I first heard of this at Charlotte’s blog. Then I hustled over to BookLust and snagged a logo button. I am SO in.
Speculative fiction by diverse authors and featuring a diverse cast of characters are on the rise. Every time I see a heads-up about a new book cover, I think, “YAAAAY!” Every time I realize that it’s not for a YA book I sigh. I am so pleased that there are people like Tu Publishing and Lee & Low making it their business to provide YA and children’s lit with a diverse speculative fiction population. But it’s a little depressing that the commitment thus far seems to be so small.
Especially after reading Coe Booth’s somewhat depressing post on the Children’s Book Council “It’s Complicated” discussion about the ghettoization of YA lit, and how “separate and not really equal” is the name of the game, I’m most anxious to look harder for more books with brown-skinned characters. (Some people say “brown and black,” but I have a lamentably literal and childlike mind. People of color, to me, are brown; diversity must also include LBGTQ in varishades.) Maybe if enough books are highlighted, they’ll move books with brown-skinned people on the covers out of the Black History/Urban Lit area on the back of the shelf, and mix freely with the others in the main part of the bookstore…
Please go and sign up for the A More Diverse Universe Blog Tour, September 23 – 29. And if you need some hints on what books to read, or where to find new ones, or works of short fiction, poke around on the BookLust page. DO IT NOW. The Universe thanks you.
Read diversely, diverse people. Happy Weekend.
Tomorrow is National Buy a Book Day–I'm going to challege myself, and any others who care to join me, to head to a bookstore and a buy a book with a brown (or other non-white type of person) on the cover…If enough people buy them, there will be more of them….
Good point. I've also noticed a bit of a trend for authors who are trying to appeal to a wide audience to be vague about their characters of color in terms of physical appearance…which, I guess is better than populating a world with nothing but blue eyes and blonde hair, but to me it feels like a lukewarm response to the problem.
I'll have to go read these links in more detail, but on first glance I just wanted to say YAY and AWESOME. I wholeheartedly approve. 🙂
I'm in the middle of Coe's post (excellent of course as Coe usually is). Two semesters ago, we had a long discussion at school about this topic.