Last month I had the pleasure of meeting Carol Ottley-Mitchell, author and publisher of the Caribbean Adventure Series. Carol kindly agreed to answer a few questions about her books and her role as publisher/promoter of Caribbean children’s literature.
Describe your evolution from reader to writer to publisher–did any particular book inspire you as a child? Why write for children and why focus on the Caribbean?
Evolution…perfect description. I read voraciously as a child, everything I could put my eyes on. My drive to write my own books developed when I had my children. They inherited my love of reading and fell in love with Roald Dahl, the Magic Tree House, and many others. I wanted them to also read books that reflected their heritage, so I searched for books with children of color and—even more importantly to me—children of the Caribbean. I was frustrated with the choices. There are good Caribbean-based books for children out there, but I found that many of the ones I came across were difficult to read or emphasized stereotypes that were not necessarily a part of how I saw myself as a Caribbean person. The straw that broke the camel’s back may have been one book, I believe it was a Macmillan publication, in which a family was having a snack and the children were snickering about what Daddy was drinking, which turned out, from the illustration, to be “Rum.” I could not see how this added value to a story aimed at 6-year-olds and I determined to do better.
I went up to Brimstone Hill in St. Kitts (one of my favorite places in the world) one April and I thought—what a great place for a kid to have an adventure, and the Caribbean Adventure Series was born!
The second reason that I write about the Caribbean is that I believe in writing about what I know. I have lived in the US on and off for 15 years, but I have never quite assimilated. I would not feel comfortable writing about a society that I appreciate but often don’t understand. This may also explain why after living for three years in Ghana, I have only written one story set in Africa.
African American author Sherley Anne Williams once despaired that there was nowhere in the past she could go (as a black woman) and be free. Your three black child protagonists journey into the past but race never seems to be a problem for them–even in the 1600s. How do you want black children to relate to the past?
The first book in the Caribbean Adventure Series, Adventure at Brimstone Hill, kind of wrote itself. There was never a drawing board with a master plan of how it would end. Not the textbook approach to writing, I know. When I got to the point where the children travel into the past and meet the British General, I was stuck for quite a while. It wasn’t writer’s block; I was battling with a big question. How would a white General react to two black children showing up in his office with a monkey, no less? Did I want to introduce a discussion of slavery and black-white relations into this particular book? I decided to stick to my plan to create a light book that portrayed children in the Caribbean the way that they may see themselves. Many black Caribbean children have the benefit of growing up in an environment where they are the majority, where the successful adults around them also look like them. So it would be natural for the children to meet a Caucasian on their island and question his legitimacy rather than their own.
While the Caribbean Adventure Series is not intended to influence how children relate to the past from the point of view of race, it does reflect how I would recommend that our children relate to their past. It is important for children to understand why we of African descent are in the Caribbean, not in a way that engenders bitterness or self-hatred, but in a way that develops the self-confidence that comes with knowing one’s history.
What are the greatest rewards and the biggest challenges of being a publisher?
Rewards? The children, always the children. When we were in Ghana, children who had read the books or been at one of my readings would approach me to compliment the books or to say “Auntie, when is the next book coming out?” This never gets old and makes my day, perhaps my year, and inspires me to keep writing and to keep looking for good children’s books to publish.
Challenges? How much time do I have? Just kidding. If I had to pick one thing, I would say that the biggest challenge is marketing. Now that my publishing company CaribbeanReads has six books in distribution, we have a good understanding of the process of getting the books from raw manuscript to the press. The difficult part, once you have the book, is to get the word out that you have published a fantastic book and to get people (besides your family and friends) to buy a copy.
What is your vision for the future re: literacy in the black community and/or the African diaspora?
The future of literacy in the African diaspora has to be viewed from both a demand and a supply side. We need to read, read, read. As black people, we often have to overcome initial expectations about our abilities and our level of intelligence. We should not overcompensate, but we need the tools to ensure that when we go into that job interview, into the board room, or show up for school that we can contribute in a way that forces others to forget their preconceptions and question their prejudices. Being able to speak intelligently about our area of expertise and more is an important part of that and reading widely helps.
On the supply side, we need to have more books written that portray black people—our past, our present, and our future—in a balanced, reality-based light. I remember a friend of mine from Ghana saying that from years of watching African soap operas, she thought that relationships were supposed to be male-dominated and violent and so accepted such relationships as being natural. What we read about ourselves and how we see ourselves portrayed affects our psyche. No race is uniform and our literature should reflect that.
It has been great chatting with you!
Carol is an Information Technology professional. Her main profession is as General Manager of Leyton Microcomputer Services, an Information Technology firm based in St. Kitts. Born in Nevis, Carol has lived in several Caribbean countries. She spent a large part of her formative years in Trinidad, where one of her favorite pastimes was competing with her father to see who could compose the best humorous lyrics to existing songs. This was just the beginning of her interest in creative writing. Currently, Carol lives and writes in Virginia. Carol is married with two children who are her inspiration and her biggest critics. (Author Photo by Jaxon Photography)
An excellent and informative interview. I particularly liked her comment about children here finding it natural to question the legitimacy of caucasians being here rather than their own; and writing from – and to – a Caribbean perspective. An excellent read.
Thanks for stopping by, Clayton! Please do share Carol’s books with folks in your network–esp in Canada.
Thanks for this interview Zetta and Carol.
Zetta’s question about race and black children relating to the past is not surprising to me, partly because I know Zetta’s academic orientation, but also because I’ve noticed that a lot of African-American children’s authors have a vested interest in race issues that a lot (I would even say most) Caribbean children’s authors simply don’t have. Award-winning African-American children’s literature largely consists of books that deal with slavery, race relations or the civil rights era and so in some sense, the African-American children’s literature canon (‘canon’ meaning the books that are considered to be established as being of the highest quality) has arguably become a social justice canon. Some people will find that statement controversial, but there is enough evidence to support it. I’ve read quite a few articles or blogs where African-American scholars or commentators noted the surplus of African-American children’s books about slavery, civil rights era etc. or expressed the need for more “multicultural books” that are *not* race-driven. Zetta, I know you even wrote a post on this yourself: http://zettaelliott.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/non-race-driven-multicultural-titles/
Being a Caribbean person myself, I appreciate fully what Carol says about having the privilege to grow up in a society where people who looked like me were the majority and white privilege wasn’t a pervasive issue. It is perhaps *the* key difference between contemporary African-Americans and contemporary Afro-Caribbean people. America can tend to be a “black versus white” place (I feel I can speak authoritatively having lived here for 8 years) whereas in the Caribbean, the “black versus white” or “black and white” lens is not something that shapes our consciousness of ourselves or the world. This becomes evident when I hear some of my Afro-Caribbean friends unthinkingly refer to African-Americans as “black people”…as if Afro-Caribbean people aren’t black too! It boils down to different ways black people all over the world have of looking at ourselves. Because the race and power structures of modern-day Caribbean societies are to a great extent removed from the race and power structures that existed in the islands during the slavery/colonial era, you find that among contemporary Caribbean people/writers (Caribbean writers working in the independence era were different) there isn’t the same impetus to confront issues of race and to “write oneself into existence”, as among African-American people/writers in the United States, where modern-day race and power structures continue to be a reminder of (and perpetuate) the invisibility and oppression African-American people have experienced since their arrival in the United States.
Not that the African-American community hasn’t come far from the days of slavery or Jim Crow. Rather, because African-Americans are always forced to confront their history and because they are more willing to do so than Caribbean people are, they are closer to their history, more in touch with it I would say. One can ask, given that African-American history has involved a lot of pain, whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Is it better to always be looking back and remembering or to look forward and forget the past? Many Caribbean people I know seem to think that the way African-Americans commit to remembering (“Sankofa” is a much more popular and important concept among African-Americans than it is among Afro-Caribbeans) is a bad thing, an unfortunate thing. “Does everything have to be about race?” is the question commonly thrown around by many Caribbean people who can’t seem to understand for example why African-Americans ca’t stop talking about slavery. Yet, on the flip side of the coin, there are African-Americans who find Caribbean people to be avoidant, in denial, out of touch with their own history.
Personally, I can see both sides of the issue.
It’s a fact that race relations and the history of slavery in the Caribbean is something that has been to a great extent avoided in Caribbean juvenile literature. In my reading and research I have found only a handful of books that tackle race relations or Caribbean slavery from a critical or social justice perspective, and similar to what has happened with the African-American children’s literature canon, you find the same phenomenon whereby Caribbean children’s books dealing with race relations, slavery, resistance/revolt (e.g. The Hummingbird Tree by Ian McDonald published as early as 1969 or Open the Door to Liberty!: A Biography of Toussaint L’Ouverture by Anne Rockwell, published as recently as 2009. Note that Anne Rockwell is a white American children’s author writing about slavery in Haiti) have received more critical acclaim/attention or are somehow judged as more valuable, or more intelligent, or more ‘literary’ than other types of Caribbean children’s books. I believe this is something that should be corrected since humorous/light-hearted or otherwise “mainstream” stories can be just as excellent, just as important and well-written, and just as literary and critical as social justice books.
My opinion is that a balance needs to be struck, both in terms of the overall tally of social justice books versus lighter books that are published, and also in terms of the types of perspectives that individual authors take in writing their books, and the degree of gravity books have (it can’t be all gloom and doom). We need to foster critical consciousness in children but at the same time, we don’t want to overwhelm them with heavy issues. The Caribbean is my focus and my position is that we do a disservice to our children when we don’t teach them their history… which unfortunately includes Caribbean slavery and racism. Not every author will feel compelled, or is even equipped, to visit these “troubled places” in their writing, but there is much value in confronting the harsher aspects of reality and history in children’s literature. That said, Caribbean children could certainly benefit if more social justice Caribbean children’s books were published (without taking it to the excess) and read at home/taught in schools in the right way.
By the way…glad you and Carol got to meet. Been enjoying your blogs about Nevis!
Do you miss having a blog, Summer? (wink)
I think historical fiction has an obligation to tell the truth–even if there are speculative elements. It’s important for me that when contemporary black children visit the past, they experience (and so understand) the way race was constructed in that particular historical moment. When they see race constructed differently in the past, they are then able to do a comparative analysis and question the way race (and gender) are constructed in their contemporary moment. I think it helps when the protagonists meet children (of different races) from the previous era so that they learn about a child’s perspective. I think it’s also important that children understand blacks as agents–creators of history. Too many children–esp. in formerly colonized countries–have been taught that the only history that matters was lived by whites.
I just finished reading an interesting book, Voices of Concern by Judith Rollins, which examines the influence of global women’s movements for justice on the perception/protection of women’s rights in Nevis. Migrants who spend time abroad and invest in women’s movements then return to their place of origin and spread ideas that are not considered indigenous or customary. I think it’s wonderful and significant that SKN is now determined to develop a slavery curriculum to teach youth about their history. I imagine the teaching of African-centered history will impact the stories of future writers.
I do (sometimes) miss having a blog
I guess you can tell huh? :S
Yes, I share your concerns about the way history is taught to children (whether through historical fiction or in the schools). The education I received growing up in Trinidad and the books I read made me the intelligent person I am today, but they did me a disservice in the sense that they too often failed to show me black people as agents of history and they taught me to privilege the history lived by/perspectives of Europeans over the historical realities (perspectives and stories) of my own race. My hope is that Caribbean historical fiction for children and more generally, our way of looking at ourselves, evolves to the point where young people growing up today don’t have to experience the same erasures I did.
I used to enjoy pirate fiction as a child, but after coming to understand how ruthless and racially-charged the institution of piracy in the Caribbean really was, I’m no longer able to read the average pirate story without a degree of cynicism…
You mean the Slave Route Project right? Yes, I find that very groundbreaking for SKN. I wondered if it was a locally-driven initiative, which honestly, would have surprised me, then I saw it was part of a global UNESCO initiative…
Actually, I woke up this morning thinking that you should go back to graduate school–write a dissertation on transnationalism and Caribbean children’s lit. UWI is there in Trinidad, right? or you could return to the US…I’m working with a grad student now who’s based in ATL but pursuing an advanced degree in the UK–her thesis is on race & publishing.
That book, Voices of Concern, argues that women’s progress in Nevis is directly tied to the standards imposed by the IMF, World Bank, and UN–which is problematic in a way (ethical blackmail/extortion?) but beneficial in other ways. I was stunned when I heard that some folks wanted the slavery curriculum to include “famous whites” like Alexander Hamilton and Lord Nelson. That’s Nevisian history, but not central to an African-centered curriculum about enslavement and resistance. The colonial mentality that Fela sang about is alive and well, but I do think stories have a big role to play in changing perspectives. My Canadian friend said she enjoyed seeing African and Caribbean countries dominate certain events at the Olympics, but what are we left with at the end? The illusions of power have to be exposed. Being in the majority—or even in the lead—doesn’t mean you’re in control…
The pirate issue is tricky…kids find them so appealing and that’s fed by that horrible Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. But there were black pirates/privateers, too (in Nevis, at least), so how could a story for kids address their role while simultaneously exposing the “black gold” often confiscated on the high seas—blacks as pirates, blacks as cargo to be stolen and sold for gold…it’s an excellent opportunity to explore the whole notion of “the hero.”
“Famous whites”….yes, you have to be careful with that kind of thing. It sends the wrong kind of idea. An African-centered *anything* brings a degree of discomfort (and may be seen as divisive, or perhaps just a sort of distraction) in a society where people are preoccupied with multiculturalism, moving forward and nationalist striving…and many Caribbean societies are at this point. But I see African-centered pedagogy as valuable for the evolving identity of the Caribbean person, whether you are Afro-Caribbean or not.
Oh, don’t get me started on the Olympics! So much there to understand when you deconstruct the games as a dramatization of society.
Yes, lots of potential with the pirate genre, but too often it’s the superficial “Pirates of the Caribbean” treatment that’s used.
I don’t know about the PhD. I’m still considering whether a university education in the humanities makes any sense, for me or anyone else, but especially for me. One has to live by what one believes.
I looked up the book (and Rollins)- sounds interesting. I would have liked to read this exact same book but with Trinidad as the subject.
What did Booker T say? “Cast down your bucket where you stand.” You want to READ a book like that—then WRITE a book like that. You can do an informal ethnography right now…degrees open doors, but you’ve already got the skills you need to do this kind of work. Waiting for someone else to tackle the subject doesn’t guarantee that it will happen…make it happen.