public events here. When I get back, I’ll be giving a presentation at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the NYPL. I’ve only got a couple of local school visits scheduled so far, but I’ll be traveling to Illinois for Youth Lit Fest and Cincinnati for Books by the Banks next month, and then I’ll be in Atlanta for NCTE in November. I’m hoping to have Milo’s Museum done in time for the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC; all the sketches are done so stay tuned because I’ll post Purple Wong’s color illustrations over the coming weeks. We have a mini-heatwave here in NYC but fall is coming…I can feel it in the air!

Exploring the Mark of Noba

“Sistas are doin’ it for themselves.” This could be the mantra of Afro-Latinx twins Libertad and Guinevere Tomas, who read, review, write, and publish inclusive YA lit. Their second book, The Unforgettables, is slated for release on September 12th. After reading their impressive debut, The Mark of Noba, I had some questions for these inspiring young women and Libertad kindly took the time to respond:

A call of souls. Union of power. Transcendent of time.

Sterling Wayfairer has one goal for his senior year: make his mark. But things don’t go as planned when he starts to encounter his mysterious classmate Tetra. Tetra not only has answers to the recent disappearances, but Sterling will soon find that making his mark isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sterling discovers he shares a spiritual bond with Tetra,and that only their power has the ability to stop the malevolent evil they face. They must work together or risk the destruction of their world.

I’m really interested in your publishing process–have you started your own imprint?


We have started our own imprint. It was something we knew from the start we wanted to do since we have a ton of books in us. It was just best to “brand” ourselves from the very beginning. My sister and I have had this one idea in our head that’s sort of like an Afro-futuristic dystopia where the leaders of the world are based on Valkyries. When we first thought of Valkyries, we sort of thought of them as “good guys” so in this particular story we made them villains or Rebellious Valkyries. I think we connected to that term because we felt like it described the two of us when it comes to the message we try to put out there. We try to be original and break free from the mold of what everyone else is doing. The name just sort of stuck after that.

How do you develop ideas and co-write?

Well, in terms of developing ideas, currently none of our ideas are really new. They’re just ideas that have been in our heads for years that we just managed to fine tune before the published product. I think the unique thing about our development process is that, for the most part, we don’t come up with ideas jointly. An idea comes to [Guinevere] and she sits on it for a little while before approaching me with it. The same goes for me. We tend to develop the ideas that have the most to work with.

The Mark of Noba was Guinevere’s initial idea (my sister is a bigger speculative fiction fan than I am) so when she presented me with it, we figured out ways we could both contribute. Usually that means streamlining an outline and then assigning each other chapters to work on. It probably wouldn’t work for everyone, but it works for us. We have an advantage being twins. She barely has to explain anything to me before I understand the picture and message she’s trying to convey. It’s a twin thing, lol.


With our next project being YA contemporary (much more my preference to work on), I have to admit, it was my initial idea and it had been floating inside my head for almost eleven years. I wasn’t even interested in bringing it to the masses until my sister stumbled across an ancient draft that had to be like seven years old and convinced me to rework it. I’m sure if she hadn’t, it’d still be sitting in our own little slush pile. For that reason it’s great to have a writing partner. Many times we push each other and since we’re close, we’re not afraid to admit to each other when something isn’t working.

Do you use Wattpad or other digital platforms to preview your novels?

For The Mark of Noba we did. Wattpad was the only platform we were super consistent with. Inkitt was another one but Wattpad worked the best because it has the most engagement. People are constantly leaving comments and providing feedback, especially teenagers. And applying to have your story featured makes people more aware of your work. I wouldn’t waste my time on Inkitt, or at least not over Wattpad. It was awesome to get feedback from teen readers since, for the most part, they formed the majority of the readers that loved and commented on the book. I’d definitely do it again for a future book. Speculative fiction definitely does the best on there!

How do you square the #ownvoices mandate with your decision to have a white male protagonist?


When we first came up with this project, the #ownvoices call to action didn’t exist at the time and when the initial idea came to Guinevere, Sterling and Tetra had equal storytelling roles in the book. But we realized that Tetra, our heroine, revealed too much information that would be uncovered in later books. We decided to make Sterling the main storyteller since he’s what most would refer to as “The Dummy,” the one who questions everything and knows little of what’s about to happen.


I’m sort of at a loss when it comes to #ownvoices. I deeply respect the reasoning for it and it makes sense that if you aren’t qualified to be writing from a POV other than your own, then you shouldn’t be. But all that leaves me with are characters of my own background, and I feel limited in that because I’m Afro-Latinx. I’m not the average black narrative in the country I live in and my whole life I’ve been immersed in African American culture, especially Hip-Hop culture. So for the most part, I feel like I’ve been around enough African Americans to emulate them, so it feels strange for me to feel like I can’t write from that POV.

Our next heroine is Haitian American, we are not. Our next hero is half Japanese and half Welsh on his mom’s side. Again, we are not. What I can say is that we never walk into a project without the right team of helpers. If we don’t have anyone close to us to consult about cultures we don’t readily identify with, then it won’t happen. We care too much about good representation to write whatever we darn well choose.

You said online somewhere that you were “self-published and proud.” How do you respond to the prevailing stigma and exclusion of indie authors?

Well, it’s tough. I know that there is some stigma for being an indie author. There are actually a lot of things we’ve learned since publishing last year that we had to fall face first to learn–like that your book’s cover has to convey genre. That took us ages to figure out. After being mentored, we learned that our first cover read as middle grade, since it was illustrated and that’s more of a common practice for MG titles. Growing pains, lol.


We’ve always been super confused by the exclusion since before we realized it, we’d had several Indie books on our shelves that we loved and enjoyed and didn’t know there was a difference at the time (the authors clearly put a lot of time into their craft).


We didn’t care who’d published a story, just that it was a great story and that it was available to us. The only way we attempt to combat stigma is to write the stories we wished we had when we were much younger.


Does it feel like a “new day” in publishing from where you’re standing?


I wouldn’t say it feels like a “new day,” but I do think my sister and I focus more on pushing digital titles since that’s where we see the most success. It is a bit of a challenge since as Indie authors, it’s a ton of work to get into libraries. But it is our dream to be in libraries someday, we’re working on that now and hope to accomplish that goal by the end of the year.


I think the most beneficial part of being indie is that our readers have known where to find us. And by “readers” we mean girls that are missing from books. Darker-skinned, kinky-haired black girls who almost always find themselves missing in mainstream books because in our media, black is synonymous with the bi-racial aesthetic, which is also important. But there are young ladies who can not pass, or feel as though being “only” black isn’t good enough, and those are who we write our stories for. When something comes to us we don’t think, “Oh, I hope this is mainstream enough.” The only thought that passes through our heads is that there’s a young girl who’s got this big hair, or non-European features, or even this name that is hard to pronounce (like ours are). When she comes across a description of our female characters, she can’t help but squee a little when she realizes our main character talks like her, even if it’s that vernacular they teach you to avoid. Or how she can navigate more than one world, hers and the one she doesn’t always feel like she belongs in.

That’s the only thing we’re interested in when it comes to publishing. We just want the people our books are meant for to finally have what they’ve been searching for. So perhaps it is a new day. A new day where we aren’t solely depending on publishing houses to tell us when our stories are finally good enough to reach larger audiences.

Guinevere and Libertad go by many superhero aliases. Whether you know them by G.L. Tomas, the Twinjas, or the Rebellious Valkyries, their mission is always the same: spreading awareness of diversity in books. Oh, and trying to figure out the use for pocketless pants! They host other allies and champions of diversity in their secret lair in Connecticut.


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