Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 94

give from the heart…

…AND the head.  Many book donation programs don't take into consideration the racial and ethnic make-up of the group receiving the books.  That's why I was so excited about the GuysLitWire donation project last year (where Native American teens chose the books they wanted in their library), and now Ari at Reading in Color has come up with something just as great—read below and GIVE!



C.O.L.O.R.

Coalition Of Librarians and Online Readers

Online readers being those of us who lurk around book blogs. The librarians (as of right now) are all librarians who blog. The end goal being to donate at least 25 books in two months to a library that could use a little extra TLC. I have four libraries as of right now and depending on the success of the project, more librarians and libraries will be added.

How it works: I provide the link to the wishlist. You buy the books. You are welcome to donate multiple copies of books on the wishlist. If you wish to donate a book of your own, please email the respective librarian or myself first (if possible). To start off, we are using the Book Depository so that international readers have no excuse not to participate (unless they happen to be in one of the few countries the Book Depository does not mail to).

Why?: Budget cuts for libraries are increasing. Many of us love libraries and I want to help by sending books to libraries that have been hit hard by the budget cuts. A bonus is that I would like to only send books by/about people of color for children and teenagers, both fiction and non fiction. For now I am focusing on middle schools (6th-8th) and high schools in the U.S. The ideal scenario is to send books about Asians/Black people/Latinos and Native Americans to the library, but to have the majority of the books match the ethnicity of the students.

First up is Edi from Crazy Quilts (I highly recommend you check out her blog first, you won't be able to resist wanting to help this warm and informative librarian). Read my blogger spotlight with Edi.

Edi is a librarian at Arlington Community High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. The majority of her students (90%) are Black. To learn more about the school (including a matchup of Arlington Community High School students who pass their grades versus the state average, which is depressing to say the least) go here.

Project for Arlington Community High School begins: February 11, 2011

Ends: April 11, 2011

Now that I've gotten you all eager to help out, go to the wishlist I made for The Book Depository; from there you can easily buy the book and mail it out, easy peasy.

For your convenience I've included the wishlist titles below:

A Year in Japan by Kate T Williamson

Tales of Otori (1,2,3) by Lian Hearn

Zaharah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okarafor

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans

Dragon Road by Laurence Yep

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld

Asleep by Wendy Raven McNair

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea; Burma Chronices by Guy Delisle

Aya: The secret comes out vol 3

Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans by Roland Laird, Taneshia Nash Laird, Elihu , "Adofo" Bey, and Charles Johnson

Greatest Stars of the NBA Volume 1: Shaquille O'Neal by Tokyopop and Nba

Michelle Obama (Female Force) by Neal Bailey and Joshua LaBell

The Civil Rights Freedom Train (Comix With Content) by Bentley Boyd

All the Rage: The Boondocks Past and Present by Aaron McGruder

Nat Turner by Kyle Baker

Miss Emily the Yellow Rose of Texas by Ben Durr

Yellow Rose the Myth of Emily Morgan by Douglas Brode

Bessie Coleman: Daring Stunt Pilot (Graphic Biographies) by Robbins, Trina, Steacy, and Ken

Captain America: Truth by Robert Morales and Kyle Bake

Fist stick knife gun a personal history of violence by Geoffrey Canada (graphic novel)

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

Black Frontiers: A History of African American Heroes in the Old West by Lillian Schlissel

Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldstein

Buffalo Soldiers and the American West (Graphic Library, Graphic History) by Glaser, Jason, Smith, and Tod

Booker T. Washington: Great American Educator (Graphic Library: Graphic Biographies) [Paperback]by Braun (Author), Eric (Author), Martin (Illustrator), Cynthia (Illustrator)

Graphic Myths and Legends: Sinbad: Sailing into Peril: an Arabian Tale (Graphic Universe) by Marie P. Croalland Clint Hilinski

Beowulf: Monster Slayer (A British Legend) (Graphic Universe) [Paperback] by Paul D. Storrie (Author), Ron Randall (Illustrator)

Isis & Osiris: To the Ends of the Earth (Graphic Myths and Legends) [Paperback] by Jeff Limke (Author), David Witt (Illustrator)

unmanageable me

I woke at dawn yesterday and worked out the penultimate scene of my novel.  Before leaving for class at noon I managed to write about 1500 words, and suspect I'll finish Ship of Souls this weekend.  The day before I'd been mulling over a conversation I'd had with my agent; I intend to follow her sage advice, but was still disturbed by an editor who called Wish "unoriginal."  A comment like that from a book blogger would probably just roll off my back at this point, but when an "industry insider" makes such an assessment, there can be serious repercussions—based, in large part, on my response to the charge.

 

I'm teaching this course on neo-slave narratives—the same course to two different groups of students at two different schools.  And that means I'm considering every text three times: once by myself as I prepare the lesson, then twice at my respective jobs.  It's interesting how the same text can reveal greater complexity each time you talk about it.  I feel like I've read Frederick Douglass' Narrative a hundred times, but this time around it seemed as though he was addressing racial dynamics in the publishing industry.  Yesterday I had my students break into groups and look up Douglass' references to black women, white women, black men, white men, Christians, and children.  They found that Douglass made a point of exposing the utter vulnerability of black women, whereas white women were depicted as potential allies who inevitably succumbed to "the fatal poison of irresponsible power."  Sophia Auld begins to teach young Douglass to read, but is schooled by her husband on the dangers of creating an educated slave: "He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master." Douglass, of course, determines to read and write at any cost and does indeed become impossible to manage.  He defies the man hired to "break" him and seizes his freedom by becoming a fugitive.

Now, eventually I'm going to show my students this image of Prince—I want to know how they feel about contemporary people using slavery as a metaphor.  When a wealthy black artist stuck in an unfair contract with his (white-owned) record label writes the word "slave" on his cheek, what does that really mean?  I have often objected to certain references to lynching—Clarence Thomas doesn't deserve to invoke that traumatic history when he feels he's being picked on by white senators who can (and did) grant him immense privilege and power.  At the same time, I'm urging my students to consider the LEGACY of slavery—how else can we explain the continued fascination with the topic?  Why do so many contemporary black writers choose to focus on the slave experience and the quest for freedom?  Why do *I* write about slavery?  To problematize the notion of progress, that's why.  This is NOT a post-racial society; slavery in the US was abolished in the 19th century, yet convicts continue to be exploited and people (mostly women and girls) are trafficked in this country and around the world at an alarming rate.

The horrific reality of enslavement diminishes any attempt made by contemporary individuals to position themselves as virtual slaves.  Yet I still found myself marking this passage while reading Douglass' narrative:  "To all these complaints [made by the white slaveholder], no matter how unjust, the slave must answer never a word…a slave must stand, listen, and tremble."  I then thought of June Jordan's essay, "The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry," in which she concludes that "America has long been tolerant of Black children, compared to its reception of independent Black men and Black women."

…as long as we…remain the children of slavery, as long as we do not come of age and attempt, then to speak the truth of our difficult maturity in an alien place, then we will be beloved, and sheltered, and published.

But not otherwise. And yet we persist.

I'm going to finish Ship of Souls this weekend.  I'm going to send it to my agent and hope that she can find an extraordinary editor who's not afraid of dealing with a black author who is determined to be "unmanageable."

fight the good fight

Keep an eye out for this film on changing the misrepresentation of women and girls:

a seat at the table

This has been a great week for addressing equity in publishing.  Make sure you read Neesha Meminger's guest post at The Ya Ya Yas Blog:

Fantasy and play and romance. Play. It's the space where creativity happens. It's a place of joy, hope, rejuvenation, innocence, and a throwback to childhood when things are (or should be) carefree. In the vast majority of books featuring people of colour and other marginalized voices, the offerings are of overcoming suffering, the pain of being "other", and the untimely loss of innocence. Not that there isn't a place for these novels. They are vital and necessary, and offer a most important mirror for those in similar situations–and I reserve the right to have my next book explore suffering and pain and violence, and maybe even identity. All I am saying is that to only put forward stories of marginalized people suffering nobly or weathering hardship, to the exclusion of other types of stories, is where we once again risk falling into the trap of what Chimamanda Adichie terms the "single story" trope.

Carleen Brice also posted a link on her blog to this article on the Kirkus site: "It's Time for More YA for People of Color."

It's this belief—that teens of color don't read—as well as the assumption that those teens of color who do read need certain kind of books, especially the serious and heavy stuff, that contributes to the dearth of popular fiction for those readers. As a white reader, I can choose to read something "literary" or "popular" about my community from the stock at my local library or bookstore, but readers of color don't necessarily have that option. Especially when bookstores and libraries buy into the whole "people of color don't read" hype.

We want it all!  Why do so many editors reject the fact that all readers want—and deserve—a range of books that reflect our diverse realities?

story time with Cheryl!

You are cordially invited to a reading of My Friend Maya Loves to Dance by Cheryl Willis Hudson at 11 am on Saturday, February 12, 2011.

Greenlight Bookstore

686 Fulton Street

Brooklyn, NY 11217

(718) 246-0200

Story Time:
Cheryl Willis Hudson

Cheryl Willis Hudson is vice president and editorial director of Just Us Books, an independent publisher of black-interest books for children and young adults. She has written many books for children.  In her new book My Friend Maya Loves to Dance, a young narrator tells readers about her friend Maya, who absolutely loves to dance. She can't get enough of dance: the costumes, the grand entrances, the pirouettes, the music, the final bow, and the magic of recitals. She even loves the hard work of practice. But why doesn't her friend dance, too? As part of our ongoing celebration of Black History Month, Greenlight is honored to host Cheryl to present a story of creativity and friendship among children of all kinds.

My Friend Maya Loves to Dance

By Cheryl Willis Hudson, Eric Velasquez
$16.95

ISBN-13: 9780810983281

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Harry N. Abrams, 4/2010

Diversity in YA Fiction

Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo have paired up to form a new site—and multicultural book tour!  And since it's February, they've invited Doret (from The Happy Nappy Bookseller) to write a guest post for Black History Month.  Here's some of what Doret had to say:

I think it's essential not only to read books with Black characters, but to seek out Black authors as well. Writing is a very powerful art and form of expression. To read novels written primarily by outsiders is to disregard the voices of a whole people. Yes, there are a lot of great YA novels written by outsiders, and I've reviewed many, though books written from an outsider's perspective would never and should never replace authentic voices.

Doret's got great recommendations for further reading, so check it out.  Another list of books for Black History month was posted on the YALSA site—the point is to "shake things up" in February instead of falling back on the same old titles.  You know I'm not keen on the various heritage months because these topics and titles have value ALL YEAR ROUND.  So don't feel like you have to cram twenty titles into one month—spread it out, take your time, savor these books, and spread the word…

 

incentive

"Are you sure you're…fully human?"

I woke up with those words in my head this morning.  Late last year I went off my medication just to see if my migraines would go away.  They did, but now the original condition is untreated and that has led to many sleepless nights as of late.  It may also have led to this novella, which is an interesting hypothesis: live with pain and write your best work.  Right now I'm almost done Ship of Souls, and I am quite ready to go back on my medication.  On Thursday I took a break between my two classes and checked Facebook; my cousin's young son, Kodie, had left a message on my wall:

Hi Zetta! This is Kodie. I was wondering if you have written any more of your book you told me about at Bethany's. I think about the book a lot and can not wait to read it! I have been playing lots of hockey and sledding on a big hill by my house.

Have a good day

Kodie

He has also started writing his own stories, and will be sending some my way.  In exchange, I promised to finish the novella, print it as a book, and send him the very first copy.  At ten, he's a bit young for this story (which my agent finds "scary"), but I love that he's excited about reading and writing.  The way I feel right now, I think the laptop, hot water bottle, and I will be spending the day on the couch…testing that hypothesis!

why we love The Rejectionist

There are so many reasons—her biting wit, her love of hobbits—but we most especially appreciate her commitment to being an ally.  Do make sure you read her latest post on the marketing of African American authors in bookstores:

Publishing is a bunch of white people. (That's not negotiable, Author-friends. We bombed interviews at every one of those publishers, remember? And you KNOW when you are in the most diverse city IN THE F[***]ING WORLD, and you walk into an office that is the entire floor of a building, and every single person in that office is white except the receptionist, there is a PROBLEM.) Bookselling less so, and things are changing (at an admittedly glacial pace), but basically the people making the decisions about what gets published, and where it goes on the shelf, are going to be almost exclusively, if not exclusively, people who are not people of color. We do repeat this a lot? It's true? But people are still…ARGUING about it so apparently we have to. NEWS FLASH: THE PUBLISHING, IT IS NOT DIVERSE. And unsurprisingly, when a very undiverse group of people is making decisions for everybody, things tend to go horribly awry.

African American speculative fiction for kids

After Edi read my SLJ article, she suggested I compile a list of African American speculative fiction books for children.  As usual, I enlisted the help of others, and below is the list Edi, Doret, Ari, and I compiled.  If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.  I did not include speculative fiction titles that might appeal to teens—just those specifically published for young readers.

Speculative Fiction by US-based Authors of African Descent

1.     Justice and Her Brothers by Virginia Hamilton (1978)

2.     Dustland by Virginia Hamilton (1980)

3.     The Gathering by Virginia Hamilton (1981)

4.     Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton (1982)

5.     The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl by Virginia Hamilton (1983)

6.     The Golden Hour by Maiya Williams (2004)

7.     47 by Walter Mosley (2005)

8.     Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor (2005)

9.     The Hour of the Cobra by Maiya Williams (2006)

10. The Hour of the Outlaw by Maiya Williams (2007)

11. The Marvelous Effect by Troy CLE (2007)

12. The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor (2007)

13. Racing the Dark by Dawn Alaya Johnson (2007)

14. A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott (2008)

15. Pemba's Song: A Ghost Story by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin

16. The Ancient Lands Warriors Quest by Jason McCammon (2009)

17. Asleep by Wendy Raven McNair (2009)

18. Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers (2009)

19. Explorer-X Alpha by LM Preston (2009)

20. The Goblin King by Dawn Alaya Johnson (2009)

21. Olivion's Favorites by Troy CLE (2009)

22. Awake by Wendy Raven McNair (2010)

23. The Clone Codes by Patricia McKissack et al. (2010)

24. Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves (2010)

25. Manifest by Artist Arthur (2010)

26. Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2010)

27. Shadow Walker by LA Banks (2010)

28. Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves (2011)

29. Cyborg by Patricia McKissack et al. (2011)

30. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (2011)

31. Mystify by Artist Arthur (2011)

"Nothing you write can be wrong!"

That's the philosophy of award-winning author Kekla Magoon—wouldn't you love to be in her creative writing class?  I'm so happy to host her here at my blog—Kekla's a *very* busy woman so I'm very grateful she took the time to answer a few questions about her writing life.

1.  Most people know about your award-winning debut novel, The Rock and the River, but you've written a number of non-fiction books as well.  Can you tell us about your writing history and how you select and/or develop new projects?

The first books I published, back in 2007, were non-fiction books for the educational market. I contributed about eight titles to a series published by ABDO for middle school libraries. The series had three categories: Essential Lives (biographies), Essential Events (a study of important world history moments), and Essential Viewpoints (a balanced introduction to controversial issues). The publisher developed a list of titles that would be included in each series, so I didn't choose the topics for these books, but sometimes I was offered a choice of which titles I wanted to write. I tended to choose topics related to civil rights (NELSON MANDELA), women's issues (SALEM WITCH TRIALS), and arts or writing (MEDIA CENSORSHIP). All the books had a history component to them, too, which is right up my alley. These for-hire projects were very helpful for me financially for several years as I made the transition from traditional employment to being a full-time author and speaker.

I also am grateful to have had that structured experience writing non-fiction, because I am now looking to do more non-fiction titles of my own creation. I am particularly interested in history, and what I know best is Black History, so I have turned my attention to that for now. This spring, my first royalty-based non-fiction project is coming out from Lerner Publishing. It's called TODAY THE WORLD IS WATCHING YOU and is about the Little Rock Nine, the first black students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. It was shortly after the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision ruled school segregation unconstitutional. The Little Rock Nine faced a year of violent torment in school and strong community backlash, and they helped pave the way for generations of black students to be educated alongside white students. It's an amazing story!

Next, I am developing a proposal for a non-fiction book on the Black Panther Party for teenagers. It will connect well with THE ROCK AND THE RIVER, and my forthcoming companion novel, FIRE IN THE STREETS. It is very important to me to have such untold narratives from history begin to be shared more with young people.

2.  Ella's biracial identity isn't necessarily central to the story in Camo Girl.  Talk about your decision as a biracial woman to write about a biracial girl and how your novel "fits" (or not) with other narratives about mixed-race women. 


I'm not sure I have a good answer to how CAMO GIRL fits with other mixed-race narratives. Sometimes it's hard to analyze one's own work in those terms, although I do give thought to the place my books might take in the canon of children's literature. I feel it's important for many of my characters to be women of color, but I didn't want to write a story about a girl torn between two races, or heavily struggling with identity on racial grounds. I was hoping to paint a more nuanced picture of what it can mean to be a mixed-race person. In the end, I believe I made her biracial because I am biracial.
Even though CAMO GIRL is only my second published novel, it's about the sixth novel manuscript that I've personally worked on (some are forthcoming, others are unfinished).  Not all the characters in those projects are black or biracial. I'm sharing that because I want to be clear that I've written a fair amount, so it will make more sense when I say that Ella is the character who seems most like me of all the characters I've created. She is NOT me, of course, but I did make a conscious effort to place some of my experiences and perspectives into her. I'm a reasonably self-confident person and I never suffered the extreme social exclusion that Ella faces in the novel. However, her sense of being different and her longing for new friendships are part of my memory of myself in middle school. For those reasons, this novel touches me more personally, and I hope that as such it can let some young struggling girls (of any race) know that there is something beautiful to see when they look in the mirror.

3.  I know you're passionate about writing and love being in the classroom.  How do you teach someone to become a better writer?




Yes, I do enjoy teaching writing, both to children and adults. With very young children, it's mostly a matter of encouraging them to keep writing and to celebrate their ability to pour creativity into everything. All their writing has energy and honesty and voice. At that point, all they need is time to develop vocabulary, gain life experience, and make observations about it. What I fear happens as kids get older is they begin to doubt their individual voice, which causes them to suppress some of those creative urges. They learn to self-edit in a way that is sometimes too extreme. Teen years are already a vulnerable time, even if you do nothing to explicitly expose yourself; creative expression only compounds that sensitivity. So I think positive reinforcement is key with teenagers, and can be the foundation that will help them grow into successful lifelong writers, if they choose to follow that route. I believe that a person who is confident in her/his voice and who believes s/he has something important to say will be able to develop far better writing skills over time.
Why? Because a confident writer will learn to accept criticism without taking it personally.
I see writing as a two-fold process: it is simultaneously a personal creative act, and an attempt to communicate. On one side, an author has something to say that s/he feels passionate about. On the other, s/he wants someone to understand that idea and embrace it. I believe the best critical feedback is targeted solely at the second half of that equation. A good teacher won't try to change or criticize what the student writer's core message or story is, but simply provide tools by which the student can improve how s/he communicates. This is why a writer who believes in her/his voice will grow more than one who is insecure, because (perhaps subconsciously) s/he will be able to separate criticism of style vs. substance.

How do I personally strive to make confidence happen for my students? Well, it's a work in progress. As I'm often a guest author, I see my role as inspirer, uplifter. I only give positive feedback. There are no wrong answers in my workshops, ever. Most kids write mostly for school, where there are a lot of rules to writing, like spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. This is necessary training for life but it can get restrictive, and it makes kids feel like there's a right way to write. One of my favorite writing workshops that I offer is called WordPLAY! because I encourage my students to try writing without rules, without purpose, just for fun. The idea is to loosen them up and shake them out of the structures of school writing–the five paragraph paper, the book report, the essay exam, and so on. Spelling errors? Bring them on. Made up words? Why not? They get very creative, and then later we talk about how professional writers do a lot of editing of their work after the first draft. I still try to emphasize that "Nothing you write can be wrong!" (my workshop slogan), but that doesn't mean you can't look for a way to say what you want to say a little bit better.