Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 80

African Canadian Novelists

There's nothing like submitting to present at a conference and learning that your paper (a vague idea in the back of your mind) is due TWO MONTHS before the conference takes place. This month was supposed to be dedicated to working on The Deep, but instead I've spent much of my time on the BPP site, a faculty grant application, and now this conference paper. Next up is the academic book proposal—the book I no longer think I want to write because I've got at least THREE novels that keep getting pushed back by all this other "stuff." At any rate, I know some Canadians read this blog so please take a look at my list and let me know if I've missed anyone. Does anyone know if Tessa McWatt identifies as black? Not sure what to do about Dany Laferriere; it seems only some of his books are translated from French into English—have I left out lots of black Canadian authors who write in French? I've excluded short story collections, though I listed them just for your information. I also found (but did not include) two black women authors, Sophia Shaw and Kayla Perrin, who are based in Canada but seem to publish exclusively with US romance publishers.

African Canadian Novelists (2000-2011)

 Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill (HarperCollins 2001)
The Heart Does Not Bend by Makeda Silvera (Random House Canada 2002)
The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke (Thomas Allen 2002)
George & Rue by George Elliott Clarke (HarperCollins 2004)
The Second Life of Samuel Tyne by Esi Edugyan (Knopf Canada 2004)
This Body by Tessa McWatt (HarperCollins 2004)
Venus Hum by Suzette Mayr (Arsenal 2005)
What We All Long For by Dionne Brand (Knopf Canada 2005)
The Unfortunate Marriage of Azeb Yitades by Nega Mezlekia (Penguin Canada 2006)
Vers le sud by Dany Laferriere (Boréal 2006)
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (HarperCollins 2007)
Soucouyant by David Chariandy (Arsenal 2007)
Asylum by Andre Alexis (McClelland & Stewart 2008)
More by Austin Clarke (Thomas Allen 2008)
Heading South by Dany Laferriere (Douglas & McIntyre 2009)
I Am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferriere (Douglas & McIntyre 2010)
Step Closer by Tessa McWatt (HarperCollins 2009)
Writing Personals by Lolette Kuby (Esplanade Books 2010)
Vital Signs by Tessa McWatt (Random House Canada 2011)
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Thomas Allen 2011)
Monoceros by Suzette Mayr (Coach House Books, 2011)
The Return by Dany Laferriere (Douglas & McIntyre 2011)

I was quite surprised to reach 20 titles, and I now know that I've got some catching up to do in terms of my reading. You may have heard that McClelland & Stewart was recently acquired by Random House. If my list is correct, M&S has only published one black Canadian author in the 21st century, so I won't be shedding too many tears for them…

Short Story Collections:

 Ladies of the Night by Althea Prince (Insomniac 2005)
Pink Icing by Pamela Mordecai (Insomniac 2006)
Out of Cleveland by Lolette Kuby (Esplanade Books 2007)

say you will…

…take the Birthday Party Pledge! Today is our official launch day. If you haven't already visited the BPP site, please stop by and take the pledge. If you're a book blogger, grab the code and add our button to your site. If you know others who could benefit from the many lists on our site, spread the word! Our team has compiled book lists with dozens of multicultural titles in all genres: poetry, historical fiction, books boys love, graphic novels, speculative fiction, books girls love, chapter books, LGBTQ, picture books, sports books, and non-fiction.

About Us:

The Birthday Party Pledge emerged from an ongoing conversation between authors, educators, librarians, and book bloggers. We wanted to promote children's books by authors of color, and we wanted to encourage the building of home libraries in low-income communities. According to the Cooperative Children's Book Center, less than 5% of all books published annually for children in the US are written by people of color. Many publishers insist that they can't find more writers of color and/or claim that the market doesn't exist for books about children of color. Yet conducted by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation revealed that many adults want to purchase multicultural books and are simply unable to find them:

Nearly eight in ten (78%) U.S. adults believe that it is important for children to be exposed to picture books that feature main characters of various ethnicities or races—but one-third (33%) report that it is difficult to find such books, according to a recent survey that was commissioned by The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the love of reading and learning in all children.

Some parents simply can't afford to buy books, and we encourage all families to draw on the resources available at their local public library. In other cases, buying books for children is a matter of shifting priorities and redirecting resources. Compared to video games and other toys, books are relatively inexpensive (and can often be purchased "like new" from online resellers). Buying books locally puts money back into your community, and we encourage you to support those independent bookstores that carry multicultural books.

The BPP has two goals:

1. To encourage childhood literacy in order to promote a lifelong love of books.

2. To assist adults in providing children with books that truly reflect the diverse society in which we live.

Take the pledge today!

why I love my English teacher

She taught me more than twenty years ago but she still cares about my development as a writer and praise from her still gives me a thrill:

Hello, Zetta,

The book which arrived today is beautifully written, even for a reader who is not into fantasy.  You have excellent control over the prose, the plotline, the characters, the dialogue, and the READER! Although you said not to edit — and I didn't — it seemed to me that your ability to create realistic tension, crisis, and relationships was very mature. Thank you for sending me the proof copy.  I really enjoyed all the special effects, the interesting characters, and the magical bird. Please keep in touch and let me know how things go as this book goes into print.

on a dime

I'm not a spontaneous person. In fact, I have anxiety issues, which means I try plan as much of my life as possible. I walk with an umbrella in case it rains. I have a mini pharmacy in my purse to deal with any health emergency. When I travel, I use Hop Stop to plan my trip. I also live off-peak as much as possible—I avoid rush hour on weekdays and avoid the trains altogether on weekends because that's when track work takes place. Well, yesterday I was uncharacteristically late (thirty minutes late!) for a wonderful Homecoming event up in Harlem. Hop Stop said to take the C train, but that runs local and I wasn't going to take a local train from one end of the city to the other. So I went to the station only to learn that the Q wasn't running. So I waited on the packed platform for the shuttle train to arrive; did some mental calculations and decided to take the 4 since it runs express. Except when I got to the next station, the 4 train was running local. So I took the 2, which runs local in Brooklyn but goes express in Manhattan. Except this 2 got to Manhattan and ran local. So I switched to the A at 42nd and finally got to 145th—late. On the way home, I took the A express again, then switched to the local C train in Brooklyn–and it ran express. Sigh. If I hadn't just spent three hours with some remarkable young women, I might have gone off on somebody. Or I have might have gone for a big slice of cake. But the positive energy of the homecoming event (and closing cupcakes) kept me calm and instead I came home to reflect on all I'd learned. Cidra M. Sebastien, Associate Director of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, wrote a great summary on Facebook last night:

So what happens when a world-traveling private chef, author-professor, DJ-filmmaker, actress-playwright, physician-activist, young mothers' advocate, and a professor-author-music connoisseur are in the same room sharing their life stories?

The practical and the fantastical.

Here are selected gems the circle of women shared…

* The distance between where you are and where you want to go is shorter than the distance between where you started and where you are.

* Birds remind me to look up…Keep your feet on the ground and look up.

* You might try and fail but success is about endurance.

* Fear will paralyze you. Don't make decisions based on fear.

* Never fail to stand up for what you believe in.

* Daydream.

* Usually the most difficult thing you choose to do is the right thing to do. And will bring rewards.

I'm sure you can guess which piece of advice came from me. When I learned that invited guests would be asked to give a 2-3 minute speech on the theme "Building Your Wings," I naturally sat down at my computer and wrote a speech about birds. But as I sat in the circle and listened to the other guests sharing their advice, I realized that I wasn't meant to deliver a formal speech. So I had to improvise. I *suck* at improvising. I tried to remember part of what I'd written and then I realized I was rambling so I just stopped talking and resolved to be better prepared next time. But maybe what I really need is to let go of the need to be prepared all the time. I want to be better at thinking on my feet, which is hard because I'm accustomed to sitting at this laptop with the ability to cut and paste. I spent the afternoon sharing my college experiences and listening to the young women in Sister Sol—they were so honest and earnest. And bright! They reminded me of my students and I wondered how many young women have a support group to help them get through life? We all need mentors, we all need a space to ask questions and search for answers. I learned a lot from the other guests as well—that first point is especially important, I think. It's easy to get caught up in all the things you *want* to achieve, but don't forget to draw strength from the distance you've already traveled. Take time to acknowledge the progress you've made in life. My anxiety issues are better than they once were, and I can practice spontaneity while still being moderately prepared. The advice I needed to hear as a teen? You don't have to be perfect. And forgive yourself when you fail.

hail the Dean!

In case you haven't yet heard, Walter Dean Myers has been named the next National Ambassador for Young People's Literature! He has given an interview over at School Library Journal:

What's your platform for the next two years?

"Reading is not an Option!" is my platform. The value of reading has escalated in my lifetime. As a young man, I saw families prosper without reading because there were always sufficient opportunities for willing workers who could follow simple instructions. This is no longer the case. Children who don't read are, in the main, destined for lesser lives. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to change this.

The Birthday Party Pledge team couldn't agree more! We're almost ready to launch our site…

into the deep

Happy New Year! I rang in 2012 by writing, which is—for me—the most auspicious way to start the year. I was actually annoyed by the thunderous fireworks in the nearby park and had to remind myself that not everyone craves silence on new year's eve. How was I keeping watch? Coldplay was performing live on PBS; I had watched Afro-punk earlier in the evening. I finally set the computer on my lap and got down to business: Nyla's story is tentatively called The Deep; like Ship of Souls it will have fifteen chapters and about 30K words. Right now I've got nearly 6K words written; I've mapped out the chapters, named my cast of characters…I'm on my way!

Finally, I wrote these words back when I used to make my own Xmas cards; last year I posted them on my blog and that post has been getting a lot of hits as of late so I thought I'd repost this wish today:

May you have

a resilient spirit,

and a compassionate heart,

the desire to heal,

and the will to forgive.

May you never exhaust

your capacity for kindness.

May you always find peace

in your home and in your mind.

May your eyes be awake

to the beauty all around you.

May your ears be tuned

to the hush of falling snow.

May your arms always be ready

to embrace those needing comfort,

and may even the simplest blessings

fill your heart with gratitude.

I wish you joy, health, and prosperity—

for this season, and for the new year.

~ ZE

get real

I have to say I was more than a little concerned when I saw the anti-Amazon vitriol on Facebook last week—especially when those angry sentiments were coming from people responsible for reviewing books for children. I wrote my own post about it, but I was thrilled when Debby Dahl Edwardson let me know that she had written an incredibly thoughtful post about Amazon's recent acquisition of Marshall Cavendish titles, including her own acclaimed novel —a National Book Award Finalist that is nonetheless hard to find in your local bookstore:

People can go ahead and say what they please about Amazon but at least they're not killing our books by not selling them. Amazon is very democratic this way: they sell everything. Yes, the move into publishing is a game changer. But then again, maybe the game needed changing.

I couldn't agree more. Right now our team is working on book recommendations for the Birthday Party Pledge site. Should we link each title to Amazon.com? Are consumers likely to find these great multicultural books for kids at their local big chain or indie bookstore? Probably not. I really wish people who are concerned with ethical business practices would have more to say about the institutional racism in traditional publishing that marginalizes so many important voices…

An article in The New York Times reports that math scores (on Department of Education standardized tests) have improved over the past twenty years but reading scores have stayed about the same:

Reading achievement, in contrast, reflects not only the quality of reading instruction in school classrooms, they said, but also factors like whether parents read to children and how much time students read on their own outside school. And many children in the United States are spending less time reading on their own.

Since 1992, reading scores have gone up but not by much; in 2011 only 34% of fourth grade students were proficient at reading:

"I'm disappointed but not surprised by these results," said Sharon Darling, founder of the National Center for Family Literacy, a group based in Kentucky that works to help parents support their children's educational efforts at home.  "Children spend five times as much time outside the classroom as they do in school, and our country has 30 million parents or caregivers who are not good readers themselves, so they pass illiteracy down to their children."

That's not the kind of legacy you want to leave behind. Stay tuned for the official launch of our literacy initiative…

Canada in a box

Happy Holidays! I love Xmas but I refuse to shop for presents; my family is blessed in many ways and I prefer to donate to a good cause rather than buy items my relatives don't truly need. I also enjoy spending Xmas on my own, which also hasn't made me too popular with my family. But as I always like to say, "There's family and there's people you're related to." Yesterday I received a lovely card from my cousin and her four kids; Ship of Souls is dedicated to her eldest boy, Kodie, and he messaged me on Facebook to let me know a package was on its way. Sure enough, it arrived yesterday as well and so this morning—for the first time in years—I sat down to open the presents under my little tree. I *love* that they sent me a kind of Canadian capsule—note the moose cookie (ok, it's probably a reindeer but we have a moose thing in Canada), the Toronto Maple Leaf pencils, the candy that you can't get down here (I don't think). Plus four groovy gel pens, a journal that's *perfect* for a lefty like me (I can't write in books with a spine), and a lovely scarf in my favorite colors…plus the card had numerous penguin stickers and a *fox* stamp (we love foxes! and notice how the post office printed "Santa" and "Père Noël" on it). So I'm feeling very festive right now and will head to the park soon before gluing myself to the laptop for a day of writing. Yesterday I was grading exams on the platform at Union Square and as the train pulled into the station, the woman next to me said, "Excuse me, aren't you the author of…" and she reached into her bag and pulled out a copy of Wish! Sometimes a series of small things can have a big impact…

take the pledge

Did you hear about the stampedes that took place all around the country over the release of $180 "retro" Air Jordans? I was already thinking about launching a new literacy initiative but this news prompted me to act sooner rather than later. According to a recent article in The Root, African American buying power is approaching $1.1 trillion. Target Market News breaks down the consumer data to show that in 2009, African Americans spent $321 million on books—that's a lot of money, but it's clear that a lot more money was spent on other goods and services (including $2.8 billion on non-alcoholic beverages). So how do we get people to invest more money in books? I'd love to poll all those people who lined up for sneakers last night and find out just how many books they have in their home. Because we know that having a home library increases a child's chance of succeeding in school. Buying sneakers is not an investment—buying books IS. But I'm not trying to guilt parents into surrendering their sneakers and video games or any of the other things on which they spend their disposable income. Instead I think we should take a "village" approach. If you know a child who's growing up without books, do something about it when that child's birthday rolls around. If you want to buy toys for your child, then ask your family and friends to buy books so that your child gets the best of both worlds. I'm hoping people will take the Birthday Party Pledge and commit to giving books as gifts for at least ONE year. I've set up a new site and we hope to do an official launch in 2012. Do you think we can convince people to take the pledge?

I'm thoroughly enjoying my low-consumption Christmas and hope you're enjoying the holidays, too!

time for Smugglivus!

It's that time of year again—rush over to The Book Smugglers and enjoy lots of great guest posts by authors and book bloggers. Today Doret from The Happy Nappy Bookseller shares her favorite titles of 2011 and the 2012 titles she's looking forward to most. Leave a comment about *your* favorite spec-fic writer of color and you can win the book of your choice!