Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 67

see what we saw

If you were at the NYPL yesterday for Betsy Bird’s Children’s Literature Salon then you know that we had a full house (all 80 seats were filled!) and people came ready to both listen and share their insights and experiences. Betsy is an expert moderator, which made it easy for those of us on the panel to share our thoughts on diversity in children’s literature. I met editor Connie Hsu for the first time, and learned about how her experience growing up in Alabama continues to influence her decisions as an editor. Connie’s aware of the importance of tradition but she’s also looking for what’s new, which is encouraging. I was *so* excited to finally meet Sofia Quintero, fierce author/filmmaker/activist and cancer survivor—I had to stop myself from reaching over to high-five her every time she made a brilliant point about the coded terms (“mainstream,” “cross-over”) used to conceal racialized power dynamics in publishing. Sofia works with Book Up and she told us about an experience taking a group of kids from the Bronx into the Barnes & Noble in Tribeca. “Why are there more pictures of zombies on book covers than people of color?” After the panel ended, I met Allie Jane Bruce, a children’s librarian at Bankstreet College of Education who let me know that she works with children who are just as outraged about the lack of diversity in publishing. I’m hoping to meet those young people and hear about their strategies for creating change. During the Q&A session we revisited the issue of David Levithan’s Teen Author Festival, which continues to be overwhelmingly white despite repeated complaints. So how DO we create change?

I watched Makers: Women Who Make America last week and at the end of the 3-hour documentary on the women’s movement found myself feeling rather blue. A couple of black feminists were included in the film and one Latina, but no Asian Americans and no American Indians. It was basically white middle-class women talking about white middle-class women. One scholar was asked to identify the movement’s limitations and she said that the feminist movement had failed to address the needs of working-class women, which has only increased the suffering of women and children living in poverty. White middle-class women have a long history of working with people of color to create change (abolition, the civil rights movement), but there have also been times when white women chose to throw people of color under the bus in order to preserve their own privilege. White middle-class women seem to dominate the children’s publishing industry, and so it was heartening to have several white women approach me after the panel to share their activism and/or to ask about where to start. When white women rise up, they’re a formidable force so I do hope we can stir them out of complacency and into action. We need more allies!

Speaking of allies, it was great to see Lyn Miller-Lachmann at yesterday’s event. Lyn is an award-winning YA author and core committee member of See What We See, the social justice advocacy group that generated a lot of interest during the panel. She’s got a new book, Rogue, coming out next month and I was thrilled to get a copy yesterday. Please support the writers who are fighting for change!

NYPL Diversity Panel graphics

This afternoon I will be on a diversity panel at the NYPL. I thought I’d post some of my slides for those of you who are unable to attend. A full report will be posted tomorrow…

The US Children’s Publishing Industry:
Is the door open or closed?

My thoroughly unscientific, simplified representation of diversity in publishing in 2013 (based on observation and anecdotal evidence):

I believe there’s a direct link between limited diversity in the publishing profession and the lack of diversity in books for young readers. Although it is important for white authors to learn how to accurately represent people of color in their work, that alone will NOT change the status quo. I’m wary of groups whose goal is to “celebrate diversity” without also promoting equity.

What IS the difference between diversity and equity? Diversity focuses on difference but equity focuses on fairness. These definitions come from the UC Berkeley website:

Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. It is all-inclusive and recognizes everyone and every group as part of the diversity that should be valued. A broad definition includes not only race, ethnicity, and gender — the groups that most often come to mind when the term “diversity” is used — but also age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, and physical appearance. It also involves different ideas, perspectives, and values.

Equity is the guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all…while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups. The principle of equity acknowledges that there are historically underserved and underrepresented populations and that fairness regarding these unbalanced conditions is needed to assist equality in the provision of effective opportunities to all groups.

The first step in creating greater diversity and equity in the publishing industry involves developing a vision of progress. Here’s what I hope the industry will look like in 2020:

What would YOUR ideal children’s literature community look like?

The UK Publishing Equalities Charter offers specific actions groups can take to promote equality and diversity. Learn more at equalityinpublishing.org

end of the road

Somebody keeps moving the goal line. And that somebody, of course, is me. I’ve written 3,000 words this weekend and figure if I continue to write a thousand words a day, I will finish The Deep before this month ends (exceeding my self-imposed 40K-word limit). I’ve worked the ending out in my mind but getting there isn’t as easy as it seems—or as quick. I’ve got Nevis on the brain, possibly because I met with my faculty writing mentor last week and I know I am *supposed* to be working on The Hummingbird’s Tongue this semester. Then my mother sent me an email and asked when the sequel to A Wish After Midnight will be ready—her friends are eager to read more about Genna and Judah. Then yesterday, while waiting for the train, I started thinking about my niece and how she hasn’t yet read The Secret Garden. I have an illustrated copy and wondered if I should send it to her, but then I wished I could send her a book that could serve as a mirror for her pretty brown self. Could I adapt the story and set it in the Caribbean? Or what if I combined my interest in Sarah Bonetta Forbes with my love of magic and gardens? A little girl is brought from Africa to England and is placed at an estate where she discovers a secret and makes new friends…This is what happens when I’m nearing the end of a project—my anxiety kicks up and I start looking ahead instead of rooting myself in the moment. Yesterday I came home from grocery shopping and found a sequel to The Secret Garden was on TV. I started to watch it and then switched to the 1949 black and white version of the original, which is on YouTube. Then I watched a three-hour special on gun violence in schools, which included an interview with a teary Arne Duncan. Then the news. Then Death in Paradise, this problematic British crime show set in the Caribbean. Then my favorite Irish film Once. The amazing thing is that all this television consumption doesn’t stop me from writing. In a way, the background noise helps me to focus on the novel. That’s what I tell myself, anyway. My students turn in their papers on Monday so then I’ll have to switch gears again and get my grading done. And, of course, our diversity panel at the NYPL is this coming Saturday. “There’s enough time.” That’s my new mantra. I’m having lunch with a group of friends today and part of me wants to bail. I need time to write! But I also need to get out of my head for a while—and I need to get these cupcakes out of my apartment. This is day twelve without cake…only 28 days to go!

feast or famine

My good friend Gabrielle says an artist must learn to “cultivate selfishness.” This is particularly difficult for women of color artists, but my friends and I are actively working at making space in our lives for our art. I wrote 1500 words this weekend and spent part of today cutting sections of The Deep that no longer work with the constantly evolving narrative. I’ve completed eight chapters, which means I have just three to go (according to my outline, which also changes), and last night I had a vision of the novel’s conclusion—yes, I *saw* it and only hope that image stays in my mind *and* works with the unfolding chain of events. Creating time to write means leaving plenty of time in each day for dreaming, and that means I’ve had to learn to say NO even when part of me wants to say YES. Last November I was set to moderate a panel at the second A Is for Anansi conference at NYU when I received an invitation to conduct a writing workshop for Girls Write Now on the exact same day. I accepted the invitation and in the middle of the conference dashed up to 34th St. to talk about how I write historical fiction. Today I made it until 4pm before a chronic condition required me to lie down. I’m on a twelve-hour cycle it seems, because the same pain woke me up at 3:30am this morning. When the pain subsided, I decided to run some errands. The store was just two train stops away so I decided to walk home and I’d only gotten two blocks up Flatbush Avenue when a breathless young white woman popped in front of me and asked, “Are you an author?” I nodded and she told me that she and her mentee had attended my writing workshop at Girls Write Now last fall and they had used my definition of sankofa (“there is no shame in going back to retrieve something of value you’ve left behind”) as the opening line of their short story. That made my day and I told Samantha (the mentor) how much I respected her commitment to mentoring a young woman—I was there for just 45 minutes, but she’s doing the real heavy lifting, showing up week after week to help that young writer grow. I do worry that some of my NOs will catch up with me someday, and Scorpios do tend to have an “all or nothing” approach to life. I’ve given up cake for Lent, which is good, but that seems to have increased my consumption of caramels. I’m aiming for balance—I bought two bags of caramels at the store *and* two snack packs of fruit (with no sugar added). I took the train to the store but walked home. I had friends over for Downton Abbey‘s finale last night but managed to enjoy a sumptuous tea without breaking my cake fast. I pulled out of a faculty writing group but found a faculty mentor who shares my scholar/novelist identity. I’m withdrawing from an advocacy group but will continue to contribute until a replacement can be found. It’s all about balance and making sure that I continue to do for others even as I reserve dreamspace for myself…

 

Diversity and the State of the Children’s Book

If you’re a member of the children’s literature community then you know Betsy Bird, Fuse8 blogger and Youth Materials Specialist at the NYPL. You probably also know that Betsy runs a monthly Children’s Literature Salon and on March 2nd the focus will be on diversity (learn more here). I hope you’ll join me, Betsy, Sofia Quintero, Connie Hsu, and Jacqueline Woodson as we discuss the challenge of creating equity in the children’s publishing industry. I’ve just joined the diversity committee at my job and it’s fascinating to see firsthand how the college gathers data in order to assess the progress it has or hasn’t made in meeting its diversity goals. Why can’t the publishing industry do the same?

the next big thing: The Deep

The Next Big Thing Hop: the traveling blog that asks authors whom they consider the NEXT BIG THING, and then has them pass along the questions for those authors to answer in their blogs.

Thank you, Aker @ Futuristically Ancient for tagging me! Read hers here.

Rules: Answer ten questions about your current Work In Progress on your blog. Tag five writers / bloggers and add links to their pages so we can hop along to them next.

What is the working title of your book…

The Deep. I’ve already got the cover designed in my mind and hope to collaborate with illustrator John Jennings (that’s one of his afrofuturistic images above).

Where did the idea come from for the book?

My last novel, Ship of Souls, was set to be published in February 2012 and my editor asked me to consider writing a “Kindle Single” to help promote the book. I wrote a scene in which the female teen protagonist was nearly raped and that later became the foundation for a book told from Nyla’s point of view. I always knew that I wanted to write a trilogy—three novellas about the three friends (D, Nyla, and Keem) from Ship of Souls. Before I even finished that novel, I woke up one morning and heard someone ask, “Are you sure you’re fully human?” And I knew that The Deep would be about “the gift” Nyla inherited from the mysterious mother who abandoned her as a child.

What genre does your book fall under?

Urban fantasy.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

That’s hard—I think in a couple of years Willow Smith could play Nyla. I don’t see enough young black men on screen to be able to cast Keem or D, but I see kids on the train everyday who could fill those roles.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When Nyla find herself at the center of a battle between good and evil, she must learn to wield the astonishing power she inherited from the mother who abandoned her as a child.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’d like to keep working with Amazon Publishing. My last two novels were published by AmazonEncore but my editor has moved to a new imprint and there’s a new children’s/YA editor here in NYC whom I haven’t met yet.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I don’t have a finished draft—I’m at 32K words and expect to wrap up by 35K. I don’t really write drafts. I take notes and write bits and pieces for a few months and then I sit down and pull everything together. I went to London for Xmas and wrote two thousand words, then I returned to Brooklyn and wrote 20K words in January. I’m hoping to finish up by the end of February. I revise, of course, but the manuscript gels fairly quickly.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I don’t know if I’ve read anything like this. I guess the mother-daughter dynamic could be compared to Parable of the Talents—The Deep shares that complex issue of legacy.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Nyla’s a fun character—she was my favorite in Ship of Souls, though I really tried to write an appealing male protagonist. Her feistiness, the way she questions her attraction to boys, her unique history (she was raised on a military base in Germany), all made me want to feature her in another book.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

This is perhaps my most explicitly feminist novel for young readers, and I suspect some will say it’s too dark for teens. But I love to write about the way teens handle power, and I want readers to see Brooklyn in a way they’ve never seen it before.

Below are my tags of other authors:

Ekere Tallie

Neesha Meminger

Carleen Brice

Courrtia Newland

Sofia Quintero

join us in St. Lucia!

 “‘The current unbroken/ the circuits kept open’: Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth”

The 16th Triennial ACLALS Conference, St. Lucia, West Indies, August 5 –9, 2013

In “Sometimes in the Middle of the Story,” a poem that revisits the perilous event of the Middle Passage, the eminent Walcott scholar, Edward Baugh, gives primacy to the connecting currents of the “ocean” as a central motif. While the sea is viewed as an archive of history as Nobel Laureate and St. Lucian poet, Derek Walcott has argued, Baugh mobilizes this metaphor to both recognize the traumatic beginning of the colonial encounter in the Caribbean and the rich “refashioning of futures” of cultural connections that the Middle Passage engendered. No doubt the colonial encounter of slavery and indentureship in the Caribbean could have led to cultural enclosures, but in Baugh’s view, “the paths of ocean” represent connecting currents between and beyond the cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Indigenous Caribbean.  The sea, in particular, the Atlantic Ocean, was a site of treacherous travel and trade, yet that very sea is a source “connecting us still”.

Not all colonial encounters carry with them the violence of such ruptures; but whether we had traumatic or benign beginnings, we wonder what future consequently has been imagined for these and other Commonwealth lands? What global zones of power and influence haunt the seemingly ecumenical and liberal discourses of cultural exchange? What cultural connections and disconnections have emerged over time? Whose cultural currents are unbroken: whose cultural circuits have been kept open? What is the currency of indigenous language and linguistic legacies? In the commingling of cultures in the postcolonial circuits of exchange, what is the relationship between indigenous and outside cultures? Is the implicit comparative critical lens fostered in early postcolonial theory still viable? What do these connecting comparisons obscure or reveal?  What is the relationship between economic currencies and cultural circuits? What are the historical and critical currents that mark postcolonial and commonwealth studies at this time? What connections are there between different genders, sexualities and ecologies? How valuable is the more recent deployment of concepts of desire, intimacy and affect to postcolonial and Commonwealth studies? What useful connections can be made between such disciplinary paradigms as globalization, diaspora and cultural studies to Commonwealth and postcolonial literature and language studies? In general, how might literary and language studies help us to understand the value of cultural connections and disconnections throughout the Commonwealth?

The 16th Triennial ACLALS Conference invites scholars working in a variety of media (literature, linguistics, film, the visual and musical arts and popular culture) to present papers on the theme, “‘The current unbroken/ the circuits kept open’:  Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth,” on the questions raised above, and on a range of topics including those listed below:

Historical and cultural currents in the Commonwealth

The common wealth of nations

Identity, currency and the practices of cultural consumption

Currents in language studies

The currency of cultures and/or Cultural Studies

Linguistic circuits and circuits of identity or cultural exchange

Cultural circuits and economic currency

The Currency of trade and travel

Circuits of violence/brokenness/trauma and cultural discourse

Discursive cultural circuits on gender and sexuality

Middle Passages and stories in the middle

The Black Atlantic and the Commonwealth

Connections/disconnections throughout the Commonwealth

Circling definitions: Commonwealth? Postcolonial? Postnational?

Waves of critical, cultural or linguistic practice

Short-circuiting genre: literary experimentation?

Island currents, global changes: conversations across the Commonwealth

Imagining Commonwealth futures

FINAL EXTENDED DEADLINE: Abstracts of maximum 300 words for papers of 20 minutes duration, and maximum 400 words for three-paper panels (with the names of the panelists) which engage with these and other relevant questions along with a short bio not exceeding 100 words should be submitted to ACLALSCONFERENCE2013@gmail.com by 28 February 2013. N.B. As of December 30, 2012, acceptance letters will be sent on a “first come, first served” basis and there are limited spaces.

farewell, Coretta

My grandmother was an ardent admirer of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A “colored” woman raised in Canada to pass for white, my grandmother proudly displayed a framed copy of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the wall of her home. As a teenager in Toronto I took a class on American history in order to learn more about the “Negro” ancestors my grandmother so often discussed, and I was devastated when she made a gift of the speech to my frivolous older sister. I was the one teaching the Civil Rights Movement to my high school classmates; I was the one who could recite portions of the speech by heart. My grandmother did give me her carefully preserved copy of Life magazine and though I admired Mrs. King’s sorrowful yet elegant profile, I still harbored resentment over the allocation of the speech. That piece of parchment went from a place of honor in my grandparents’ manse to the wall of my sister’s apartment; it hung next to the stereo, which blared lyrics by Jay-Z that would have made Mrs. King blanch. It took years for me to realize that my grandmother gave Dr. King’s speech to the granddaughter who needed it most. I wrongly thought that my investment in social justice entitled me to inherit the framed speech, but my grandmother knew that I was ready for something more and she was right—by my last year of college I was critiquing the “I Have a Dream” speech in the campus newspaper.

Since penning that editorial twenty years ago I have worked to develop my skills as a black feminist cultural critic. In 1994 I reversed the migration that brought my African American ancestors to Canada in 1820. Unfortunately my grandmother passed in 2002, months before I earned my PhD in American Studies from NYU; my dissertation, which focused on representations of racial violence in African American literature, was dedicated to her. I currently teach courses on race, gender, and sexuality in the Center for Ethnic Studies at BMCC, a community college in lower Manhattan that serves mostly immigrant and working-class students of color. Many are reluctant readers and so I’ve had to develop innovative ways of introducing them to black literature, which they wrongly expect to be irrelevant, outdated, and uninteresting. In addition to my teaching I’ve published scholarly essays, short fiction, and poetry in various anthologies, and my plays have been staged in New York, Chicago, and Cleveland. I’ve also published three books for young readers—one of which, BIRD, won numerous awards after its publication in 2008, including a Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent for the illustrator, Shadra Strickland. Though she hoped at least one of her grandchildren would follow in her footsteps and become a preacher, overall I think my grandmother would approve.

I speak to hundreds of school children every year and my author presentation always begins with the shiny stickers on the cover of BIRD. Here in the US, children always know who Coretta Scott King was and they know that, like her husband, she believed in justice and equality for all. We talk about the way awards draw attention to a particular book and often ensure that it won’t go out of print. Then I ask the children to guess how many books are published in the US each year. Once we settle on the figure (about 5,000), I ask the children to guess what percentage of those books have black authors. They’re natural optimists, children. Most of the students I meet attend majority-black schools—urban schools that are just as segregated as those that predate the Civil Rights Movement—and it’s not uncommon for them to have black-authored books in the classroom. So there are always gasps of amazement when I hold up three fingers and inform them that less than 3% of all the children’s books published each year are written by authors who look like them. I add that Asian American, Latino, and Native American authors each represent less than 1% of the total, leaving 95% of all books for children written by members of one racial group. “Does that sound fair to you?” I ask and invariably I hear a chorus of indignant NOs in response.

When I saw the list of CSK Award recipients on Monday, I wondered what Coretta Scott King would think. I never had the privilege of meeting Mrs. King and all I know about the award is what I’ve read on the ALA website. I know that in 2009 the CSK Book Award celebrated its fortieth anniversary, and I do believe that black authors and illustrators are better off today than they were in the “all-white world of children’s books” of the 1970s. But when we look at the small number of authors and illustrators who seem to win a CSK Award year after year after year, are we looking at a picture of real diversity? Is the award helping to increase the overall pool of black authors and illustrators, or is it merely upholding the status quo by feeding a few big fish in a very small pond? Publishers no doubt realize the committee’s seeming preference for books about Dr. King and Rosa Parks and (a few) other historical figures. Does an editor’s desire to win yet another shiny sticker deter her from publishing other authors of other kinds of books that also “demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values?”

The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

Self-published author and quilter Kyra Hicks has conducted an analysis of the award recipients and her findings indicate that the past four decades have produced a sort of winners club, an African American artistic elite whose insider status affords them creative opportunities too often denied their emerging and/or aspiring peers. It would seem as if the John Steptoe Award for New Talent, “occasionally given for young authors or illustrators who demonstrate outstanding promise at the beginning of their careers,” was developed to help remedy this situation and yet it was not given out in 2011 or 2012, which puzzles me. The African American authors and illustrators at The Brown Bookshelf annually publish a list of 28 contributors to the field of black children’s literature. Is it possible that the CSK Book Awards Committee found no one worthy of recognition for two consecutive years?

Perhaps it is easier to look backward at the past, which is familiar and safe, than it is to look forward where new possibilities—frightening to some—extend across the shifting terrain of the future. Yet the recent presidential election revealed the danger (and ultimate futility) of holding onto a romanticized version of the past, and the 2008 election of Barack Obama demonstrated that eventually the old guard must yield to the new. The publishing world is gripped by upheaval right now and many steadfastly cling to old models for fear of embracing innovation and developing new traditions that will respond to and reflect the realities of the twenty-first century. With so-called minorities expected to make up the majority of the US population in thirty years (minority babies already constitute the majority), what can the CSK Book Awards Committee do to ensure that equity—an ideal cherished by Dr. and Mrs. King—is not undermined by the children’s publishing industry? If 95% of children’s book authors were men, white women across the country would mobilize to create change. But where is the outrage over racial dominance in the children’s literature community?

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

In the past I have defended the CSK Award against claims that writers of all races should be eligible. With less than 3% of the publishing pie, though we constitute 13% of the US population, I felt that black authors and illustrators deserved something to call their own. Today I am less convinced of the relevance of the CSK Awards and wonder if I ought to revise the portion of my author presentation that claims the award reflects the values of Dr. and Mrs. King. The award-granting process is often controversial and generally shrouded in secrecy, though a 2010 article in School Library Journal lifted the veil on the Caldecott Medal. The CSK Book Awards Committee considers all genres, I believe, but the Caldecott focuses on only one genre and still jury members can expect to review more than 700 titles each year. I am not entirely convinced of the link between quantity and quality in books, but there is something to be said for competition and I think creativity truly flourishes when more (and more kinds of) people are invited to the drawing table. As television’s numerous talent competitions demonstrate, the US has a deep pool of gifted individuals who are simply waiting for an opportunity to shine.

Last year I received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to write a family memoir about my African American ancestors; I am anxious to explore the social pressures that first led them to flee slavery in the US only to further escape into whiteness in order to avoid racism in Canada. In my country of origin, an average of two black authors manage to publish a book for children each year, making a race-based award like the CSK impossible. Things are better here in the US, which is why I chose to relocate, but after more than a decade trying to publish my twenty manuscripts for young readers, I’m ready to throw in the towel and move on. I am close to completing two young adult novels, both speculative fiction, and once they’re done I plan to leave the world of children’s literature behind. I am disappointed by the complacency of so many individuals and institutions that claim to have children’s best interest at heart, yet I am encouraged by the fact that a small group of activists is currently in the process of reviving/reinventing the Council on Interracial Books for Children. I will do what I can to assist with the launch of this endeavor, and I hope its emphasis on social justice will truly honor the transformative vision of Dr. and Mrs. King.

support black women writers!

Third Conference on Women Writers of African Descent

Will Honor Jayne Cortez &

Feature Angela Davis, Sapphire, Evelyne Trouillot, and 50 others

this May in Accra, Ghana

New York, NY – The Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA) and New York University, in collaboration with the Mbaasem Foundation, will present Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue – An International Conference on Literature by Women of African Ancestry. This major conference will put writers, critics, and readers from across Africa, the USA, Europe, and the Caribbean in dialogue with each other in Accra, Ghana, May 16‐19, 2013.

The public can help support authors’ participation at

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/318981

OWWA is deeply saddened by the loss of its President and Co‐Founder, Jayne Cortez, the amazing poet, performer, and activist described by The New York Times as “one of the central figures of the Black Arts Movement.” Cortez was the driving force behind the first two Yari Yari conferences, and OWWA and NYU’s Institute of African‐American Affairs have committed to presenting the third Yari Yari as scheduled in Jayne’s honor.

The conference will consist of panels, readings, performances, and film screenings, and will be devoted to the study, evaluation, and celebration of the creativity and diversity of women writers of African descent. Fifteen years after OWWA’s first major conference, Yari Yari Ntoaso continues the dialogue of previous Yari Yari gatherings, which were the largest events of their kind, putting hundreds of women writers and scholars of African descent in dialogue with thousands of people. Confirmed participants come from more than a dozen countries, and include individuals who have been Poet Laureates and won a variety of other awards. (See the list of participants below.)

OWWA is actively fundraising to cover the costs of Yari Yari Ntoaso, and the Cortez/Edwards family encourages donations in Jayne’s name to OWWA. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/318981 or mailed to P.O. Box 652; Village Station; New York, NY 10014.

Yari Yari Ntoaso is FREE to everyone who wants to attend; attendees should register

online at http://www.owwainc.org where information about travel discounts and logistics are also available. Updates will be posted regularly on OWWA’s Indiegogo site and Facebook page.

OWWA Mission Statement:

The Organization of Women Writers of Africa, Inc (OWWA) was founded in 1991 by Jayne Cortez of the USA and Ama Ata Aidoo of Ghana for the purpose of establishing links between professional African women writers. OWWA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary organization concerned with the development and advancement of the literature of women writers from Africa and its Diaspora. OWWA is also a non‐ governmental organization associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI). Board members include Louise Meriwether, J.e. Franklin, Maya Angelou, Rosamond S. King, Margaret Busby, and Maryse Condé.

Confirmed Participants as of January 2013:

Anne Adams (USA) – Scholar of African literature

Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana) – Fiction writer, OWWA CoFounder

Esther Armah (Ghana, UK, USA) – Journalist, playwright, radio host

Bibi Bakare (Nigeria) – Publisher

Samiya Bashir (Somalia/USA) – Poet

Sokhna Benga (Senegal) – Novelist, children’s author

Tara Betts (USA) – Poet

Carole Boyce Davies (Trinidad & Tobago/USA) – Scholar of African diaspora literatures &

cultures

Prof. Joanne Braxton (USA) – Scholar of AfricanAmerican

poetry

Margaret Busby (Ghana/UK) – Editor, publisher

Gabrielle Civil (Haiti/USA) – Performance artist, poet

Jayne Cortez (USA) – Poet, OWWA CoFounder

Angela Davis (USA) – Scholar of prison abolition

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers (South Africa) – Poet, performer

Latasha N. Diggs (USA) – Performer, poet

Camille Dungy (USA, SFSU) – Poet

Alison Duke (Canada) – Filmmaker

Ira Dworkin (US/Egypt) – Scholar of AfricanAmerican

literature

Zetta Elliott (Canada/USA) – Fiction writer, scholar of literature & publishing

Donette Francis (Jamaica/USA) – Scholar of Caribbean literature

Gladys M. Francis (Guadeloupe/USA) – Scholar of African & Caribbean literature

Kadija George (UK/Sierra Leone) – Publisher, poet

Wangui wa Goro (Kenya) – Translator, poet

Philo Ikonya (Kenya) – Author, journalist

Rashidah Ismaili (Benin/USA) – Poet

Tayari Jones (USA) – Novelist

Madhu Kaza (India/USA) – Fiction writer

Fatou Keita (Cote d’Ivoire) – Children’s author

Jason King (USA) – Scholar of music & popular culture

Rosamond S. King – Poet, Performance Artist, Yari Yari Ntoaso Conference Director

Kinna Likimani (Ghana) – Blogger

Fungai Machirori (Zimbabwe) – Blogger, activist

Michelle Martin (USA) – Scholar of children’s literature

Roshnie Moonsammy (South Africa) ‐ Arts administrator

Micere Mugo (Kenya) ‐ Playwright, poet, scholar of African literature & orature

Angelique Nixon (Bahamas) – Scholar of literature & tourism, poet

Wura‐Natasha Ogunji (Nigeria/USA) ‐ Performance artist

Nnedi Okorafor (Nigeria/USA) – Young adult novelist

Tess Onwueme (Nigeria)‐ Playwright

Hermine Pinson (USA) – Poet, scholar of AfricanAmerican

literature

Sapphire (USA) – Poet, novelist

Lola Shoneyin (Nigeria) – Novelist, poet

Eintou Springer (Trinidad & Tobago) – Poet, playwright

Cheryl Sterling (USA) – Scholar of African & diaspora literature

Veronique Tadjo (Cote d’Ivoire/SA) – Novelist

Coumba Touré – Author (Mali) – Children’s author

Evelyne Trouillot (Haiti) – Novelist

Wana Udobang (Nigeria) – Journalist, blogger, radio host

Gina Athena Ulysse (Haiti/USA) – Performance artist, scholar of Caribbean anthropology &

blogger

Crystal Williams (USA) – Poet

Christopher Winks (USA) – Scholar of Caribbean literature

summing up The Deep

I’ve written 1200 words of The Deep today and yesterday I wrote 2000 so I thought I’d take a break tonight and work on my synopses. My publisher usually asks for three of varying lengths—200 characters, 2000 characters, and 200 words for the back cover text. I’ve finished the first two and thought I’d share them here on the blog in case you’ve been wondering what I’m writing about…

Sentence Description (200 characters, including spaces):            

This urban fantasy places a Brooklyn teen at the center of a battle between good and evil. Nyla must learn to wield the astonishing power she inherited from the mother who abandoned her as a child.

Short Description (2,000 characters, including spaces):

THE DEEP plunges readers into a dangerous underground world policed by members of The League, a secret group of women and men who use their intuitive abilities to detect energy surges far below the earth’s surface. In the deep, ancient sources of malevolent energy search for fissures in the bedrock (made larger by seismic activity); “pressers” attempt to locate these leaks and “heal” the fissure, thereby preventing evil from entering the world.

Abandoned by her mother at the age of three, Nyla has grown up with a loving father and stepmother on a military base in Germany. After a traumatic assault takes place at a school dance, Nyla and her family return to the United States and take up residence in her deceased grandmother’s Brooklyn brownstone. Nyla gradually changes her outer appearance to match her inner ambivalence around femininity; despite her father’s objections, Nyla shaves off most of her hair, dyes what little’s left, and gets multiple facial and ear piercings in order to establish a new Afropunk identity.

Determined to control as much of her environment as she can, Nyla is terrified when she begins to hallucinate while walking the city streets. A man named Osiris approaches her and offers to introduce Nyla to others who have similar “gifts.” When Nyla refuses, her young friend D is kidnapped and held in the deep until Nyla agrees to let Osiris guide her below ground. There she meets Lada, the mother who abandoned her ten years ago. Furious that her daughter is being recruited by The League, Lada tries to persuade her ex-husband to take Nyla out of the city. But Nyla has decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps and her training begins at an accelerated pace when The League discovers an earthquake will soon hit Brooklyn, releasing unprecedented levels of malevolent energy into the city.

THE DEEP is the companion book to SHIP OF SOULS (2012), which was named a Top Ten Sci-Fi/Fantasy Title for Youth by Booklist.

I don’t have a contract for the book yet but I also filled out the author questionnaire they sent me for SoS. I’ve already lined up an illustrator for the book’s cover, but the movie poster that comes closest to what I have in mind is the one for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Audience? Teens (13+), all genders, African Americans, New Yorkers, Brooklynites, feminists, urban fantasy/speculative fiction fans…