a voice from the other side…an editor speaks

The truth is, I don’t know that many editors; they’re mostly a mystery to me.  When they blog, it’s often done anonymously or they say things that drive me nuts (the Coretta Scott King Award is racist; black people are so blighted by racism they can’t produce literary fiction).  So in an effort to understand [...]

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“expensive curation”

A few months ago when I was first contacted by Amazon Encore, I did an online search to find out more about the venture.  This article came up; I read it with interest, and never forgot the (anonymous) author’s equation: “publishing = expensive curation.”
Publishers have controlled the direction and profits in the books market for so [...]

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fair and balanced

Now, I’ve had a LOT of good news lately, so I’m just going to take this in stride.  An editor sent her comments on a couple of my stories…
[Story #1] really captures the mood and feelings that came up after 9/11, and I like the almost-magical realism of the world you’ve created. I can’t point [...]

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Indians in the Cupboard

Debby Dahl Edwardson, author of Blessing’s Bead, has written a provocative post on the misrepresentation of Native Americans in children’s literature. Stop by her blog, Through the Tollbooth, and consider some of the important points she makes:
When my kids were little we had a Cat in the Hat video that featured the Cat, translating [...]

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New Tu You

Do you know about Tu Publishing?  If not, stop by the publisher’s blog and while you’re there, read a great interview with LaTonya Baldwin, fabulous founder of Color Online.  It’s also Teen Read Week, so do what you can to put a book in a young reader’s hands…

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Beware the Single Story

Please watch this short video of the brilliant Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in which she describes the effect of reading only British stories as a child (she, in turn, wrote only stories of white children marveling at snow, eating apples, and drinking ginger beer).  A “single story” reduces a diverse, dignified people to something [...]

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Neesha rocks

Do you know about Neesha Meminger?  You SHOULD!  She’s the author of Shine, Coconut Moon, which I loved (read my review here) and works tirelessly to enlighten the kidlit community on issues of race & representation (read her brilliant essay here).  Now she’s turned her critical eye on my YA novel, and I couldn’t be [...]

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turn that frown upside down…

I’m feeling a bit growly this morning, but can’t yet blog about the Nobel Peace Prize Committee giving the award to President Obama.  Nor can I write about the absurd interest in Michelle Obama’s white ancestor, nor can I understand why Serena Williams is buck naked and oiled up on the cover of ESPN’s “body” [...]

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covergirl

As much as I love to teach, I forgot just how tiring a day of teaching can be!  But I’m grateful that my friend’s students at Brooklyn College were so engaged and open to discussing the material I brought into the classroom this week.  I now need to put my feet up, but first I [...]

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going green

I started recycling when I was in high school more than twenty years ago, and I’m proud that in my kitchen today I have a tiny trash bin and two big, overflowing bins for paper and plastic. I also grew up without a lot of money, so if you go into my bathroom on [...]

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