Comments on: BEA09PaT: Multi-Culti Panel

By: bookmarkergurl

bookmarkergurl — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:11:00 +0000

Hey, everyone!

“Bless me, Ultima,” by Ruldofo Anaya is another great book by a latino author. The book is like a hispanic version of Harry Potter. In fact, Walmart’s heiress is taking it to the big screen! =)

Has anyone heard of it besides me?

By: Paula

Paula — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:12:18 +0000

Edi, you know what they say? Better late than never! Welcome.

By: Edi

Edi — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:59:29 +0000

This is going to be a challenge, but that’s what happens when you’re late to the party! School just ended and I have A LOT of catching up to do! Let’s see…
Simone Elkeles
NiNi Simone
L Divine
Gary Soto
Alisa Valdez Rodrigez
Rene Saldana Jr
Laura Resau
Benjamin Alire Saenz
Many Ly
Amjed Qamar

By: paulahy

paulahy — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:45:19 +0000

See how much fun this is? Who needs to be at BEA? :-)

By: Varian Johnson

Varian Johnson — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:39:29 +0000

Concerning who is and isn’t including in the term “people of color”, I’m a big fan of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s definition of multicultural literature.

Also, I want to throw Francisco X. Stork into the mix. His latest novel, MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD, has racked up FIVE starred reviews (Booklist, PW, Horn Book, Kirkus, and SLJ). I love the book, and I hope the various committees remember it when awards season rolls around.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:54:26 +0000

@Paula: Kekla is an author of color. I think her work needs to be read more widely.

By: Neesha

Neesha — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:11:52 +0000

Oh, I haven’t scrolled through all your archives, but I want to add Uma Krishnaswami, Anjali Banerji (hope I spelled that right!), Marina Budhos, Tanuja Desai Hidier, An Na, Justina Chen Headley (!), Cynthea Liu, Olugbemisola Perkovich (though hers comes out in ’10), Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, and Sheba Karim. I’m sure I’ll come up with more, but those are off the top of my head for now.

Did I mention how excited I am about what you’re doing? :)

By: Neesha

Neesha — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:04:07 +0000

OMG, Paula, this is SOOOO awesome! I LOVE that you’re doing this and that LHA is sponsoring it!! SQUEEEE!!! Rock on witcho bad selves!

By: susan

susan — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:16:49 +0000

Paula, I do the same. I’m at the Fire Escape quite a bit. Cool, you mean people of color. Alrighty then. My first round:

An Na
Randa Abdel-Fattah (Oh, she’s an Aussie so not likely to be at BEA?)
Tanuja Desai Hidier (She joined a rock band!)
Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore
Cindy Pon
Traci L. Smith
Lori A. Williams

By: paulahy

paulahy — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:39:58 +0000

@Karen – Not that it matters but what ethnicity is Kekla? Just because I’m curious.

I know this may be opening a can of worms, but I’m opening them because, this is after all a panel on diversity.

As Mitali mentioned, when The BBS launched it generated healthy discussion about how to define brown and the issue of exclusion.

Within that discussion, we made it clear that here at The BBS it isn’t about exclusion, but all five members were African American so it was obvious why we were primarily focused on African American authors.

However, we have and continue to be open to embracing uplifting a myriad of brown authors within other initiatives outside of 28 Days Later.

Some feel that dilutes the cause. But I’m of the mind that a rising tide floats all boats. As diversity is discussed within publishing is it better for the browns to “unite” or should each brown clan carry their own flag to get recognition in publishing?

What say you?

Hmm…may have to start a whole new post for this…