Imagining Alternatives
The Book Smugglers need your support! I wrote this essay for their Kickstarter campaign and hope you’ll go over to their page and pledge however much you can. I know there are a lot of worthy causes that deserve help right now. It’s also important that we envision a world where humans don’t create and/or suffer from catastrophes—and that’s what The Book Smugglers do…
I don’t often think of my imagination having limits. I’ve published twenty-six books for young readers, and just wrote a middle grade novel in under three weeks. When I do school visits, I tell kids that writing, for me, is 70% dreaming. I even quit my day job three years ago so I would have more time to write. But when I first heard Angela Davis talk about prison abolition, my brain balked. I knew how mass incarceration had devastated communities of color, and I had taught my college students about the school-to-prison pipeline. Yet I found myself unwilling to imagine alternatives to the current prison system in the US. Why?
Even when institutions fail us, it’s hard for most of us to immediately divest. We welcome efforts to reform problematic practices, but total transformation can seem a step too far. Unfortunately, superficial changes rarely solve issues that are institutional; hiring a few more officers of color seems like a good idea, but it won’t end police brutality because the problem is cultural and systemic. The same holds true for the publishing industry. As a Black feminist writer who often has no choice but to self-publish, I’m frequently frustrated by the many barriers placed in the path of indie authors. Data published annually by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center prove that the US publishing industry has been systematically excluding IPOC for decades—largely because the industry is dominated by straight, White, cisgender women who don’t have disabilities. Yet when a marginalized writer dares to self-publish, most review outlets, blogs, bookstores, and libraries refuse to give the book a chance. But not The Book Smugglers.
I can’t name all the editors, reviewers, librarians, and booksellers who have rejected my work over the past decade. But I can count on one hand the progressive people in the kid lit community who have embraced my books. Ana and Thea were among the first to treat my writing with respect instead of contempt. Not only did they review my novels, they gave me the opportunity to write guest posts for their blog. Other YA blogs have rejected my posts as “too political,” but that has never been an issue at The Book Smugglers. Ana and Thea welcome provocative ideas and use their platforms as a space for genuine diversity—different kinds of people with different ideas creating books in different ways.
When the publishing industry failed to produce inclusive speculative fiction, these radical women started soliciting, acquiring, editing, and publishing fiction themselves. Editors at corporate publishers claim they just can’t find talented IPOC writers, and yet Thea and Ana have attracted an incredibly talented pool of emerging and established writers from diverse backgrounds. They didn’t just talk about or wish for diversity; they took direct action and published unapologetically unconventional short fiction, novellas, and essays that might never find a home within the traditional publishing industry.
As a self-publisher, I know how much time, energy, and money it takes to produce good work. I immediately donated to The Book Smugglers’ Kickstarter campaign—and encourage you to do the same—because what these incredible women are doing is part of a radical feminist DIY tradition.
When I finally decided to self-publish much of my work, I drew inspiration from Black feminists like Audre Lorde and Barbara Smith who helped to found Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press three decades ago. Lorde told Smith, “We really need to do something about publishing.” The Book Smugglers honor Lorde’s words and help us all to envision a publishing arena (and a world!) that is more expansive, more inclusive, and welcoming to all.
