great interview with Jacqueline Woodson

After being up all night sneezing, it was nice to sit down with a cup of tea and read this interview with Jacqueline Woodson over at Rhapsody in Books:

RIB: As author Neesha Meminger recently wrote, "there is a vast plethora of novels showing the full gamut of the white, heterosexual, able-bodied, middle/upper-middle class teen experience. In terms of racial representation, there are white characters in horror, fantasy, romance, historical, and whatever other genres exist on bookshelves, while teens of colour are offered a limited array of options." Given that whiteness and heterosexuality are apparently considered "the norm" for marketing purposes, what is your opinion of publishing opportunities for authors of color? Do you see much commitment to diversity?

JW: I actually don't think of whiteness and heterosexuality as 'the norm'. Maybe there are people who still do but none of them are close friends of mine. I think the endeavor toward diversity is everywhere – but 'commitment' – I don't know. Because it is a commitment and while I think a lot of people have their hearts in the right place, the work is hard and long and some people give up. I was in the big bookstore here in Park Slope today – (just looking, not buying) and I was surprised to see this tiny Black History Month table –(with books like The Souls Of Black Folks – 'hello, we've written other books since then!!" and a few newer ones on it. Then I went to the teen section and none of the books turned out were by people of color. It was quite a bummer – We can give this situation a thousand reasons, a thousand excuses, but the truth is – something is 'not' happening and it would be great to work toward changing that.