Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 86

calling all poets!

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting Carol-Ann Hoyte, a poet/librarian from Montreal. She's planning to publish an anthology of children's poetry next year and is actively seeking submissions—please share this exciting news with others!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Submission Deadline: April 30, 2012

Ready, set, write! An anthology of children's poetry dedicated to the wide world of sports is in the works. Our target release date for the collection is August 2013 — six months before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. We're looking for original, unpublished poems, aimed at 5 – 12 years old, that deal with various aspects of athletics such as but not limited to the following:

*Olympics and other major international sports events (ie. FIFA World Cup)

*winter sports/summer sports (NOTE: do not have to be official Olympic sports)

*winning and losing

*individual/team sports

*amateur/professional athletes

*sports fans

*equipment/uniforms

*sports jobs (from athletes, coaches, and referees/umpires to those who work behind the scenes)

*surfaces (ie. ice) on which sports are played/places (ie. stadiums) where sports are played

*sports history and other miscellanea (halls of fame, records, trivia, etc.)

Please email poems to Carol-Ann Hoyte at kidlitfan1972 at yahoo dot ca.

Poets whose work is selected for the collection will receive a small honorarium. We will contact you in late July 2012 / early August 2012 if we plan to include your poem in the anthology. A portion of the anthology's proceeds will be donated to a North American or international organization dedicated to working with youth in sports.

Carol-Ann Hoyte & Heidi Bee Roemer, The Co-Editors

lady business

Jodie over at Book Gazing recently shared a great giveaway featuring "lady authors" of speculative fiction—enter to win a copy of Kindred by Octavia Butler, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, or A Wish After Midnight by yours truly! I'm honored to be in such good company and love that people are stopping by to share their recommendations. Which titles come to mind when you think of women in spec fic/sci-fi? I just finished an article for a Canadian literary journal and had to include NK Jemisin in my list of black women writers under 40—The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms blew my mind and The Broken Kingdoms was just as good…

sum it up

No publisher's perfect, but I find there's a lot to love about my relationship with AmazonEncore. Now that we're ready to move forward with Ship of Souls, I've been asked to complete a questionnaire that will help them edit, promote, and design the book. Here's a sampling of the questions:

Describe the target audience, by factors such as age group, interests, education, gender, etc.

Teens (12+), all genders, African Americans, New Yorkers, Revolutionary War enthusiasts, urban fantasy fans

Please provide a brief summary of the book.

When 11-year-old Dmitri ("D") loses his mother to breast cancer, he finds himself taken in by an elderly white woman, Mrs. Martin. Fighting against a feeling of invisibility at home and at school, D finds his situation improving when he is asked to tutor a basketball star in the 8th grade. Hakeem (Keem) wants to impress a beautiful girl, Nyla, who's somewhat on the fringe, and her interest in D draws the three together.

D loves to watch birds and, while in the park, is amazed to find an injured bird that can talk. He takes it home and soon learns there are malevolent forces inhabiting the region beneath Prospect Park and they are hunting for the bird; Nuru is a life force that has been kept hostage by the earthbound spirits who are ghosts of soldiers that died in the Revolutionary War. Nuru's mission is to guide the ship that will carry the souls of the dead back to her realm. D has been chosen as Nuru's host, and must carry the bird from Brooklyn to the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan where the dead await deliverance.

What was the inspiration for this book?

For years I've passed a boulder in Prospect Park that marks the site of historic Battle Pass; I often wondered what would happen if a boy discovered that after midnight, the plaque on the boulder opened like a door and led him underground. This past fall I found two cowrie shells on the sidewalk near my home and around the same time I learned that an 18th-century ship had been found at Ground Zero. While walking past the park one day, I heard a rustling in the leaves on the ground and suddenly saw three teens battling against a force that was trying to drag one of them underground…and Ship of Souls was born.

How is this book different from others of the same genre?

It's an urban fantasy that features three black teens—one is Muslim, one's an orphan, and one is an Afro-punk girl who was raised on a military base in Germany. It's contemporary but also incorporates NYC history.

Describe ideas that should be captured on the book's cover. Please be as specific as possible, including elements such as any particular color(s) or types of imagery. 

A group of teens in an underground tunnel; the youngest is in front with his upheld hand radiating light. The white ghost teen should be close, but turned away from the light. I like the idea of a comic book/superhero look, but dark (not cartoonish) to match the mood of the story.

signs

I believe in signs. On Saturday as I walked past the library I noticed that someone had placed a rock on top of a tree trunk. I'd never noticed the trunk before, and couldn't remember what the tree had looked like or just when it was cut down. Walking down that corridor—Flatbush Avenue, with Prospect Park on one side and the Botanic Garden on the other—always starts me dreaming. It's a valley of shadows. I'd just passed the garden and wondered who had planted the corn stalks that are growing halfway up the steep slope that rises beyond the garden's spiked cast iron fence. Then the library was on my right, and I happened to glance at that tree trunk with the rock. I looked from the rock to the space-age public toilet that was installed on the other side of the street and knew both would find their way into this new book. Went for a run on Sunday and as I passed the boulder marking Battle Pass, noticed someone had tagged it with purple spray paint. Immediately heard D's voice, "Some kids got no respect." Thought about going back to take a picture but kept on going. Came home, got on the train to head downtown and realized I'd left my wallet behind…got off at the next station and walked home through my old neighborhood of Prospect Heights. As I headed down Washington Ave. with the garden on my right, a flash of red caught my eye—a cardinal swooped past and perched on the fence just a foot or two away. Then his mate called him and he slipped back inside the garden and out of sight. If I hadn't left my wallet and taken that route home I would have missed my friend; he finds me whenever I'm in the garden, but I haven't been there in a while because my visitor pass expired. Didn't renew it because I thought I might be leaving the city, but now I know I'm here for good. And for a reason. Am designing a course on Race & Environmental Justice and had just added "Shell in Nigeria" to my list of topics when Nayani posted this on Facebook. A good hook to get students interested in Ken Saro-Wiwa…everything's connected.

 

act right

So I don't have pink eye, which is good, because I'm reading some really interesting things these days. I've already come up with half a dozen new courses that I hope to teach at my new job, and am excited about broadening my field (Black Studies to Ethnic Studies). At a previous job, when I pointed out a disturbing instance of white privilege among my students, I was (of course) asked if I could teach a course on the subject. I refused and resented being asked to take responsibility for "white people behaving badly." I generally feel like it's up to white people to teach their brothers and sisters how to act right, even though I'm interested in Whiteness Studies and teach select texts in my classes. And I'm always heartened by white people who make a point of addressing their own privilege and opening the eyes of others. I'm finding more and more bloggers who are speaking out against white privilege, and most appreciate those who invite me to write a guest post but ALSO address the issue themselves on a regular basis (rather than saying, "Here's a PoC you should listen to, and now back to our regularly scheduled programming.")

This morning artist Suzanne Broughel posted a note on Facebook that was written by Gail K. Golden, "White Privilege as an Addiction." Golden argues that like any addict, whites need to seek treatment for their addiction and can start by charting a path to recovery as is done by members of Alcoholics Anonymous:

AA has steps to recovery. I am suggesting that those of us who are called white need to think seriously about overcoming our addictive relationship to power, dominance and privilege and am suggesting our own twelve steps in a lifetime of recovery work:

1 We admitted we were powerless over our socialization into a racist society.

2. We came to understand that working to undo racism could restore us to sanity.

3. We came to understand that we could not do this work alone and made a decision to accept leadership from people of color.

4. We make an honest inventory of how we participate in racist policies and practices.

5. We begin to address these wrongs by learning and teaching accurate history.

6. We pledge to educate ourselves and organize to undo racism, always remaining accountable to people of color.

7. We recognize that this is a lifelong process.  It is a way of life that must be guided by Undoing Racism Principles.

8. We commit to learn how internalized racial superiority has distorted our thoughts and assumptions, and work to clarify our thinking.

9. As white people, we have been oblivious to the racism in our families, schools, offices, faith communities and we seek to address such wrongs wherever possible. If we are gatekeepers, (i.e. control access to resources), we will work to allocate these resources more equitably. [my emphasis]

10. We agree to learn to celebrate our own culture so we do not exploit the culture of other peoples.

11 We will seek to learn how racism was created so we can improve our conscious awareness of the sometimes invisible arrangement that perpetuates racism.

12 We commit to carrying our antiracist message to other white people.

You definitely want to read this entire article; this is one of many observations on white supremacy that I'd love to see remedied: "We tend to argue with people of color about THEIR experience. The idea that we know better is one of the ultimate expressions of the exaggerated sense of rightness." You might also be interested in Doret's interview with Stacy Whitman, editor of Tu Books, over at The Happy Nappy Bookseller. Doret asks, "How does an editor edit cross-culturally?" and "Has Tu been doing anything to encourage authors of color to submit their work?" Because it's possible to promote diversity without achieving equity…

dry eye

We've had a heatwave here in NYC and I thought I might have pink eye but now I suspect I've just been sitting in front of the fan too long! My eyes are dry and I'm ready for a LONG nap but wanted to share some links with you before I hit the couch. My essay, "Navigating the Great White North: Representing Blackness in Canadian YA Literature," has been published in The Centennial Reader. Not sure where they got that video of the sad black girl reading a book, but I guess it's a nice touch!

The Summer Blog Blast Tour is on, and Doret's got some great interviews over at The Happy Nappy Bookseller—be sure to stop by and learn more about Neesha Meminger (Jazz in Love) and Ashley Hope Perez (What Can't Wait). You can find the complete schedule of participating authors and bloggers at Chasing Ray.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jacqueline Woodson this morning—and THIS time, I made sure I had plenty of batteries. We talked for an hour and I can't wait to transcribe the footage; stay tuned for a link to the interview once it's posted on the Ms. Magazine blog (extras to be posted here).

Lastly, after two years of un-/under-/self-employment, I accepted a new position today that will enable me to teach in my field AND stay in my beloved Brooklyn! I also got invited to serve as moderator on a YA panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival…more on that to come. Time for a little shuteye.

pink icing

On two occasions when I've been talking about my search for contemporary depictions of black teens IN Canada, Pamela Mordecai's book, Pink Icing, has come up. And twice I resisted adding the title to my study–after all, it's not a novel and from the description I read online, it's not a MG or YA book. "No, no," I was told at the ChLA conference, "It's written for kids and talks about Canada." So I ordered it and read it yesterday; I'm not a fan of short stories and really had to push myself to finish—not because the writing wasn't strong or compelling, it was—but I had to know why Pink Icing kept coming up. It's a collection of twelve short stories and NOT ONE is set in contemporary Canada; one white priest hails from Ontario and one drug-dealing Jamaican man apparently flies back and forth to Toronto, but all of the stories take place in the Caribbean. Here's the publisher's description:

Telling stories of ordinary lives with extraordinary skill, Pamela Mordecai draws delicately detailed portraits of life in Jamaica and other islands, with occasional trips to Canada. Her characters speak with the cadences of the Caribbean, and cope with the universal experiences of birth and death, joy and betrayal.

In "Hartstone High," a group of girls learn the high price of education; in "Alvin's Ilk," a self-centred teenaged boy comes to see his elderly neighbour in a whole new way; and in "Shining Waters," a young priest's plans for his new parish go horribly awry.

Mordecai turns a sharp ear to the nuances of everyday speech, exposing the currents beneath the calm exterior and producing complex tales that will challenge and entertain her readers.

More than half of the stories have child protagonists, but this is not, I would argue, a YA book. It could easily be taught to high school students, and I'd love to see it added to the school curriculum in Canada, but I don't see anything indicating that the book was intended for the kidlit market (nothing on the publisher's website, nothing on its Amazon page, where age range and reading level are usually provided). In 2008, the author described her audience this way:

…it's with much delight that I discovered today that it's on amazon.ca's list of the top 100 titles in the category "African-American Studies"! (It may well not stay there, but it is there as of now!) I'm hoping that means it's got onto courses in high school, college, and university. That's not just because it will mean improved book sales, though I won't deny this is important since I earn my living exclusively from writing. It's because I think it's a book anyone can enjoy, in particular anyone from the Caribbean.

Pamela Mordecai is married to Martin Mordecai, author of Blue Mountain Trouble—a novel clearly intended for children that is also set in Jamaica. I'd love to know how either of these books resonates with black children born in Canada to immigrant parents from the Caribbean. And just to be clear—I have no problem with books for (or about) children that are set outside of Canada; I'm just explaining why this particular book isn't included in my study of MG/YA novels published in Canada.

bad blood

I've written three thousand words over the past couple of days. Funny how everything comes all at once. I saw a scene unfold while I was on the train a couple of weeks ago, but never bothered to write it down. Then I read a gentle, quiet book and by the time I was done, all these angry, violent scenes started to flow. Nyla's a character from Ship of Souls; her mother abandoned her as a child so she was raised by her African American father and Japanese American stepmother on a military base in Germany. In this new book, I'm building off a line I heard upon waking up one morning last spring: "Are you sure you're fully human?"

"What kind of mother just walks out on her kid?"

"You had Cal—and he had his mother." Graciela screws up her lips but thinks better of disrespecting the dead. "Besides, it's not like you were a baby or anything. I waited until you were grown."

"Grown?! I was four."

"You've always been mature for your age. I knew you could handle yourself. You could walk, talk, flush—you didn't need me anymore." She wavers then pushes herself on. "Plus…you didn't show any signs. You were clean then. I couldn't—I couldn't risk you…picking anything up from prolonged exposure to me."

"This shit's contagious?"

Graciela shakes her head. "Genetic, apparently. But I didn't know then what I know now. I was trying to do the right thing. And I'm trying to do that now. So listen to me, ok? Just…lay low for a while. And whatever you do—stay above ground."

"That's it? Avoid the subway? That's the best you can do? Something tried to kill me—and my friends."

            "Which is why you need to stay the hell away from them, too. I'll speak to your father—now's a good time for a little family vacation, I think."

"Are you planning to join us?"

"You really don't get it, do you? I'm trying to keep you safe—and that means staying as far away from me as possible."

"They're after you, too?"

Graciela sighs impatiently and tries not to lose her cool. "No, Nyla. They're not after me. I'm after them."

I stare at my mother without blinking as an image forms in my mind. "You mean you're—like, a slayer?"

"God—everything's a TV show or a comic book to you! I'm not a vampire slayer and I'm not a mutant—and neither are you."

"What are you, then?" Graciela turns and takes a few steps away from me. "And what am I?"

Sequel's aren't easy. This summer was supposed to be my time to finish the sequel to Wish, and instead I've started a sequel to Ship of Souls, which hasn't even been published yet. I'm getting ahead of myself. I have a short story to work on, an interview, and a guest post for another blog. But it's hard to stop the story once it starts coming. This is the last scene I worked on last night:

"You on the Pill?"

"What?"

"Birth control—you know what that is, right?"

"Of course, I do! Not that it's any of your business…"

"That's my blood in your veins—I'm making it my business."

"I'm not sexually active, alright?"

Graciela finds Keem lingering over by the window. "You will be soon, the way that boy keeps looking at you."

"He doesn't decide that—I do."

Graciela looks at me with something close to admiration. "I'm glad to hear that." She watches me a moment longer and then asks quietly, "You learn that the hard way?"

I hesitate, then nod and avoid her eyes.

"Did Cal make the kid pay for it?"

I look at my mother. "I did. I split his head open."

Again Graciela looks at me with a strange kind of pride. She reaches out a hand and flicks my bangs out of my eyes. "That why you went punk? To scare the boys away? Your father must have had a heart attack when you cut your hair. He was always so proud of his little princess."

"I couldn't be daddy's little girl forever. Besides, he's supposed to love me no matter what."

"Love's never unconditional. There are always strings attached."

"Is that what I was—a string that tied you down?"

Graciela says nothing for a moment. "I thought that if I mixed my blood with your father's—I could dilute it. I thought it would be ok." Graciela tries to laugh but can't. "And look at you now."

"You wish I'd never been born."

Graciela ends my pity party before it can even begin. "I never said that!" She glares at me for a long moment before letting go of my wrist. "I just want you to think things through. If Marta's right and your power really is off the charts…then you can't afford to reproduce."

"Why not? What if that's the answer—making more and more soldiers for the cause. We could build our own army and end it once and for all."

Graciela makes a sound of contempt. "You sound like your father."

"I'm just saying there's strength in numbers. You don't have to do everything all by yourself."

"Oh yeah? Well, before you start popping out superbabies think about how you'd feel watching one of your kids die before your eyes. Because it happens, Nyla. It almost happened to me today."

I stare at the cold food on my plate and quietly admit, "I wasn't sure you were going to save me."

"I wasn't sure I'd be able to. I had to send G**** back into the depths. I just hoped I could banish him and still hold onto you."

"You hoped?"

Graciela just shrugs and avoids looking at me. "Think about what I said. I'm sure your stepmother could help you get on the Pill without Cal finding out."

Finally our eyes meet and for just a moment I see the woman my mother used to be. The woman she was before she became a hardened warrior. "If I'd stayed longer, I only would have loved you more. Understand?"

Before I can answer, Graciela walks away and slams her entire tray into the trash.

tgif

This week has been *challenging*! Melanie Hope Greenberg, who reads tarot cards when she's not illustrating picture books, explains that today is a new moon eclipse, which can create some instability. I was really looking forward to interviewing Jacqueline Woodson today, and since I'm an anxiety freak, I made sure I had everything prepared in advance—I charged my Flip camera, brought my digital camera to take some stills, and had my questions all typed up. Got to her lovely home and within FIVE MINUTES the Flip died. Even though it said I had 2 hours worth of memory space. Grrr…I tried filming with my digital camera, but had never done that before and worried it, too, would die after five or ten minutes. Jackie was her usual gracious self, and agreed to reschedule before sending me home with new books to read. Of course, I plugged my Flip in as soon as I got home and decided to make a short film just to be sure the camera works. UPS delivered three packages from my uncle in Winnipeg containing family heirlooms—I won't bore you with the footage of me tearing open the boxes, but this is a still of my great-great-aunt's painting; she studied at an art academy as a young woman and this painting used to hang in my grandparent's house. I remember the swans…I'm assuming she "passed" for white while in Toronto; no one would have known she was a Negro woman, and had she been brown-skinned, she likely would have been barred from the school. Now have photos of her painting at her easel, and a beautiful portrait taken in a professional studio. Will try to regroup this weekend so I'm ready for whatever's in the stars for next week…

it does a heart good…

…to discover new allies. I've been enjoying the posts over at Amy Reads—my last paper addressed the different understanding of multiculturalism in Canada and the US, and I concluded that Canadians suffer from an unwarranted superiority complex when it comes to recognizing and respecting difference. I often find that when I raise the issue of inequity, Canadians (and not only whites) insist that I'm "obsessed" with race and simply imagining things. So it's refreshing to meet a blogger who's not afraid to grapple with these issues AND is thoughtful enough to offer solutions:

Wondering what you can do? I've pulled together a short list of suggestions, please add more in comments! 

Find books that are coming out by authors of color or who are gay, as well as books featuring characters of color and of varying gender and sexual persuasions, and request a review copy. If we show that we are interested in them, the industry might listen.
If you focus on young adult literature, join the Diversity in YA Challenge hosted by Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon. 
Read Zetta Elliott's post and help out in any way you can to make equity in publishing a priority in North America. 
Pick at least one other country a month and try to learn more about it online and also learn something about authors from there. Read one or two if you can. As citizens of the world we should be informed about issues around the world. Knowing about other cultures shouldn't be a luxury it should be a requirement. Let's make it cool to learn more about those global voices!
Think about and discuss diversity in publishing and reading and realize why it is important.

And speaking of allies, I've been meaning to write about the ChLA conference for some time now but as soon as I got back from Roanoke I had to prepare for an interview in Atlanta. I have another interview next week and so I've been thinking a lot about the academy, its pros and cons. There was a moment in Roanoke when I felt like I was in the company of kindred spirits—and that doesn't often happen in my professional environments, which is probably why I generally keep a low profile. Back in May I considered pulling out of the conference; it was a considerable expense and I'm not really a children's literature scholar. I suspected I'd show up and spend the day alone, feeling very much on the outside of things. But the exact opposite was true: as soon as I arrived at the airport, I met two graduate students who had come from California and were trained by my co-panelist, June Cummins. We shared a cab and talked about the job market and the need to professionalize early on, to get out into the field, attending and presenting at conferences, publishing and networking with other scholars. I never did any of that as a graduate student because I never truly believed I'd enter the academy. Now I'm more committed to an academic life, but can't find a school that values both my creative writing and "nontraditional" scholarship. But as I delivered my paper on Thursday morning and felt the positive energy from the audience, I realized that it *is* possible to be who I am in the academy. My fellow panelists, June and Uma Krishnaswami (Abbie Ventura was unable to attend so her paper was read aloud), presented fabulous papers that were also warmly received by the audience. Our panel co-Chairs, Sarah Park and Thomas Crisp, were welcoming and organized and facilitated a good discussion afterward. Then they shifted seats and read their own amazing papers for the panel, "Sliding Doors in a Pluralistic Society: Reframing Images of America and Inclusion." I should have taken notes but I was so absorbed in their papers! Sarah presented on "Mis/Understanding the 'Angry' Adoptee"—for once, someone was talking seriously about RAGE and the ways in which marginalized and/or mistreated people are too often dismissed as "hysterical" or "irrational" when they challenge dominant practices or perceptions. I have a close friend who's a transracial adoptee, and through her have done some reading on the subject; it's unreal how she's expected to always be happy and grateful for her adoption, how she's expected to put the feelings of her adoptive and biological parents ahead of her own…Sarah then read Debbie Reese's part (ETA: Debbie was in New Orleans at ALA) of a dialogue with Thomas about "Identity, Representation, and Cultural Change Across Fields and Genre." As scholars in American Indian Studies and Queer Theory, Debbie and Thomas reflected on the moments when they felt alienated and accepted by other professionals, and their decision to become allies in the fight for social justice. What do you do when you're trying to create change—when it's a matter of life or death—and those around you refuse to be moved? The conversation following that panel (which also included Anna L. Nielsen's presentation on the representation of the Muslim experience) was also engaging and when it ended, I felt as though I'd found even more allies—I met Michelle Martin, the first black president of ChLA, and Jeffrey Canton, a Canadian scholar who boldly asked, "Why aren't we talking about the role publishers play in all this?" I had lunch with Sarah, talked more with Jeffery and Michelle and Lissa Paul, and met other folks who said they'd really enjoyed my presentation. I was only at the conference for half a day, but I left feeling it had been totally worthwhile. Will I ever find an academic job where I can feel as accepted and validated? I don't know. But conferences don't just advance your career—they connect you to a community of allies, which is what matters most.