Update on 2015 Diverse Reading Challenge

In December I posted my Cry to the Captain with a challenge to myself to choose and read more specifically targeted diverse books.

I started the year off with some great books by Asian authors about Asian cultures. I read Gail Tsukiyama's Women of the Silk and posted about how much I loved it and how it opened my eyes. I loved her writing and learning about China in that time period so much that I read the sequel, The Language of Threads. It was fabulous. I loved it in that way that you like the second book you read by a previously unread author just a teeny bit less than the first one that blew you away not just because of the writing and character development, but because you had never heard of the events written about.

I also read Lisa See's Shanghai Girls about two sisters in 1930s, 40s China and coming to America. Again, so many culture things I didn't know and was fascinated to read about. Coddled as it sounds, I had never considered or learned about the impact of Japan on China in that time (or the reverse). And the relationship See writes about between the two sisters, sometimes loving, sometimes fraught, but inextricably bound together, is probably true of sisters across time and across the globe.

Gail Tsukiyama's Street of a Thousand Blossoms will finish up my reading (for now) of books about Asian culture and heritage by an author of Asian heritage. I have just barely started it, but am looking forward to reading another of Tsukiyama's fine novels.

Many thanks to my adult reading buddies, Hannah and Carolyn, for their recommendation and book talks to me about these great books and for lending me their copies!  Because of you, I was able to read not just the 2 books by Asian authors I had set out for myself, but 4! And learned a lot along the way.


I'd love suggestions for books that take place in Africa by an African author or books about Mexican culture by a Mexican author. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is thick, but it won't last forever! What great book that inundates us in African or Mexican culture can I read next?

On Selecting Beta Readers . . .

This week, I'd like to direct you to an excellent article by Debbie Reese, of American Indians in Children's Literature. If you are not familiar with this blog, please do take some time to browse. There are TONS of helpful resources and insights for writers.

But today's post, Dear Writers and Editors: Some Cautions About Selecting Beta Readers, deals specifically with the thought process behind selecting beta readers. Please do read it.

In her post, Debbie links to Walk Softly and Listen Carefully, a publication from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and Montana State University's Center for Native Health Partnerships. I had not heard of this publication before, but it is a great overview for mindset when working with Native Nations.

Much good food for thought on this sunny Sunday.

Dance Fan by Kara Stewart, Art in Photography

So this happened . . . a.k.a.. SQUEEEE!

Last May, on my (now largely ignored) photography/creativity blog, I spread the word about Lee & Low Books' New Voices Award.

I also blogged about my New Learning in writing a picture book.

And then on this blog, I wrote about my Sender's Remorse for sending in my manuscript to the Lee & Low New Voices Award.

So here's what happened: I won their Honor Award. Yep. I did. That manuscript that I doubted so much? Won their Honor Award, their second place. Out of 180 manuscripts they received, mine won second place.

I was, I'm pretty sure, screaming into the phone when I got the call. Pretty sure I was not professional at all. Pretty sure it was completely surreal and still is.

I feel validated. This definitely served to spur me to continue on this writing journey when I was feeling a little soggy about it. But I'm not losing my head. I do realize that my manuscript fit a certain niche at a certain time for a certain publisher and that I am very lucky to  have been chosen. Sure, I did a lot of hard work on that story, but I had a great beta reader (Alison DeLuca) and will need to do a lot more work on it so that it is publishable.

But my biggest take away? Finish your shit!* This was my first manuscript that I finished. (Don't read this, Lee & Low people. I'm really very professional and finish everything I start. Ahem.)  I have several unfinished starts, but yep, this was the first one I finished. BIG lesson. Finish your shit.*

SQUEEEEE!!




*from Chuck Wendig's terribleminds blog and book, The Kick-Ass Writer.

Building Character(s)?

Last summer, I took an online course (LOVE them for flexibility) about building characters at KidLit Summer School from the nerdy chicks at KidLit Writing School. It was awesome. The blog posts, tasks, webinars, and guest bloggers were very helpful in creating new ways to think about character more deeply.

Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen is now preparing to run an in-depth course: Character Building in Picture Books. If you've ever thought about writing for children, this would be a great course to take. Sudipta has 18 picture books either in print or scheduled (Tyrannosaurus Wrecks, Hampire, Duck, Duck, Moose, to name a few) and is very personable and helpful.

Get over to KidLit Writing School quick and register! Classes begin January 26.

My Cry to the Captain Begins

In my last post, Cry to the Captain, I spoke about the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign and my own personal reading challenge for 2015 to read more diversely.

Because I have awesome reading buddies who lend me awesome books, I have just read Gail Tsukiyama's Women of the Silk. I loved it!

I realize that this book is fiction and if I really wanted to be pristine in learning hard facts about a country, people and their culture, I would read non-fiction (but even then, history is written by the victors, eh?); however, there can be something vastly humanizing about reading and learning about a culture through fiction. In this book in particular, I felt I learned a bit about Chinese culture and the silk industry from about 1919 - 1930s not in addition to, but because of the events that unfolded for the main character, Pei. Tsukiyama wrote rich, complex characters that made me care about them. I wanted to throttle the non-communicative characters at times, I felt Pei's sadness and curiosity, I wondered at Lin's self-control. For me, the history and the facts are lifted from dust to breath by the characters (which is another reason it is so important for authors to research meticulously and be a part of the culture about which they write).

If you haven't read Women of the Silk, I'd recommend it.

Cry to the Captain

I am not a New Year's resolutions person. I am an anti-resolutionist. In fact, I think this year, I will simply change the '4' to a '5' in my road map from 2014. I am still working on all of it.

However, I'd like to issue a challenge this year - to me, to you, to everyone. Sparked by The Book Riot's 2015 Read Harder Challenge, which challenges us to read about experiences, places and cultures that may be different from our own, my challenge narrows it down to culture.

The We Need Diverse Books campaign has been long overdue and diverse books have finally gotten some attention this year. But have they gotten enough attention? And are publishers really listening and responding? I don't think so. Certainly some publishers are. But not enough. Maybe the publishing industry is akin to trying to steer an enormous steel ocean-going vessel (I'm trying not to say Titanic because I absolutely do not think that the publishing industry is sinking) - it takes a frustratingly long time for the captain to hear the cry, to then believe the cry and give the order to change course, and then a subsequently excruciatingly long time for the ship to begin to veer from its original course.

There are a number of concerned readers and writers who have made a resolution or given a challenge to read more diversely. I add my voice to theirs in attempt to have our cry heard.

I found the The Book Riot's 24 tasks very helpful in thinking about what I'd like to do to read more diversely, so I am borrowing from their list, with modification, to form my own challenge.

Here is my challenge task list, should you choose to join me:

• Read at least 2 books that take place in Africa by an African author.
• Read at least 2 books about Asian culture and heritage by an author of Asian heritage.
• Read at least 2 books involving American Indian or First Peoples culture by an author who is American Indian or First People. On this task, I have suggestions for you. I'd suggest Sherman Alexie, Tim Tingle, Louise Erdrich and Cynthia Leitich Smith and Eric Gansworth as starting points.
• Read at least 2 books about black or African American culture by a black or African American author.
• Read at least 2 books about Mexican culture by a Mexican author.

You'll notice that my tasks differ from The Book Riot's in an important way - my tasks specify authors who are a part of the cultures about which they write. Within the conversation about the need for diverse books, there are two camps: those that believe that an author of any culture can, with research, write about any other culture and those that believe that it is extremely difficult and almost never happens for an author to write about a culture with authenticity unless h/she is part of that culture. I fall more in the second camp. As a Native person, I have read a lifetime of cringe-worthy books about American Indians. With all the research available to authors, there is simply no excuse for much of it. But even with well-researched books, there are things that a writer simply would not know, things they misinterpret, things they *think* they understand about Indians - and do not. To write authentically, I feel more and more that you must be part of that culture.

If anyone from those cultures has recommendations for my other challenge books, I'd love it if you would let me know in the comments. 

My diverse reading challenge for 2015 is not an overly-ambitious-for-over-achievers list. It might be a realistic list for me, given my other responsibilities. And I can cry to the captain through my diverse purchases.

Words and Ideas Can Change the World

Just think -

Amazing, right? And with all those different books made up of those 26 letters, 

So,

Because

Truth. That's not to say that authors are, or need to be megalomaniacs. But think about it - are your words making the world a better place?

You have that power. Use it wisely.