Notes from SCBWI Winter Conference

I had such a great time talking to everyone at SCBWI Winter Conference this weekend and teaching the multicultural books breakout. In one of my sessions, we didn’t get to this part of my notes, and for the others, we had to go through the list quickly because it was so long. One thing we … Read more

NY SCBWI schedule

If you didn’t already know, I’m going to be speaking at the end of the month at the New York SCBWI National Conference at the end of January. I’m excited to be talking about multicultural books, particularly writing them—pitfalls to avoid, things to consider when you write cross-culturally, maybe highlight some of my favorites from … Read more

Writing diversity: avoiding the Magical Negro

I don’t know that we’ve ever discussed the concept of the Magical Negro here before, or its equivalent in American storytelling with Asian and Native American characters, and I think we need to. With Tu’s emphasis on protagonists being characters of color, I don’t get as many submissions nowadays using this old stereotype/trope, but it’s … Read more

Diversity in YA Summer Reading Challenge

I’m up to my gleezers, as Galaxy Games alien M’Frozza would say, in printer proofs for Fall books. I’ve been working on a post to expand the Examining Privilege section of the Beyond Orcs and Elves talk/posts, but haven’t quite found as succinct an approach as Scalzi’s Things I Don’t Have to Think about Today … Read more

Oh hey, look what I found

Pictures from a recent visit to NYC by Cynthia Leitich Smith! These were taken in Feb. 2011, but I completely forgot to post them. What’s that? You don’t know Cyn? How could you miss this unyielding advocate for children’s literature? In fact, I’m surprised you somehow managed to make it to MY site if you … Read more

Beyond Orcs and Elves, part 3

And finally, part 3. Read parts 1 and 2 here and here. So now let’s talk about writing cross-culturally! Writing Cross-culturally A few months ago, I answered a reader’s question on my website, in which she asked, basically, “Is my character ‘black enough’?” which prompted a wide variety of responses, some voices expressing why the … Read more

Beyond Orcs and Elves, part 2

See here for part 1. Many authors have broken that mold & followed Ursula K. Le Guin’s admonition to write more of the “other.” But there’s still a strong British tradition—among the  biggest touchstones for kids from the 70s and 80s era are arguably Susan Cooper, Roald Dahl, Diana Wynne Jones, etc. All touchstones for … Read more

Beyond Orcs and Elves: Diversity in Science Fiction and Fantasy for Young Readers, part 1

Here you go! The first installment. Note that this was written to be spoken, so sometimes the diction might seem a little weird for a blog post. But I’m just going to leave it as-is, because you’ll get the idea. Beyond Orcs and Elves: Diversity in Science Fiction and Fantasy for Young Readers Ursula Le … Read more