Pssst. Have you noticed that Hunger Mountain has a new issue up now?
There’s a bunch of cool stuff in there — plus me totally arguing with Mitali Perkins.
Okay, I’m lying. Our pieces for Flipside are a discussion — Mitali wrote one side and I wrote another view. At issue: teens of color on book covers. Should there be more? Should covers be ethnicity neutral? I looked at the issue from one angle, while Mitali looked at it from another way. Who’s right? Or is this really an issue of right vs. wrong? Please read both sides and join the discussion!
You’ll also not want to miss Chris Barton’s piece on voice, Naomi Shihab Nye fans will enjoy her poem, and Ann Teplick’s piece on writing with teens in a psychiatric hospital is gripping and frankly might leave you sniffing. (Bonus interview with me, wherein Arts + Life editor Claire Guyton asks unusual questions, and I get to show off the top of my niece’s head. (At ten, she was a really ARTISTIC photographer.) I’m excited that this issue is so chock full of good things — Yay, Bethany, Kekla, and Claire! Good job, writers.
Hunger Mountain is a print and online journal of the arts produced by the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
…why are you still here? Go. READ.
Tanita, you and Mitali are an admirable pairing and the "race/face" issue (my take on what Mitali dubbed last year's "Cover Fail" with LIAR) is so needed. It's not about right and wrong, as you so eloquently said, but about hashing it out and forming opinions and challenging ourselves to ask how we are still judging books by their covers.
My new MG, TRUTH WITH A CAPITAL T, features a young white girl and her African-American cousin on the cover. I was thrilled when my editor, Michelle Poploff, came back to me and we discussed title changes to include both main characters on the cover–and not simply the white girl. Yes, this could have been to bridge the boy/girl gap but as the novel in a humurous voices partly centers on Maebelle investigating if her southern family ever owned slaves I felt it was also a step in the right direction in the "race/face" debate.
Thank you for contributing and for helping spread the Hunger Mountain word.
Thanks, Bethany, for cruising by! Tanita and I are both to pleased to see such a great online venue like Hunger Mountain for thoughtful conversation about YA and children's lit. Right now all I can do is just read it in awe of all of you!
I like that though this is sort of a "debate," there really isn't an issue of who is right or wrong — we really do all need to be talking/thinking about this one.
I like the cover of TRUTH, Bethany. The girls are so cute.
I read the Hunger Mountain pieces yesterday and was considering them still today, especially when I was in the Children's Room this morning.