I was reading Justine Larbalestier’s post about segregated proms in Montgomery County Georgia. I remember an article about segregated proms in another Georgia town a few years ago. It even inspired the Lifetime movie For One Night starring Raven-Symone. For me, it sparked a story idea but I thought it would be historical fiction because surely by the time I wrote the novel, high schools in Georgia would not be having segregated proms. How wrong I was. Montgomery County High School is … [Read more...]
Is the CSK Still Necessary?
May 17, 2009 Leave a Comment
I just finished reading an interesting blog post from Editorial Anonymous (EA), where he/she states that the Coretta Scott King (CSK) Award may no longer be necessary. The CSK award is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and honors African-American authors. EA states this in the post: Giving an award for creating art about the experience of race is a wonderful thing. But giving an award for creating art and being a particular race? That's racism in action. It’s interesting that … [Read more...]
Challenging the Default
May 4, 2009 Read Comments
I was reading a blog post on Color Online, which lead me to an interesting SLJ article, Straight Talk on Race: Challenging the Stereotypes in Kids' Books by Mitali Perkins. I found it to be a fascinating read. As the demographics of the United States continue to change, it's more important than ever to create more diversity in children's literature. What is the importance of describing a character's race? If you don't describe them at all in your novel, is the default white? In the … [Read more...]
The McVeigh Agency Looking For Diversity
April 21, 2009 Leave a Comment
The McVeigh Agency is a new agency founded by Mark McVeigh, formally Editorial Director at Simon and Schuster/Aladdin. I've heard Mark speak at many conferences and he is a very knowledgeable and experienced editor, so he'll probably be a great agent as well. The agency is also looking for diversity. I loved what he had to say about it: This country is based on the idea of a melting pot, and I want my clients and their books to reflect that. No matter what color you are, I want to … [Read more...]
