From: Pamela Turner <pstrst>
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:09:56 -0800

I'm very fascinated by the discussion of race and editorship/authorship, because I wrote a PB on a Japanese subject, and I am neither Japanese or Japanese-American. Although my publisher is Andrea Pinkney, the mss was originally purchased by the prior editor, Anita Silvey. I thought I might be paired with an Asian illustrator, but instead I was paired with someone who is French/Italian, who I think did a wonderful job.

I wondered if I would be criticized for writing outside my own culture, but the only really negative comment came from a reviewer at an Asian paper who said I had used
"stilted English" in a way typical of Westerners trying to convey formal Japanese speech. In fact, it had never occured to me to try to convey "formal Japanese"--especially since many of the conversations in my book involve a small boy and would naturally be in informal Japanese. I had eliminated most contractions in the text just to make it easier for a beginning reader, and apparently this sounded
"formal" to the reviewer.

Pamela S. Turner www.pamelasturner.com pstrst at pacbell.net
Received on Thu 10 Mar 2005 10:09:56 AM CST